Our voice ranges and types

[JohnH]

We had a topic recently of what types of magazines we read.

As we all know there is quite a lot of voice ranges and types with men.

I'm curious - are you a tenor, a baritone, or a bass? And what are the extent of your voice range?
Maybe higher perhaps in rare cases - maybe an alto, mezzo-soprano, even soprano. There exists some men that have soprano voices, but that is rare [and not necessarily castrati].

I'm a basso profundo - my comfortable range is C below the bass staff to about D above middle C. A lot of choral music has a bass part that is a little bit too high for my comfort.

[couyalair]

In spite of what we may have learnt, voice register has less to with genes than with local culture and education. Different countries/cultures produce different voice ranges. I can well imagine that a north American man, trained to keep his voice well down the scale, could find European men quite effeminate, judging by their voices. Compared with the very level tone of voice French men use, British sing-song accents can sound very weak. Brits in general tend to start the sentences on a higher note and float down at the end. The French start low and often rise at the end (teaching English in France, it is very difficult to obtain a convincing intonation).
Here in Spain, you'll come across plenty of women with gruff, hoarse voices, and men that allow their voice to range well up the scale. All a question of custom, nothing to do with genes, or sexuality.
In Morocco, both men and women use awide range with plenty of high notes (unless reading the news or the Qoran in literary/classical Arabic).
In Germany, I think male voices tend to be fairly bass.
And then there are all the other countries of the world, which I cannot beginto describe!
Interesting subject, though.
Did it arise because you think we should adopt deeper voices if we wear skirts? or more soprano?
Martin

[JohnH]

What I meant was the standard "root" singing voice and not a secondary falsetto range, unless that is the predominate singing range.

In spite of what we may have learnt, voice register has less to with genes than with local culture and education.

That statement is not entirely true. In the same American culture we have tenors, baritones, and basses. There are standard tenor and bass parts in choral compositions that is consistent with English, German, Italian, French, and other Western European culture.

There is even a professional male soprano, Michael Maniaci, who was born to a Baptist minister in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and he is a fully intact mature male.

Culture does indeed count with the speaking voice, since even Maniaci strives to sound like a typical man - when he speaks he sounds like a high tenor, lower than most women.

I don't think one has to change his voice if he wears traditional men's clothing or skirts or even dresses - as long as we don't try to pass as women.

I was simply curious of voice types as A+J is curious about the magazines we read.

I am a member of a community chorus and I notice that there is a tremendous variety of pitches for the men, much more so than with the women. It's interesting for example that the tenor part many times is closer in pitch to the alto part than it is to the bass part.

I presume that most of us are going to be English, Irish, or Scottish in background, or at least Western Europe in culture.

[crfriend]

Did [the question] arise because you think we should adopt deeper voices if we wear skirts? or more soprano?

Personally, when I took up skirt wearing it never occurred to me that I should do anything to modify my voice -- or anything else, for that matter -- other than swapping trousers for a skirt and making the resulting rig look passably good.

If we wear a skirted rig well, our own personalities will come through well, and it's those personalities that are vastly more interesting than a piece of cloth. The skirt just offers another avenue for us to state who we are -- for if we're not stating who we are, we're trying to play-act, and that tends to show up as discomfort which sends very strong signals indeed.

As far as John's original question goes, my voice hovers naturally in the baritone range, although if I decide to go into a falsetto I can get up into the lower reaches of the soprano range -- or at least I used to able to. Unfortunately, I cannot get down into the bass registers, a fact which has been known to annoy me in the past.

[JohnH]

If you don't squeeze your balls with that infamous wedge of cloth with pants, maybe your voice will get a little deeper. The standard joke of hitting high notes, of course, is that you need to hitch up your shorts...Ha Ha

[JohnH]

As far as John's original question goes, my voice hovers naturally in the baritone range, although if I decide to go into a falsetto I can get up into the lower reaches of the soprano range -- or at least I used to able to. Unfortunately, I cannot get down into the bass registers, a fact which has been known to annoy me in the past.

Ah yes, but you as a baritone can sing those high D's above the bass staff softly - if there are other men who can sing sometimes I will simply mouth the note and let the higher voice men sing that note. You also have a meaningful falsetto range, which I do not have. On the other hand, if there are low F's or E's at the bottom or below the bass staff I hit those notes loudly knowing that baritones will have a tough time even reaching those notes.

[ethelthefrog]

I bottom out at the bottom of the Bass clef. On a good day, I can reach the G. I've only ever got lower than that when I have a cold. I prefer to sing bass, but I'm more of a baritone, really.

I've not sung seriously since I left Hampshire in 2000. The Cambridge scene intimidates me somewhat and, with wife and children now, there's far too much to do with my time anyway, without trying to find a choral society that is willing to put up with my rudimentary ability to read music...

[rick401r]

I've been playing acoustic music with a friend of mine for over 30 years. Some of the songs we used to sing we can no longer perform because we can't hit the high notes. I'm sure cigarettes and alcohol have taken their toll as well as age.

[JRMILLER]

Baritone, range is from low D-flat to high A. About 2-1/2 octaves. Usable range is low G to high G, 2 octaves.

I sing in community choruses on a regular basis, been taking voice lessons to deal with my technical issues. There is lot more to singing than I ever imagined. You really have to wonder how professionals get the sound that they do, I am determined to at least approach that kind of sound.

[JohnH]

I noticed as I have gotten older my voice has deepened. When I was in my early twenties I used to wonder how the low Russian basses could sing so low. That was when I was able to go down only to an Eb below the bass staff. I can now usually reach down to Bb below the bass staff and sometimes go lower.

I used to be able to sing G above middle C without any trouble. Now anything above D above middle C is a reach, although I can reach F but not very easily. My comfortable range as I mentioned is C below the bass staff to D above middle C.

[Kirbstone]

I'm an ageing tenor with a residual range of F below middle C to A, two A's above middle C comfortable. That's only two octaves and a couple of notes. I can squawk a bit of unlistenable-to falsetto higher than that, and below low F you couldn't hear me behind a cabbage plant!

As an impressive performance, I have an old Vinyl LP of Show Boat, in which Cleo Laine sings the song 'Fish gotta swim...Birds gotta fly...' I think the recording was done in the '60's, but at the end of that song Cleo performs a closing jazz vocal cadenza starting high in the Stratosphere, descending through three octaves and six full tones. I can't recall which actual note she starts off on, but let's say it's (Tonic Solfa) very high doh. She then descends in a freestyle interpretation passing a further three doh-s ending on a very baritone-like low Mee.

I've never heard anybody else do that.

[AMM]

My most reliable vocal range is the second G below middle C up to middle C. I can go up to F and down a fourth to low D on a good day, but not necessary both on the same day.

In our church choir, I sing the tenor line. The choir director says falsetto is OK, so that's what I often do above middle C. Fortunately, we're not trying to compete with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

[JohnH]

Something that I notice is that out of an absolute range a person has, there is a preferred range. Two people may have the same absolute range - e.g., C below the bass staff to G above the bass staff. One person may feel most comfortable with a range of low G to high G as a baritone, and another one may prefer low D to high D as a bass.

[JRMILLER]

You are correct about the preferred range, I sang tenor (prefer baritone) all of last year in our community chorus. It was very hard starting out, my throat muscles would get tired out quickly, however, by the Spring concert it really wasn't too bad -- Like any other muscle, the more you use it the easier it is!

[Since1982]

What definition is there in singing "high gravelly"??