Hi, I’m Renée, a gender-affirming voice teacher, and today we’re diving into some great online tuners that you can use for trans voice work. If you’re new here, welcome! A few weeks ago, I shared one of my favourite tools called Transcribe!, but today, we’re going to focus on a couple of free, web-based options specifically designed to measure the pitch of your voice—an essential aspect of gender-affirming voice training.

What Are Tuners, and Why Are They Important?

Tuners are an excellent way to measure the fundamental frequency of your voice, also known as pitch. Monitoring your pitch is key to understanding your voice’s average range and contour, which can be helpful for tracking progress in voice training, especially for those aiming to masculinize or feminize their voice. If you’re curious about how pitch plays into gender-affirming voice work, I recommend checking out my Gender-Affirming 101 series for a deeper dive into the subject.

Now, let’s look at two tuners I frequently recommend to my students.

1. Tuner Ninja

The first tool I recommend is Tuner Ninja, a super lightweight, browser-based tuner that works on both desktop and mobile devices. This tuner is perfect for measuring a held note or analyzing slower speech.

What I like about Tuner Ninja is that it displays your pitch both as a musical note and in frequency (Hz), which gives you a more comprehensive understanding of where your voice sits. However, it’s worth noting that if you speak quickly or there’s background noise, the tuner might jump around, making it hard to get an accurate reading. If you’re working on specific exercises, like counting or holding notes, Tuner Ninja works beautifully.

2. Vocal Pitch Monitor by Singing Carrots

Another great option is the Vocal Pitch Monitor, offered by Singing Carrots. This tool is also free, although you’ll need to create an account to use it. Unlike Tuner Ninja, this tuner only displays pitch as musical notes, but it has a unique feature: it provides a reading of not just your current pitch but also the preceding 10–20 notes. This is especially useful for tracking the contour of your voice—whether it's rising, falling, or staying relatively stable. The slight latency in feedback allows you to analyze your overall speech pattern, which is great for exercises involving conversational speech.

Why Use These Tools?

These online tuners are excellent resources for anyone looking to fine-tune (pun intended) their voice during gender-affirming voice training. Whether you’re practicing pitch for speaking or singing, these tools give you real-time feedback to help you progress toward your vocal goals. Plus, they’re free, accessible, and easy to use.

I hope these tools are helpful for your voice journey! Follow along for more trans voice tools, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about using them in your practice. Happy tuning!