When people think about masculinizing their voice, they usually focus on how they speak—but what about everything else? Shouting, laughing, coughing, and other non-speech sounds all contribute to how your voice is perceived.

If you've ever worked on deepening your speaking voice, only to let out a cough or a laugh that didn’t match, you're not alone. These sounds are often reflexive and subconscious, but they can be trained just like speech.

In this post, I'll walk you through three exercises to help align your shout, laugh, and cough with a deeper, more masculine sound. If you prefer to hear real examples of what I’m describing, watch the full video below:

Why Work on Shouting, Laughing, and Coughing?

Shouting, laughing, and coughing are sounds we don’t usually think about, but they’re an important part of how our voices are perceived. Adjusting them can help your voice feel more congruent with your gender presentation and allow you to react naturally without worrying that your voice will out you.

If you feel a little silly at first, that’s completely normal. Like any aspect of voice training, it takes time to feel natural.

The exercises in this post come directly from my course, Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone. They are:

1. The Relaxed Shout
2. The Laughter Tapas Exercise
3. The Dad Cough

Let’s break each one down. And if you want to hear what these exercises sound like in practice, I demonstrate each one in the video above.

Shouting

A common concern among my transmasculine students is that after working on their voice, they have trouble being heard in loud environments or shouting in a way that feels gender-affirming.

Generally, there are two ways people shout:

• A brighter, twangier, higher-tension shout (often perceived as more feminine)
• A darker, lower-tension shout (often perceived as more masculine)

If you want to hear the difference between these two types of shouts, check out the video where I demonstrate both.

To develop a darker, more Relaxed Shout, follow these steps:

1. Relax your body. Shake out any tension. If you haven't warmed up, check out my follow-along vocal warm-up. Stretch a little and take a binder break if possible.
2. Find a comfortable position. Sit, stand, or lay down—whichever feels best. Many transmasculine people struggle with posture, so if sitting or standing feels restrictive, try laying flat on your back.
3. Relax your belly. Place your hands on your lower abdomen and allow your belly to expand outward as you breathe. If this feels difficult, imagine inflating your butt like a beach ball.
4. Relax your face and throat. Drop your jaw, loosen your shoulders, and let your face go slack.
5. Make a low moan. Think of the sound you’d make if you had the flu—low, relaxed, and sickly.
6. Turn that moan into a shout. Push your belly outward quickly and add more air. Move from "uh…" to "hey!" without tensing your face or throat.
7. Increase volume carefully. Engage your vocal folds for more power, but avoid squeezing your throat. This may take some practice.
8. Compare different shouts. Try alternating between a bright, high shout and a dark, low shout to feel the difference.

If you’d like to hear what a relaxed masculine shout should sound like, watch the video where I demonstrate it in real-time.

Laughing

A lot of people think their laugh is just their laugh—but it can absolutely be changed. I even went through a phase where I practiced a cute, girly giggle until it felt natural! You can learn to laugh differently too.

The Laughter Tapas Exercise helps you experiment with different types of laughs to find one that feels right.

1. Find and note 10 different kinds of masculine laughter. You can do this by watching videos, listening to podcasts, or observing friends.
2. Imitate each laugh for 30 seconds. Play around with pitch, resonance, airflow, and posture to see what changes.
3. Choose one laugh that feels good. This doesn’t have to be your final choice—you can always adjust later.
4. Practice using it. Watch something funny and consciously try your new laugh whenever you naturally laugh.

This might feel strange at first, but laughter is a learned habit. If you want to hear what different masculine laughs sound like, I share a few examples in the video above.

Coughing

This next one is one of my favorite exercises. The Dad Cough is a simple but effective way to make your cough sound deeper and more masculine.

1. Find your target pitch. If you’ve been working on lowering your voice, use a comfortable low pitch as your base.
2. Say “ah” on your target pitch.
3. Modify the sound with a yawning shape. This will create a darker, deeper resonance.
4. Repeat, then add a cough. Try saying “ah” followed immediately by a cough: "ah—cough—ah—cough."
5. Merge the cough and sound together. The goal is to maintain lower resonance while coughing.

At first, you may notice that your cough doesn’t feel as productive (meaning it doesn’t clear your throat the way a natural cough would). That’s okay! With practice, this technique will start to feel both natural and effective.

If you want to hear what the Dad Cough should sound like, check out the video where I demonstrate it.

Conclusion

The goal of these exercises isn’t perfection—it’s just about building awareness and making small adjustments over time.

If you want to go deeper into this kind of training, check out my course, Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone. And if you’d like a free introduction to my approach, try my masterclass, Change the Gender of Your Voice (No Hormones or Surgeries Required).

Let me know in the comments which of these exercises you tried while reading this post. And if you found this helpful, don’t forget to watch the full video for even more guidance.

I hope this helps!