Summary
Purpose
To assess the outcomes of three voice therapy treatment approaches with an emphasis
on lowering speaking pitch. Transmasculine and cisgender individuals may desire to
lower their speaking pitch, yet there has not been a method described in the literature
to do this effectively using only behavioral techniques.
Method
To investigate these approaches, we enrolled 32 adult cisgender females and randomly
assigned them to one of four treatment groups: vocal function exercises (VFE), resonant
voice therapy (RVT), lip-rounding therapy (LRT), and a control group. Participants
received individual instruction and feedback on the given exercise program, and they
continued to practice daily for 4 weeks.
Results
Acoustic recordings were collected before treatment, immediately after the first session,
and after 4 weeks of treatment. Results showed a lower minimum pitch in the physiological
range, lower speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) in reading, and lower SFF in spontaneous
speech—with treatment groups performing better than the control group. Additionally,
participants’ self-rating of the vocal effort expended to speak in a low pitch decreased
over the treatment period.
Conclusions
Each treatment approach (VFE, RVT, and LRT) was successful in lowering the speaking
pitch of cisgender females. These methods would likely be useful for clients seeking
to speak in a lower pitch. Future research may expand results to include clinical
populations, such as transmasculine individuals.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 10, 2022
Accepted:
August 4,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Voice Foundation.
