Hi Virginia. Yes, sometime back I bought Denea Doyle's VHS tape and Andrea James' voice training dvd. I really found nothing useful about Doyle's program, since most of that was already part of what I was doing just from reading, and some of what she was recommending would be great if doing the model walk, but not so useful in everyday use shopping for groc. etc. Walking in heels is made a bit easier with some of her training, and improves your wriggle. It's just not the same as taking direct lessons, I think.
Andrea James dvd on voice? Well, it would have been better and less distracting if she did not appear on the dvd. No, it's not that she is unprepossessing or anything like that. When she talks, she lifts her head and points with her chin and sits ridgidly, though in apparent relaxation with her body attitude and seems relaxed at first. But her head is lifted so much and her neck stretched it becomes, I dunno, kinda distracting and you wonder if she can do her own program with her head carried at a natural angle. I have seen her in other venues, and she does not go around like that, and I am not sure why she was doing that on the DVD. (Shrug).
As far as the content, if I closed my eyes most of the time it was OK, but also what I had gleaned from my reading. It was easier to excercise it following her, but I would say it is of limited use.
There was a young TS lady that was on a two part UTube thing that did quite as well, and maybe better. I think there is a link to that on the forum somewhere?
I made the most progress with my voice when I took personal lessons from a voice teacher, and she did help me, but was very expensive ($135/hour) and I just couldn't afford many lessons and get my facial hair cleared.
Personally, I think if you are a good mimic for voices (I am not), you can listen and pull a decent voice from your own experience with people. I have a GM friend that can do a better girl voice than me, but he just does it for fun when ordering at a drive through speaker to mess with the peoples minds. It's just so effortless for him, and her I am struggling with it.
Attempting to mimic dialong from people on TV or singing along with female singers and trying to match their voice is OK as excercise also, but people singing are not speaking and their voices often are different when talking. You really need a recorder to hear what you might sound like to others, esp. on the telephone.
More important is the way you pronounce words, and drawing a word out in a kindia la-z-z-zy way (should come natural to a Virginia gal LOL) like a drawl or a Valley Girl, and sending your voice into you head so it resonates there around your sinus process rather than grunting words from your chest. And ennunciate! Women learn to speak more clearly and often place more emphasis on and extending the apparent number of sylables in a word, like didn't is dident, where a guy will be more like diden.
Anyway, I do not recommend the DVDs and Tapes unless you want them for self confidence.
Love, Carolynn
"It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,"
David Weber – In Fury Born
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