How to Sound More Androgynous: A Complete Nonbinary Voice Guide
Nov 27, 2025
When nonbinary folks ask me how to make their voice sound neutral without being categorized as female or male, I know exactly what they're searching for, but I also know the answer is more complicated than they might expect.
As a gender-affirming voice teacher who specializes in trans voice training, I've spent years helping nonbinary and gender-expansive people develop voices that feel authentically theirs. I meditated on the question of androgynous voices extensively while creating my course Mix & Match: Designing Your Nonbinary Voice.
Mix & Match! Designing Your Nonbinary Voice
And I'll be honest: this topic is complicated.
But that complexity is actually good news. It means there's no single prescribed path to a neutral voice, and your options for transgender voice training are far more expansive and personalized than you might think.
🎉 Black Friday Sale Alert!
If you're reading this between Thursday, November 27th and Monday, December 1st, 2025, you can get 40% off any of my trans voice training courses using code BLACKFRIDAY2025. This includes Mindful Voice Feminization, Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone, and Mix & Match: Designing Your Nonbinary Voice.
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Table of Contents
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Prefer to read? Keep scrolling for a complete breakdown of androgynous voices, what they really are, and how to work toward one that feels like home.
What Is a Nonbinary Voice?
Here's the first complication: when people talk about nonbinary voices, they're often talking about very different goals.
A lot of people incorrectly assume that everyone means the same thing when they say "nonbinary voice." But actually, there are several distinct voice goals that fall under this umbrella in trans voice training.
Different Goals Under the Nonbinary Voice Umbrella
In my experience as a transgender voice coach, I've identified at least four main categories of nonbinary voice goals:
1. Neutral or Androgynous
This is probably why you're here as it is the topic of this post! This is a voice where all the gendered characteristics are balanced so people have a hard time categorizing you as masculine or feminine. This is the classic "middle ground" voice.
2. Gender Confusion
A voice that is intentionally different from your physical presentation. Maybe people are reading you as feminine, and you want a masculine voice to throw them off. Or vice versa. This creates deliberate cognitive dissonance.
3. Alien
A voice that is entirely outside the gender binary. This involves combining vocal characteristics in unusual ways that don't fit typical patterns. Think of voices that sound genuinely otherworldly or unplaceable.
4. Genderfluid or Multiple Choice
Creating multiple different voices for different genders or contexts. Some folks want to be able to switch between a more feminine voice, a more masculine voice, and a neutral voice depending on the day or situation.
Even though this guide focuses on neutral voices specifically, I want you to know that neutral is just one option.
There's no wrong way to have a nonbinary voice, because if you are nonbinary, you already have a nonbinary voice.
Why Your Starting Point Matters More Than You Think
Here's where voice feminization training and voice masculinization training come into play for nonbinary folks:
Even if two people have the exact same voice goal—let's say you both want to sound perfectly neutral—your paths to getting there may be wildly different if you have different starting points.
The Direction You Need to Move
Think of it this way:
- If people currently hear your voice as very feminine, you'll need to shift in a masculine direction to land in the middle
- If people hear your voice as very masculine, you'll need to shift in a feminine direction
- If you're already somewhere in between, you might just need small adjustments
This is why I can't simply provide you with a universal list of exercises and say, "Do these and you'll sound neutral."
What you need depends entirely on where you're starting from. It's one of the reasons why transgender vocal training for nonbinary voices requires such a personalized approach.
Voice Doesn't Exist in a Vacuum: The Cultural Context Problem
Ok, this is the part that really complicates things, and it's something that gets overlooked in a lot of trans voice lessons.
People don't judge your voice in isolation. They're taking in your whole presentation: your height, your body shape, your clothes, your hair, your mannerisms, maybe even your accent or whether you seem like you're from the area.
A Personal Example
Let me share something from my own life as a nonbinary person:
I'm tall, I have a lot of curly hair, and I tend to dress in a neutral-to-masculine way. In Montreal, where I live now, I'm still almost always read as a woman. My height, my voice, my French—all of it gets filtered through that local cultural lens.
But when I lived in Mexico City, I was read as a man about 30% of the time.
Same person. Same voice. Same presentation. Different cultural context. Different result.
The only explanation I have is cultural context. Because of my top surgery, my voice, my height, my hair, the way I dress, the fact that I wear minimal makeup, and also certainly my foreignness, I didn't fit into the local codes of Mexican femininity—many of which I didn't even recognize, let alone perform.
(If you're interested, I go into more detail about this in my interview with Sergio Carazo Cardona.)
Nonbinary Voice, Gender, and Safety in Mexico City: A Conversation with Sergio Carazo Cardona
The Conservative vs. Liberal Paradox
I've seen this play out in fascinating ways online as well. There's a Reddit post from someone who's agender and lives in a conservative area of the US. They said:
"In conservative areas, I get pretty regularly gendered in acceptable ways (either not gendered at all or gendered as a man). I think it's because conservative cis people tend to have a much more limited view of gender. So short hair + plain baggy clothing = man...
But in more liberal areas/states, I keep getting gendered as a woman, probably being assumed to be a very butch lesbian...
Has anyone else had this experience? Or did I just stumble into Schrödinger's androgyny?"
Same person. Same voice. Same presentation. Different cultural context. Different result.
What This Means for Your Voice Training
The point is: how someone reads your gender says as much about them as it does about you.
And some people will very intentionally misread you because... well, because they suck.
This is why voice "passing" is not objective. It's contextual. And it's why there is no such thing as one true neutral that works everywhere for everyone.
The Mixing Board: Your Voice Visualization Tool
So if it's all contextual and everyone has a different starting point, how do we actually approach creating a neutral voice?
In my course Mix & Match, I use something I call the mixing board.
The mixing board is a voice visualizing tool that I created to help my students get a better grip on the different combinations of vocal qualities they're modifying in trans voice training. That way, you can break down what you want beyond just "high and bright" or "low and dark."
You can grab the mixing board for free in my freebies library if you want to play with it while you read.
The Mixing Board
The Mixing Board is a tool that will help you visualize the many ways you can combine vocal characteristics to create a personalized voice that is as unique as your gender.
The Five Voice Characteristics
On the mixing board, I've placed the voice characteristics that we're most often modifying in transgender voice training:
- Pitch – which goes from high to low (the musical note of your voice)
- Resonance – which goes from bright to dark (the tone colour or quality)
- Weight – which goes from heavy to light (the thickness of the sound)
- Contour – which goes from wide to shallow (the melodic range in your speech)
- Volume – which isn't necessarily a gendered characteristic, but affects how the other characteristics are perceived
Why the Mixing Board Matters
If you look at different people's voices mapped onto the mixing board, you'll see that every voice has a unique slider configuration.
Importantly, it's not "all feminine characteristics on top, all masculine characteristics on bottom." That's the oversimplified version that doesn't reflect reality.
And here's the thing about neutral voices: you might think the solution is just to put all the sliders right in the middle.
Honestly? That's not a bad place to start experimenting!
But you'll probably get better results if you take a more strategic, personalized approach based on your specific starting point and goals.
Practical Steps for Creating an Androgynous Voice
Here's what I actually recommend for folks seeking a neutral or androgynous voice through trans voice training:
Step 1: Figure Out How People Are Currently Gendering Your Voice
Not how you think your voice sounds, but how other people are hearing it.
Ask yourself:
- Are they consistently gendering you one way?
- Are they hesitating before using pronouns?
- Are they surprised when they hear you speak?
- Or is it just that they suck and are deliberately misgendering you?
Testing Your Voice in a Vacuum
If you want to test your voice without all the other visual cues, make some phone calls.
Call customer service lines, make restaurant reservations, whatever. See how strangers gender you when they only have your voice to go on. This gives you valuable data about your starting point for voice feminization training or voice masculinization training.
Step 2: Move Away From That Direction
Once you know where you're starting from:
- If people are consistently hearing you as feminine, you'll want to shift your voice in a more masculine direction
- If they're hearing you as masculine, shift your voice in a more feminine direction
The goal is to land somewhere in the middle where people genuinely can't tell—while remembering that visual cues and cultural context will always influence people's perception.
Step 3: Remember That "The Middle" Looks Different for Everyone
Depending on your cultural context, your language, and your accent, what "neutral" actually sounds like will vary significantly.
For example: the average pitch for men speaking Urdu is the same as the average pitch for women speaking British English. Gender is made up, and we get to decide what it means to us.
This is one reason why working with a transgender voice coach who understands cultural nuance can be so valuable.
Step 4: Work on One Characteristic at a Time
Don't try to change everything at once. This is crucial for effective trans voice lessons.
Maybe start with pitch—get comfortable with a more middle-range pitch. Then work on resonance. Then weight.
The mixing board approach is all about finding your unique combination of characteristics that creates the voice you're seeking.
Want More Structured Guidance?
If this all feels overwhelming and you want more structured guidance, that's literally what I created Mix & Match for.
You get the full mixing board framework, exercises for each vocal characteristic, ear training to help you hear these qualities in yourself and others, and guidance on how to combine everything into a voice that feels authentically you.
Key Takeaways About Androgynous and Neutral Voices
1. There's No One-Size-Fits-All Neutral Voice
Neutrality itself is contextual, cultural, and personal. What sounds neutral in one context might not in another.
2. Your Starting Point Determines Your Path
Two people with the same goal will need completely different exercises and approaches based on where they're starting from in their transgender voice training journey.
3. Context Shapes Perception More Than We Realize
Your voice is heard through the filter of your physical presentation, cultural context, and the biases of the listener. Some misgendering has nothing to do with your voice at all.
4. The Mixing Board Gives You Control
Breaking voice down into individual characteristics (pitch, resonance, weight, contour, volume) lets you make strategic, targeted changes rather than trying to change everything at once.
5. Your Voice Is Learned Behaviour
The good news is: your voice is learned behaviour, not fixed physiology. Which means you can actively learn to modify it. You have way more control than you think.
Free Resources and Course Information
The mixing board tool mentioned throughout this post is available for free in my freebies library, along with other voice training resources to support your journey.
If you want to dive deeper into nonbinary voice work with comprehensive guidance, check out Mix & Match: Designing Your Nonbinary Voice.
The course includes:
- The complete mixing board framework
- Exercises for each vocal characteristic
- Ear training to help you hear these qualities
- Guidance on combining characteristics into your authentic voice
- Support for all nonbinary voice goals—not just neutral voices
I also offer courses for folks with more specific goals:
- Mindful Voice Feminization for trans women and transfeminine people
- Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone for trans men and transmasculine people
Mindful Voice Feminization
Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone
Mix & Match! Designing Your Nonbinary Voice
Remember: If you're reading this during Black Friday (November 27 - December 1, 2025), you can get 40% off any course with code BLACKFRIDAY2025!
Conclusion: Your Androgynous Voice Journey
I know this wasn't the simple, one-size-fits-all answer you might have been hoping for when you searched for information about neutral or androgynous voices.
But the truth is, there is no universal approach to a neutral voice because neutrality itself is contextual and cultural and personal.
The good news? Your voice is learned behaviour, not fixed physiology. You can actively learn to modify it through consistent trans voice training, and you have way more control than you think.
So: figure out where you're starting from, decide where you want to go, and start moving those sliders on the mixing board. Work with the characteristics you have, make strategic adjustments one at a time, and remember that your voice is already valid—you're just learning to express it more fully.
Whether you're seeking a perfectly neutral voice, something that confuses people's expectations, an alien voice entirely outside the binary, or the ability to fluidly move between multiple voice presentations, there's room for you in the landscape of transgender vocal training possibilities.
Ready to design your nonbinary voice?
Explore Mix & Match: Designing Your Nonbinary Voice and start working with a gender-affirming voice teacher who understands your journey. And don't forget—Black Friday pricing is available November 27 - December 1, 2025 with code BLACKFRIDAY2025!
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