Increase pitch movement and stress patterns for a more dynamic conversational style.
Time to Start Imitating Voices
All right. It is time to start imitating some voices! Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch as you speak. Masculine voices tend to be very monotone, where the pitch changes very slightly and infrequently from word to word, and important words are spoken louder for emphasis.
Feminine voices tend to vary a lot in pitch, across a wider range, and big pitch changes are used to draw attention to the important words. Oftentimes, every word is spoken at a different pitch than the one before, and sometimes the pitch will change multiple times within a single word!
The Disney Princess Model
The clearest example of this can be found in that great figurehead of exaggerated femininity, the Disney princess. Watch this video for a virtuosic vocal tour through a diversity of Disney princess voices, and try closing your eyes and listening to the rise and fall of pitch in each one. You can even pull out your Vocal Pitch Monitor app and watch the pitch rise and fall on the screen!
Parroting Practice
Your main exercise is to spend some time every day trying to talk like a Disney princess, in addition to all your other exercises. Listen to this clip with Vocal Pitch Monitor open, watching the pitch rise and fall, and pause every sentence to try parroting back what you just heard, with the same rise and fall in your pitch.
Do not worry about sounding good, and do not worry about your larynx or resonance either. Just focus on the pitch, and go ahead and use your falsetto to go high if you can. It will sound fake and silly, and that is okay - enjoy it!
Lip Shape and Extra Resources
The only thing that you should try to do, other than match the pitch, is to smile while you speak, stretching your lips across your teeth, and make your mouth opening a little smaller, like you are saying "ooh" (just pretend you are a dainty princess). This will also brighten your resonance a tiny bit, and make your voice sound that much more feminine. Use this for your princess voice practice, but also for your resonance practice as well, tightening your lips in addition to raising your larynx and tongue.
If you get bored of using that clip or just want to find something in your own accent, feel free to practice with other example voices, like in this video. Or make up your own princess voice if you can - the sillier the better. Delight in the ridiculousness of it all, and just have fun with it!