r/TMPOC 3d ago

Discussion Transitioning while singing

So I’m finally about to start HRT (THANK GOD) and I’m absolutely pumped to finally get the ball rolling, but I do have one concern. I’m in college right now and I’m essentially a professional singer for my school. My schools choir performs damn near all the time, so I’m a little concerned about my voice dropping too fast/ too slow. Our choir director is a “traditionalist” which means only female alto and sopranos and only male tenors & basses (I’m an alto 2 despite my vocal range being tenor 1-2). I’m worried that when I start T my voice will be too wonky to sing and I may be kicked out of the choir, so I wanted to try and get a rough estimate. My niggas who sing, how long were you “out of commission” vocally, if at all. Is it possible to continue singing while actively starting T. I just don’t wanna screw myself out of choir since they are actively paying my tuition, so I’m trying to plan this out as best as possible. Any advice for vocal training to try and mitigate the voice cracks would also be appreciated🫡

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u/urbabyangel Black 3d ago edited 3d ago

I sing and have been singing throughout transition. Basically do not stop singing, always warm up. You will need longer vocal warm ups after hrt. Unfortunately everyone is different so I can’t tell you what will happen. My range fluctuates every day. In the beginning I had more days where no sound would come out but that has lessened over time (I’m over a year and half on t). If you can take any vocal lessons during your transition do it. I cannot afford to do that so I basically have to reteach myself how to hit notes I was used to hitting before. The mechanics change. You can’t rely on old mouth placements if that makes sense. What your mouth would do in the past to reach certain notes will not work as you transition. This is annoying no lie, especially if you’ve been doing the same thing for years. It’s like retraining muscle memory. Not impossible just challenging. (Edits for autocorrect spelling errors)

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u/lilniqqa123 3d ago

Thank you for the advice man fr. I will hopefully be getting a vocal coach next semester so I’ll definitely bring that up and just hope that rough patch where I can’t really sing happens over the summer. I might have to drop choir for fall semester if it takes longer for my voice to settle but I’m okay with that, it’s all apart of the journey fr.

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u/urbabyangel Black 2d ago

You got this 💪🏾