A few years ago, this was brought up on another forum. My reply is below. Jean Bullock had a much better response. Mayhap she will chime in.

Voice Ranges

This is a loaded question. It depends very heavily on the singers you have and the style of music.

Most of my recent experience has been SSAA. The female voice ranges tend (notice I said tend) to range differently than in SATB. In the female chorale I use to sing with the first sopranos would range from about the F at the bottom of the staff (they hated that note!) to the G or A above the staff. The seconds went from about middle C up to the E at the upper end of the staff (although they would occasionally sing in unison with the firsts as high as G; in my case they usually lost me at E).

The first altos would range from about the A below middle C up to the C at the middle of the staff. They weren't especially happy up there, though. The seconds rarely ranged above the A on the lower end of the staff (unless they were singing in unison with the firsts, then we lost many of them after A; we had some killer seconds). The seconds would go as low as the G below the staff.

All our music was confined to the trebel clef. Although range was a factor in determining if one was a second or a first, often one's comfort zone had a lot to do with it. I consider myself to be a first alto because my range falls a little short for second soprano. I was placed in second soprano because I sound better in the upper part of my range (except the top note where I tend to get screechy). It helped to balance the other seconds when they were at the lower part of their range (I was happy because S2 had the neatest parts).

My SATB experience has been limited to a cappella shaped note style congregational type singing. The sopranos would rarely go as high as the G at the top of the staff. E or F was more normally the high end. Song leaders would frequently transpose down songs with E (or even C or D) or higher to avoid losing the sopranos or to keep them from screeching. The low end for the sopranos would rarely go below the E at the bottom of the staff but it could go as low as middle C (not a happy place for sopranos).

Altos would typically range from middle B, the one just below the first ledger line under the staff, (or, very rarely, middle A) up to the A on the staff. If singing in unison with the sopranos, they might be called upon to go up to the C on the staff but that usually brought looks of terror and tended to sound screechy if they actually made it.

Moving to the bass staff, the tenors almost never would go above the F above middle C. E was usually the high end. They would rarely drop below the F on the staff unless doubling with the bass then they might drop down to the C on the staff. Basses would go as low as the F under the staff to as high the G or A at the upper end of the staff.

Sopranos and tenors generally were more comfortable singing in the upper half of their range. Altos and basses generally were happier in the lower half of their range. I'm weird so this old alto is happier in the upper half of her range.

Opera and classical ranges tend to be much wider and go higher.

People are often surprised to find out how much overlap there is between the voices. A tenor singing the same note as an alto generally sounds much higher. I've known many tenors who could handle alto parts and many altos who could sing tenor. I remember once hearing a gospel quartet singing on TV that sounded like it was SAAB. When I got a chance to look at the screen, the deep, resonant bass was a woman! Whoa! I was at a folk music festival up in Prescott once and heard a tenor singing Irish and Scottish songs from a distance. Being part Irish, I just had to find out who he was and was shocked to find out it was a woman singing.

Jeannie