Resources for transgender voice training
Online resources
Finding a guide
There are a ton of different vocal training guides on the internet. There's a lot on YouTube, and a lot on Reddit especially. While that's a good thing in some ways, in other ways it's not so great. For instance, there's a lot of different techniques that different schools of voice training suggest. The terminology is also quite different, and what one teacher calls "resonance" can be completely different from another.
To combat all this confusion, I would suggest finding one teacher/guide that works well for you, and sticking with their materials as much as possible.
My preferred guide & voice coach: Alyssa!
The guide that helped me the most is this one by Alyssa Cote. I like Alyssa's guides because they're very clear, the exercises make sense and follow logically from one another, and there's a lesson plan that makes sense. She offers versions for both transfeminine and transmasculine students.
Some other guides I read include:
- L's guide on Reddit - it's pretty in-depth, but I found it somewhat complex and hard to approach as a beginner.
- Renee Yoxon's guides on YouTube - their videos are very well produced, and easy to follow. However, I felt like I was lacking direction about where to start and how to progress.
Common resources
Part of almost all vocal training is reading sentences. One of the most ubiquitous sets of sentences is the Harvard sentences. There is also a randomizer tool for this list on GitHub
As part of my training regimen, I found myself using Alyssa's exercises along with the Harvard list so often that I built a tool to combine the two.
Vocal coaches
No matter what system you end up following, it helps a lot to get one-on-one live coaching. During the first few months of my solo training, I made many mistakes and developed many bad habits.
Since I was following Alyssa's guide, I joined her Discord and took lessons from her. Working with her has been fantastic. She can listen to me do an exercise and almost immediately pinpoint what I'm doing that is causing me to sound wrong.
She gives away free lessons frequently, and has "drop-in" hours for additional free coaching.
Whenever you can, I suggest working with someone like Alyssa to help guide you through the process.
I've had anecdotal suggestions that working with a voice coach who specifically targets transgender voice is better than working with a voice coach that doesn't specialize in this area. I can't confirm or refuse this myself, as I stuck with someone who is transgender and specifically teaches trans students.
I've also been told that universities often offer discounted or free voice coaches as part of educational programs. Worth checking out if you have one nearby!
Alternatives to voice training
Surgery is an option - several different techniques are in wide use today. Here is a meta-analysis done in 2025 of a variety of studies of different surgery approaches and their outcomes.
I opted not to do surgery, for a number of reasons:
- Cost - training on your own is free; lesson costs may vary, however.
- Risk - there is a risk of complications, and not everyone is happy with the outcome.
- Recovery time - having post-op restrictions didn't sound fun.
- Still need to do some voice training - it isn't a 'silver bullet' - it can't change everything about your voice, unfortunately.
Still, it's something to consider if you're interested in changing your voice!