Range: Range is all the notes a singer can hit — including the highest note, the lowest note, and all the notes between. Beginning singers usually have a shorter range than more advanced singers, because the high notes or low notes get stronger with practice. As you practice the exercises with this book and accompanying online tracks, your range can expand whether you’re a beginner or an advanced singer. Knowing your range helps you figure out your voice type, because a bass can sing lower than a tenor, and a soprano can sing higher than a contralto. The factors that most affect how you determine your voice type are range, in which part of your range you’re most comfortable singing, and register transitions.
Register: Register refers to a series of adjacent notes that sound similar, are produced in a similar fashion, and have a similar tonal quality. The notes sound similar because the same muscles produce them and they often vibrate in a similar location in a singer’s body. The transitions between the registers can help you determine your voice type. Keep reading this chapter to find out where each voice type feels transitions to help you decide whether your voice does something similar. The transitions in your voice may change as your voice develops. (Chapter 11 has more on registers.) The range of the voice where a singer is most comfortable is called tessitura. If you hear the word tessitura used in a discussion about a song, in that case, it refers to the area where most of the notes lie in the song. The tessitura of a Stevie Wonder song is quite high, because he’s comfortable singing a lot of high notes. The tessitura for “God Bless America” and most folk songs is lower. Knowing where your voice is most comfortable, as well as where it’s uncomfortable, is a determining factor when it comes to voice type.
Tone of voice: Each voice has a specific tonal quality or timbre. Words that describe tone include strident, dark, bright, metallic, ringing, and shrill. When determining a voice type, the voice tone helps you further determine your category. The tone of voice for a tenor is often much brighter than the tone of voice for a bass.
Voice strength: Knowing your voice strength also helps you determine your voice type. Sopranos and tenors have a stronger head voice than mezzos and basses. Likewise, mezzos and basses have a stronger, meatier middle voice than sopranos and tenors. (Chapter 11 gives you details on head voice and middle voice.)
Identifying the Fab Four
The four voice types are soprano, mezzo, tenor, and bass. Even though these names sound like characters in a mob movie, I promise you that they’re nothing to be afraid of. In the upcoming sections, you discover specific traits about each voice type: the range, register transitions, voice tone, and any subdivisions of that voice type, as well as the names of a few famous singers to help you put a sound with the voice type.
If you’re confused after reading about all the voice types, remember that naming your voice type today isn’t absolutely necessary. After you read the descriptions of the voice types in this chapter, you may be ready to vote soprano over mezzo or bass over tenor for now. Try that range for a while and see whether it fits well. The takeaway from this chapter is to figure out your voice type if you want. If you’re singing most styles of music, your voice type won’t matter as much as figuring out if your voice can sing all the notes in the song you like.
Developing your technique helps you sing more advanced music in any style. Figuring out your voice type can be fun, but it can also take a while to know which category suits you. Remember that your voice will tell you what it can do physically today and then those skills will improve over time and you may end up choosing a different voice type later. It’s much harder to tell if a singer on the radio is a specific voice type. They may have refined their chest voice but not spent time developing their head voice. A singer may sound like a mezzo, but they might be a soprano who just doesn’t perform songs that have higher notes.
What’s the timbre of your voice? Is the tone more steely than chocolaty? Steely isn’t a negative adjective; it’s merely fact. Very often the steely voice is the character audiences love, but they don’t want to rush up and put their arms around them and rescue them.
Is your voice light and flutelike? Is your voice loud and heavy even when you’re lightly singing? Heavy means the sound that you’re making is loud even when you’re singing comfortably. Voices that are a little heavy are full and heavy voices are called dramatic.
What’s your singing range and tessitura? The difference between a mezzo and a soprano often is tessitura. The mezzo can sing the high notes but doesn’t want to live up there, and the soprano wants to sing one high note after another. If you’re new to singing, you may not be able to tell the difference between a soprano and a mezzo or a baritone and a tenor. No worries. Keep listening to the sounds, and you’ll eventually be able to tell the difference between the voice types.
Are you able to move your voice easily? Do you enjoy the fast passages in the song and think of them as fun? If the fast notes are easy for you, you can add coloratura to your vocal description. The coloraturas demonstrate some spectacular fast moves with their voices.
What do you consider the general or overall strengths of your voice — strong middle voice or head voice, perhaps? Your vocal strengths change as you practice. Notice the differences in the voices in the naming names lists that follow. Compare and contrast the sounds you hear between voice types to hear their strengths.
Highest range of the dames: Soprano
The soprano has the highest range of the female voice types. The following aspects are characteristic of her voice type:
Range: Often Middle C to High C, although some sopranos can vocalize way beyond High C and much lower than Middle C (see Figure 2-1).A soprano is expected to have a High C, and many sopranos can sing up to the G or A above High C. Choral directors or musical directors listen for the singer’s comfort zone when determining whether the singer is a soprano. Although a mezzo can reach some of these higher notes, a soprano is comfortable singing high notes more frequently than a mezzo.
Register transitions: The transitions usually occur as the soprano shifts out of chest voice around the E-flat just above Middle C and into her head voice around F-sharp (fifth line on top of the staff) in the octave above Middle C.
Strength: A soprano’s strength is a strong head voice.
Voice tone: The soprano voice is usually bright and ringing.
Weakness: Sopranos have a hard time projecting in middle voice.
Soprano subdivisions in the classical world include