Speech begins with the breath; the air vibrates the vocal chords and creates sound. Speech pathologists call this vibration phonation; it is the source of sound. Respiration is the sound's power supply, or the actual air coming from the lungs. A number of vocal training methods emphasis the importance of breathing from the gut. It not only gives the speaker a strong power source for the voice but also relaxes the body, making it more responsive to change. A speaker can test her breathing by placing a hand on her lower abdomen while she speaks. If the speaker feels the abdomen pull in while she is speaking and release when she stops, then she is breathing through her diaphragm.
Male and female pitch are actually very similar, they are only separated by a one-half octave difference. The mistake that many men make when imitating a female voice is forcing the voice into a higher pitch and becoming falsetto; this wipes out the natural music of a woman's voice. A speaker practices changing the pitch in his voice by vocalizing sounds, such as he, hoo and ha, while holding one hand against his larynx and the other on his abdomen. He starts the sounds in his natural pitch, then moves just slightly up. When he moves his pitch up, he will feel a bump between the changes. This is a spot where there is tension between the two pitches. He keeps practicing this transition over the bump until he has mastered transitioning into the feminine pitch.
Resonance is one of the main differentiating factors between a man's and a woman's voice. Resonance happens when sound bounces off the inside of the voice box and a man has more space in his voice box, so his voice is more resonant. A speaker discovers the range of his voice box by forcing his voice into falsetto. However, staying in falsetto is not preferable because it creates a barrier to tonality. He keeps the falsetto as he lowers his pitch. When he hits the lowest pitch in falsetto, he will feel a vibration in the bottom portion of his voice box. This is the placement in the voice box for a woman's voice.
A man uses volume more than tone to make a point, and a woman uses multiple tones inside of every sentence to make the same point. This constant fluctuation in tone gives the sing-song aspect to a woman's voice. To practice tonal changes a speaker combines change in tones with enunciation exercises. Enunciation is the shape letters and words make inside the mouth as they are spoken. Women tend to round words for more consistent flow inside of sentences, avoiding sharp breaks in conversation. Taking these exercises to an extreme then pulling back is better than beginning slowly, because the differences in sound are easier to feel when they are exaggerated.