JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education What exactly does this mean?

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Seen in a wikipedia article about Paisley's recording
"He Didn't Have To Be:"

The song is in the key of A major in cut time, with a vocal range from A3 to D5.

I don't understand the A3 to D5 reference.
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Not sure, but as far as I know, vocal ranges are usually mapped out on a piano, so my guess would be the third 'A' on a piano from below, up to the fifth 'D'.

I have not seen this kind of detailed information before, but I guess it can be useful when demoing a song to be pitched for Brad.

Cabinet, you inspired me to think and I looked up "vocal range" in wikipedia. (I look up almost everything in wikipedia.) Middle C is designated as C4 so the 5th D is the 2nd D higher than middle C. That's 2 octaves and 3 notes. I'm not sure but I think that's a pretty big range. But it's certainly not impossible. Interesting.

"a vocal range of A3 to D5"

this is a way to name octaves to specify vocal ranges.

The Harvard Dictionary of music defines typical ranges as:

Soprano: C4-A5 (middle C to the A above the C above middle C)
Mezzo soprano: A3-F5
Alto: F3-D5
Tenor: B2-G4
Baritone: G2-E4
Bass: E2-C4

A3-D5 would be .. the A below the C below middle C (one octave and two tones below middle C, or 9&1/2 semitones) to the D above the C above middle C. Basically, they are saying that song is about two octave and a third in range.

I think any good singer should have a min of two octaves, any trained singer certainly would. I also think Harvard is conservative in its ranges for voice types.

Vikki is quite correct. The song is just a bit over two octaves in range....No big deal...any half decent singer should cope with such a range providing it is either originally set in an appropriate key or transposed to a more suitable key. Here is an article explaining vocal ranges.
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/vocal_range_key.html
And here is an article explaining octaves and how piano notes are named.
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/vocal_range_key.html

Perhaps Vikki or someone else can answer a question that has puzzled me for some time.... Is there a recognised, definitive test for establishing vocal range? I have seen different opinions on how to test...I do not think it is as easy as just seeing how low or high you can make a noise. That might give an idea but is hardly accurate or reliable.

Jim, the only test I know of is to execute a scale with good technique -- warm the singer up effectively first -- get them moving (but even in this case, over time, if I'm teaching them as I should, their available range grows). Students typically come in with less than an octave feeling comfortable to sing, but as they learn how the instrument works that quickly changes.

I do know that range varies a little according to the condition of the singer. And I also know that the highest note we can sing in an exercise is not the highest note we can sing in music. Like a runner who runs 10 miles daily so they can ace a 5 mile marathon, a singer exercises their voice with good vocal technique, say, to an C6 daily, so that they have a good A5 or Bb5 that they can sing in music.

In addition, our high range can be compromised by pushing the chest voice (singing too heavily), screaming, smoking, chest congestion, allergies, lack of sleep, etc. And sometimes age has an effect as well.

Thanks Vikki...... so at the end of the day our vocal range is just a guesstimation of the notes we can sing depending on how we test ourselves, what we are singing and what mood we are in?

It's kinda like asking me how to measure how far you can run today.

Depends how far you ran yesterday, whether you run on a consistent basis, if you have good form, etc. Chances are if you always run 2 miles in 30 minutes, then you will, generally speaking, find it easy to run 2 miles in 30 minutes, and 2 miles would be your 'range'. If you only ever run a block or two, then you won't find it easy to run 2 miles in 30 minutes, and your 'range' might be 3 blocks.

In other words, your range depends on your training, how you warm-up, how often you sing, etc. Generally speaking, your range today should be within a semi-tone or two of your range yesterday.

I know I can sing A3 to A5 today because I do scales every day that include those notes. I would consider A3 my lowest note, even tho I can go lower (to F3 & even below that), because there is little 'life' in the voice lower than the A3. I would consider Bb5 to be my top-most note, even tho I often vocalize to a C6 or Db6, because I cannot sustain those high notes in a song. Twice in my life, when the stars were aligned, I actually sang an F6. That means, on those days, I had a 3 octave range.

But, IMO it's not how much range you have, it's how you use it.

Singing, in my opinion, is about phrasing, about textures in the voice, about expressing something from the heart. Having a relationship to the text & singing covers as tho you wrote them yourself.

Thanks Vikki. I agree..... quality over quantity WINS everytime.

I believe A natural is the top line of the bass cleff and D natural the 3rd line of the treble cleff thats not to bad a jump it would be the A string open and the B string on the third fret the note that Steven Stills hits on that high part in Suite Judy Blue Eyes is a whole octive above that (D6) now thats a stretch. I believe this is part of the mathmatics of music theory. It sipmplifies things like the Nasheville System. It is easy to confuse the note D5 for the chord D5 which is a root note in the base a fifth above and an octive above the root leaving out the 3rd. Rockers call that the power chord.

Yep when piano players meet guitar players and start talking about notes and chords the guitar players usually get confused.

I have a degree in music theory and I also play piano.

But do you have a sense of humour?

Sausage Link,

The singing vocal ranges are numbered like this:

Soprano: C4 – C6
Mezzo-soprano: A3 – A5
Contralto: F3 – F5
Tenor: C3 – C5
Baritone: G2 – G4
Bass / Basso: E2 – E4

The numbers refer to the pitch of the corresponding piano key. The letter name is the pitch of the scale. The number name is the the C scale. On an 88 key piano, the low keys from low A to C are called zero. They would be A0 Bb0 and B0. From the first full octave, C1 goes from C1 to C2, in other words from the first C to the second C. There are seven C scales on the 88 key piano. So the piano goes from A0 to C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7 and ending with C8,

A3 to D5 would put Brad Paisley's song in a nice high tenor.

I hope that helps.

Maurer, welcome to JPF. The guitar is written an octave higher than it sounds. That's so it can all fit on the treble scale. Our lowest note is open E, the space below three ledger lines below the E line on the treble clef. It sounds as the E line the first ledger line below the bass clef.

E2 B-root A?

2B?

or NOT 2b...THAT is the ?

Herbie,

THAT is the ?

2#, A?

Et tu, Brute?

C, sir.

Starting on the piano, the lowest note is A, so that would be A1, then A3 is the third occurrence of A from A1. D5 is the fifth occurence of D from the lowest D. It is the range of the piece, or range of the vocalist, or whatever is being referred, in terms of range, where the piano keys are often the reference point.





Pat