I sent my GF this video of an 11 year-old singing “Rolling in the Deep”. The girl does an astoundingly good job of covering the song (this is the original).
Talking about it I mentioned that I hope this girl maintains her ability once she hits puberty. My GF said it was guys whose voices change (to much comedic effect) at puberty but not girls.
I had never really thought about that. As mentioned guys’ voices changing at puberty is well known and used for much comedy. I just kind of assumed girls would experience the same effect. Maybe not as dramatically as boys but still happens.
Thinking on it I cannot remember a girl whose voice changed but not having paid attention I can’t be certain my memory serves me well here.
I for one have definitely noticed a pattern where children of both sexes have similarly-pitched voices but then after puberty male voice seems to be lower than the female in general.
I took the question to the Wikipedia entry on Pubertyand it says this is because the larynx in males grows significantly more than females during puberty.
No, adult women do not sound like 11 year-old girls but I think my GF’s point was more that boys have a distinct and notable change where a girl’s voice just kind of evolves (as you grow your chest deepens…the instrument [so to speak] changes shape).
Reading your link (which while cool is a tad longer and more info than I needed but certainly seems to answer the question).
Even though boys’ voices “change” at puberty, do you think your average fifteen-year-old boy sounds the same as he will at thirty? For example, let’s take an a child star who is still acting. Here his voice hasn’t yet changed, here it has, and here is him now in his early 30s. It seems as though there’s a big change in boys and then a more gradual progression, as opposed to girls who always gradually progress.
Sorry to come in with only anecdotal evidence, but I sounded like a chipmunk until about 10. In high school, I joined a choir for the first time since grade 2 and got put with the guys because I had an easier time filling tenor than alto.
Yep - woah, great voice and great presentation in a bares-as-bones-video.
But she still sound to me like a girl with a well-trained powerful voice that has not gone through puberty.
Girls experience the same sort of adolescent growth spurt that boys do, albeit a couple of years earlier on average. This is the best cite I could find about the way girls’ bodies grow during that spurt, specifically relating to their vocal chords.
Girls also experience an increase in testosterone during adolescence, just as males experience an increase in the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone.
I’d disagree with your GF and say that the girls’ change is likely to be complete by the age of 16 or so, whereas men will continue changing in a measurable way for a few years afterwards. Puberty goes on for men so much longer than it does for women, partly because it starts later.
Any changes in a girl’s usual speaking voice after the age of 16 or so are likely to be more societal acceptance of speaking in a ‘low’ voice as she becomes more mature; her range is not affected.
Yes, girls’ voices change, and, yes, sometimes it is a very abrupt change if they are a contralto (i.e. low voice). Also, more girls have bigger changes than you would expect, but keep speaking around the same pitch because that is what their ears are used to. And males whose voices don’t change as much will actually speak in a lower part of their register because they expect their voice to change.
Heck, listen to this guy whose voice never changed past soprano. He says his bottrom note is a C, and he’s speaking below that. Imagine if he had a normal male range–he’s sound like a bass.
Couldn’t hormonal disorders also be a likely cause? My own voice (I’m 26) is deeper than it was even 5 years ago. Not man-deep, but deeper. It’s possible to speak in a higher pitch, of course, but it’s not particularly comfortable or sustainable in the long term.
I have a female cousin with a very deep voice, the result of early birth control pills either not properly dosed, or her being abnormally sensitive to them. This would have been early 1960s when “the pill” first came on the scene.
I can’t offer many details, having heard this from my mom, who lacked both the vocabulary and will to elaborate on anything remotely related to sex.
