By Michael Hoag
It’s a question that everyone wants to know the answer to…what voice type am I? Great question! I can’t answer that because I don’t know who you are, but I can give you information that will help find out the answer. Tread carefully now though, the concept of voice types and how to ‘diagnose’ or recognize them is one of the most hotly debated topics in music. Don’t believe me? Look up any video on the subject, maybe even on what voice type a pop singer possesses, and you will find a mixed bag of answers. It’s a rocky path, but it’s one I enjoy taking, so without further ado let’s begin.
Actually before we begin, let’s answer some questions and give some disclaimers.
What really is a voice type?: A voice type is a classification of a singer’s voice based on its strengths within the range, and comfortable tessitura.
What is a tessitura?: Tessitura is the range where most singing is done, which in this case includes the ‘comfortable’ higher and lower extremities of one’s voice and focuses on the middle voice. Someone’s tessitura is not their full range, but it is a range of notes that singers are often expected to hit consistently as part of their voice type/development as well as ‘money’ notes. Tessitura can actually get slightly higher or lower depending on what genre that is being sung and how developed a singer is. For example, an operatic soprano has a higher tessitura than a pop soprano because opera singers need to project their voice farther than a pop singer does, so in order to avoid confusion, I’ll talk about both.
Are the subdivisions within the voice types?: Yes, but only really in opera, and we don’t really need to know them today. In general the main two sub divisions are dramatic (dark sound, booming voice) and lyric (light sound, medium volume voice, more common).
Am I an alto?: That is something I can certainly say no to, as altos are actually not a voice type, but rather a choir part, singers that sing this are often simply just not sopranos.
Will I be able to tell with no training?: Maybe, but it’s best for one to go to a professional voice coach to help determine such as well as get the training to reveal their range. Even the slightest bit of technique can activate whole new layers of the voice.
Can a voice type change?: Yep, aging/ training can cause the voice’s strengths to change over time. Also, some of the voice types mentioned for most don’t come in until later in life. There are exceptions, but we’re talking about the masses.
Okay, now we can finally start. Here are the voice types we’ll be looking at today: (Female) Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Contralto, (Male) Tenor, Baritone, and Bass. There are others (Countertenor, Male Soprano, Female Baritone, Castrati.) But they are either too rare to find consistently recognizable characteristics/examples, or they don’t exist at all anymore.
Soprano: The very highest voice of all. These voice types are extremely common ( if not the most common) in the female singing world, and is the voice type that many females start out as. In opera, there are many subcategories in this voice type, being so common. Yet, they all have one thing in common: high notes. Sopranos, especially when well developed, demonstrated an ease up into the highest extremities of the voice, with great projection even compared to the rest of their voice.
- Opera tessitura: C4-C6
- Examples: Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, and Kristin Chenoweth (yes she can sing opera)
- Pop Tessitura: G#3-E5/F5
- Ex: Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson
- Sopranos can sometimes be able to go way lower than expected of them, but not with the same quality and consistency associated with lower voices.
Mezzo-Soprano:The middle voice of the female voice triad is also very common, especially in pop music. Being the middle of the pack, it’s no surprise that mezzo sopranos often do their best singing in the middle sections of their voice, where their tone quality and projection often shine the most.
- Operatic tessitura: G3-B5
- Examples: Joyce Di Donato and Elina Garanca
- Pop tessitura: F#3-D5
- Examples: P!nk, Lady Gaga, and Adele
- Many of them go higher, but the tone quality is often not nearly as good as that of a soprano, hence why the tessitura is lower.
Contralto: The lowest and rarest of female voices is the contraltos. Known often for their androgynous sound in opera, many of them don’t even blossom until their late 30s, often seen as mezzo-sopranos beforehand.
- Operatic tessitura: F3-A5
- Examples: Ewa Podles and Clara Butt
- Pop tessitura: E3-C5
- Examples: Nina Simone, Carley Simon, and Brandy
- They tend to actually possess the ability to sing much higher than expected of them, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll sound good.
Those are all of the female types, and now onto males!
Tenor: The highest of the male voicetypes, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Tenors are actually probably the most unnatural voice type out of this list. What do I mean? Well, most tenors, opera or pop, have to train to sing in a higher placement than what is natural for most singers. Oftentimes, they start out as higher baritones and work their way up technically.
- Operatic Tessitura: C3-C5
- Examples: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras
- Pop Tessitura: E3-C5
- Examples: Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars, and David Phelps.
- C5 is the ultimate tenor high note. Can they go higher? Kind off. Operatic Tenors don’t ever really venture beyond high C because of the fact that operatic tenor roles are built off of the high C already, and delivering a successful C#5 or D5 can be extremely difficult and taxing for even the most advanced tenors. Pop tenors are a different story, with them often being able to sing the tessituras of low or even middle voice females at times (though they may experience extreme tone changes after C#5/D5). A GREAT example of this phenomenon is Tevin Campbell.
Baritone: Sitting in the middle of male voices. There are many examples of these guys in the music world. There are many variations of this voice type however, from baritenors to bass-baritones. Still, one thing for certain, their strength lies in the middle of their voice.
- Operatic Tessitura: A2-G#4/A4
- Examples: Samuel Ramey and Gino Quilico
- Pop Tessitura G2/A2-F4/G4 (there’s a lot of variation)
- Examples: Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole, and John Legend
- With it being so common, its ‘sound’ is not exactly easily stereotyped. Often baritones will train themselves to sing the upper and lowest extensions of the two voices they sit between, but at the end of the day, they’re middle voice rules.
Bass: Operatic basses, like contraltos, have a tendency to sound pretty terrifying as they go down the scale. Obviously their greatest strength is the lows, but their repertoire can get quite rangey in general whether it be pop or opera.They can sometimes sing tenor notes actually, but they can sound….weird.
- Operatic Tessitura: E2-F4
- Examples: William Thomas and James Morrison
- Pop tessitura: E2-E4 (not much of a difference lol)
- Examples: Johnny Cash, Josh Turner, and Melvin Franklin.
- Basses actually often sound very bright in pop music. You’d think they were a higher voice if it wasn’t for the fact that they all always seemingly have to do an insanely low note. But, that’s where they’re comfortable, so who can blame them?
WHEW! We finished all of the voice types. Now that we’re done though, what does this mean for those who want to find out what they are? First, you MUST go to a vocal coach, they will demonstrate how to access and increase your tessitura, so that your true voice type and range are revealed. This guide in many ways only scratches the surface of the voice types characteristics, which includes weaknesses, as well as many technical hiccups, something a voice coach should be well versed in. An important thing to note is that, while these voice types may aid your musical identity, they do not completely define who you are as a singer, especially in skill level.