Hi! Today I\u2019ll talk about the voice: its tessitura and its vocal range.<\/p>\n
The voice cannot be squeezed into rigid categories (there are endless kinds of voices), but we can use a classification that comes from classical music and adapt it to modern music.<\/p>\n
From the lowest to the highest, voices are usually classified as:<\/p>\n
Male voices can be trained in a classical or modern way but, apart from countertenors, they all sing in mixed or chest register.<\/p>\n
In classical singing, female voices work almost entirely in head register, while in a choir, classical or modern, voices are identified by the part they sing.<\/p>\n
Singers who are just starting out, with a voice that is not yet trained, often think they are basses or contraltos simply because they don\u2019t yet have the technique to support the high notes. Classifications can change over time as technique improves.<\/p>\n
Many factors determine a singer\u2019s range:<\/p>\n
All of these matter, but the most practical ones to understand are vocal weight<\/strong> and vocal breaks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Some examples of male voices:<\/p>\n The bass has a deep, rich vibration and is a rare voice. Tessitura C#2\u2013C#3, range around C1\u2013G3. A great example is Johnny Cash<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The baritone is a fairly common voice, with a tessitura of Eb2\u2013Eb3 and a range between E1 and B3. A well-trained baritone can reach very high notes. An example is John Legend<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Tenors are the most popular voices in modern music and can reach high notes. It is a common voice too, with a tessitura of F2\u2013F3, a range around G1\u2013D4 and a lighter sound than basses and baritones. Famous tenors include Michael Jackson<\/strong> and Freddie Mercury<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Like the bass, the countertenor is a rare voice, whose range matches the female contralto or mezzo-soprano. Over music history it has changed from a modal voice to a falsetto voice. The word comes from polyphonic music, where the contratenor altus<\/em> sang the upper-middle part, using the high notes much more than the tenor. An example of a countertenor is Alfred Deller<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Some examples of female voices:<\/p>\n Like their male counterparts, the bass and the countertenor, contraltos are rare voices, with a tessitura of C#3\u2013C#4 and a range around C2\u2013G4. An example of a contralto is Annie Lennox<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The alto is the second-lowest female voice, with a tessitura of F3\u2013F5. Although these are deep voices, some of them can reach high notes at the top of their range.<\/p>\n The mezzo-soprano is the female equivalent of the baritone, with a tessitura around Eb3\u2013Eb4 and a range from E2 to B4. An example of a mezzo-soprano is Beyonc\u00e9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The soprano is the highest and lightest female voice, with a tessitura around F3\u2013F4 and a range around G2\u2013F5. A great example of a soprano is Whitney Houston<\/strong>.<\/p>\n What about you? Curious to find out what type of voice you have? Here is a simple exercise that can help: sing the vowel A following this exercise<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having a wide range doesn\u2019t mean you have to choose songs in extreme keys: choose songs that bring out the best of your tessitura, where your voice sounds its best.<\/p>\n If you liked this article, share it on social media. If you have any questions or want to book your singing lesson, you can book it online<\/a> or write to me through the contact form<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bass, baritone, tenor, contralto, mezzo-soprano, soprano: how voices are classified, what defines them and a simple exercise to find out your voice type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karinvox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Examples of voices<\/h2>\n
Bass<\/h3>\n
Baritone<\/h3>\n
Tenor<\/h3>\n
Countertenor<\/h3>\n
Contralto<\/h3>\n
Alto<\/h3>\n
Mezzo-soprano<\/h3>\n
Soprano<\/h3>\n
What type of voice are you?<\/h2>\n
Conclusions<\/h2>\n