JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education What's your range?

In my years of listening to people sing, I've found that one of the most prevalent problems people have is singing out of their range.

I can't tell you how many people will, onstage, go for a high note that cracks or warbles; or they'll try to hit a low note that sounds breathy and out of control. I doubt if the problem is that the songs have too wide a tessitura, if it is, then the singer should avoid that song. I'd imagine that some keys are chosen because that's the key of the hit, or it's a case of "wishful" thinking.

Personally, I can't sing Bob Seegar's Turn the Page no matter what key I put it in. The high notes are too high or the low notes are too low. I have a similar problem with House of the Rising Sun.

So here it is: my range runs from G below middle C to G an octave above middle C. Comfortably, I like to range from A below middle C to E an octave above middle C. My falsetto voice can carry up to two octaves above middle C.

How about you folks? What's your range? Ever thought about it? Now's the time!

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Mike Dunbar Music

When I sing it is everybody else who cracks up Mike.
Went to a vox coach once who advertised "Everybody can sing".
Now, since she has come out of therepy, advertises "Almost everybody can sing".
Ive tried to figure what my highs and lows are Mike but so far haven't.
Best I have done so far is sang and recorded Mario Lanza's Be My Love with no backing once and a mate worked out I was singing in F# and I try to fit around that area most times now.
I picked that one because it has a big reach, and I know all the words.
if it has a lot of low scale stuff,I go up a key or two, and high I go down.E flat sems to work wel for me most times.
Bob Young helped me out a lot with some hints from time to time.
Sometime I use my guitar tuner to tell me what I am singing something in.
Not 100% but gets me close by seeing what notes are coming up.
Regards.
Graham



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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/grahamhendersonmusic.htm

Well … techically my range is E below middle C to G on the top of the staff, but that doesn't mean I sound good in all those places.

Depending on the song, I sound best from A below middle C to B in the middle of the staff. C above middle C is OK, if I can build up to it, but if I have to start on that note (like in Eagles Wings for instance) the effect is not pleasant.
The tempo of the song and note duration makes a difference sometimes.

A few years ago, I had the research department of the Public Library look up vocal ranges to see what ranges most people sing in. They said most men were baritones and most women were mezzo sopranos. That may explain why a lot of congregations don't sing along with the cantors or song leaders in our church.

Nearly every cantor I know is either a tenor or a high soprano and they usually sing in their favorite keys. So all those baritones and mezzos (and altos like me,) wait for the 3 or 4 notes we can sing and cut out for all the rest of the notes.

A lot of people sing at the services I play at though. Heh, heh. All except the tenors and sopranos. (The shoe is on the other foot for them.) So if you like to sing in your lower range, Mass is at 5:30 PM. Warm up in the car and get ready to rock.

JeanB



[This message has been edited by AKA JeanB (edited 08-23-2003).]

I find that although range is important, songs also seem to dictate whether you can sing higher or lower... I know I can sing tenor for a lot of songs, but then there's other songs I sing in baritone range, cause it's just not working in tenor range... So, for me at least, depending on the tune, I gotta sing in one range or the other...

www.123writemelody.com

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www.mp3.com/paulradelat

Q: What's the range of a trombone?

A: About thirty yards, if you have a good arm.

A Trombone range is F below middle C to B flat an octave above middle C.
All thism talk about voices makes me ask. No mattter what voice we sing in, be it baratone, tenor, whatever, we still have a range of notes we can hit in any given key, and this is the thing that limits what we can sing in any given key, no matter that we be a boomer or a squeeker I would think.
Graham

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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/grahamhendersonmusic.htm

A Kelvinator..green

Oh give me a stove.
Some call a range.
Where the wife bakes me cakes all day.
Where nothing gets burned.
Just baked to a turn.
So I can eat my life away.

Oh.
Home by the range.
That's where a woman belongs.
Up to her armpits.
In flour and dough.
While I write my hilbilly songs.

Graham(Getting hungry now) H

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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/grahamhendersonmusic.htm

[This message has been edited by Graham (edited 08-26-2003).]

Since this is in the Music Theory and Education area, I want to ask: Does everyone here who is measuring their range using a GUITAR know that middle C pitch is actually the B string fretted on the first fret?

I can hit F an octave plus below middle C (low E string, first fret), to G above middle C (3rd fret, high E string). My falsetto just doesn't go but a few notes higher (maybe to C above that). I can sing either baritone or 2nd tenor parts equally well (or badly, depending on your perspective).



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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

Funny you mentioned that, Larry. When I started playing guitar, I always sung middle C when matching middle C on the guitar. It was years later that I found out middle C was an octave lower than it appears on the piano. It took me a long time to "hear" it that way.

Mike

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Mike Dunbar Music

I knew that but I only realized it a couple of years ago. I didn't realize I was singing an octave above the notes at the lower end of the guitar and my ear was just compensating.

JeanB

I've done alot of vocal training in my day and the first thing a trainer will do is figure out your range. basically my range is similar to the guitar strings. What I mean by that is my lowest CLEAR note is 440 E and my highest CLEAR note is the high E 440. My advise to anyone practicing is to sing pretty. Leave all the rasp and nasal tones out while you are learning. I guarantee it will make you so much better. Also you must warm up your voice so to reduce damage and/or fatigue. You must practice you high, middle, and low parts of your range. personally I have problems changing from my middle voice but I've been told I have a pretty falsetto. Vocal training is like playing guitar, if you don't practice, you'll forget and lose your progress.

Tessitura:
The prevailing range of a vocal or instrumental part, within which most of the tones lie....the part of the instrument or voice with the most pleasing tones.

I have a relatively wide range vocally, but...my tessitura ( the prettiest part of my voice) is actually from G below middle C to G above the second C above middle C.

Emily

Short... about 50 yards... wait a minute! I thought size didn't matter!!!

I've got a fairly limited range: from whatever G that is on the 6th string of the guitar to whatever F that is on the 1st string of the guitar. When the planets are aligned, the moon is blue, and the wind is from the southeast that is...

Chuck Crowe

Actually, a surprisingly large number of great singers have relatively small vocal ranges.

It's knowing how to use what you've got that counts

Emily

Mike, When I first inspect a piece of sheet music if I see a note on the staff above an "E" I know that I'll have to transpose it down. If I see a note below a "G" below the staff, I know I'll have to transpose it up. If the song is so rangey that neither of those two actions works for me, I won't try to do the song. I guess that's my range. Frank V.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Linda

My range is:

Low: D below middle C. On a day with a cold, I might hit the low C.
High: 3 octaves above that (the high high D).

BUT my tessitura says stick between the F/G below middle C to about the high Bb. LOVE to knock out that Bb.

I can't sing a soprano song in G for some oddball reason if the note goes above the staff, even though my range is much higher. Weird, huh?

There are more technical terms for those notes. Can't remember them today.

Linda

There are more technical terms for those notes. Can't remember them today.
[/quote]

Amen to that.

Miles

Middle C (the one on the first ledger line below the treble staff) on a piano keyboard is known as C4. The C on the second space from the top of the staff (one octave higher than middle C) is C5. So on and so forth.

My range is a C2 (yes, that is scary!) to D5 although I've been known to hit A6 (even scarier). My comfort zone is G3 to D5 although I sometimes have to go as low as D3 (I refuse to lower!). E5 and F5 are not uncommon but aren't reliable.