If you've been working on your trans voice practice for a little while, maybe you've found a sound you like that you're able to make in short bursts. Maybe you tried the "Big Dog Little Dog" exercise from a few weeks ago and now you're probably wondering, "How do I go from making a sound that I like in practice to using my target voice in everyday life?"

One way that I really like to start with my students is by making a list of common daily phrases. These are things that you would say maybe every day of your life or a couple times a week, and they are usually around the mundanity of life. If you live with someone, you might say, "How did you sleep?" Or if you have a pet, you might say, "Did you feed the dog?"

I like to make sure that these lists are a mix of questions and statements so that we're getting a variety of inflection and that they're pretty short. You can use your coffee order: "Hi, I'll have an iced coffee." Or you can use something related to your job. In my case, I'm always teaching on Zoom and something I say almost every day is "Can you see the screen I'm sharing?" or "Do you want me to share my screen?"

Try to make your common daily phrase list about ten phrases long and keep it somewhere that you'll see it often. When you're practicing your target voice, make sure you practice those phrases especially. That way, when they come up in your everyday life, as they definitely will, you can use your target voice in your everyday life more easily!