Determine Your Voice Type

The four common voice types are soprano, mezzosoprano(often called mezzo or alto), tenor, and
bass. These five instruments that determine a voice type:

✓ Age: Many singers are assigned a voice type as young singers, but voices change with age. All
voices continue to grow and develop with age. Think about the last time you made a phone call and
heard the sound of a stranger’s voice. Even if you didn’t know the person on the other end, you could
guess his age by listening to his speaking voice. Because speaking voices and singing voices change
with age, wait until your body is finished growing to determine your voice type.

✓ 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. 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
mezzo. 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: 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. 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. 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 color. Color is also called 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 altos (mezzo soprano) and basses. Likewise, mezzos and
basses have a stronger, meatier middle(chest voice) voice than sopranos and tenors.

Vocal subdivisions
In classical music or the opera world, voice types can be further divided into categories based on the
size and agility of the voice. The first four terms are in order.
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✓ Light: A bright, youthful, agile voice.
✓ Lyric: A medium-sized voice with a warm color that’s comfortable singing long, even phrases.
Lyric is appropriate for a romantic character.
✓ Full: A louder, stronger voice that doesn’t necessarily sing fast lines as easily as a light voice.
✓ Dramatic: A voice that’s even louder than a full voice and sings a heavier repertoire. Dramatic
voices can peel the paint off the wall from 50 paces. These voices are big and heavier than full lyric
voices; they aren’t known for subtlety — they’re all about power and strength.
✓ Coloratura: A flexible voice that moves easily through fast lines in the music. A singer can be a
mix of the terms in the preceding list. For example, a light lyric coloratura refers to a medium-sized
light voice that moves easily. Seeing the words combined to describe a voice type isn’t so confusing if
you understand the definition of each descriptive word. However, only in the classical world is it
important for you to know how your voice fits within this list. Don’t worry about the specific kind of
category you’re in until you get some training.
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Identifying the Four voice types

The four voice types are soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. 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.

✓ 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 her and rescue her.

✓ 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;

✓ What’s your singing range and tessitura?

The difference between an alto and a soprano often is tessitura. The alto 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.

✓ 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.

✓ 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.

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 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 capable of singing high notes more frequently than an alto.

✓ 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 light lyric, full lyric,
light lyric coloratura, full lyric coloratura, light dramatic coloratura, full
dramatic coloratura, light dramatic (or spinto), and full dramatic.

✓ Soprano belter: A soprano belter has an easier time managing her

chest voice for belting and usually belts higher than an alto.

✓ Common performance roles: The soprano is usually the lead in the

In a presentation.
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✓ Naming names: Famous sopranos you may know include Julie Andrews, Sarah Brightman,
Kristin Chenoweth, Renée Fleming, Beyoncé Knowles, Audra McDonald, Olivia Newton John, and
Dolly Parton.

Soprano ranges between Middle C (C4) to High C (C6)

How low can she go: alto

The difference between an alto and a soprano is often tessitura. (Tessitura refers to where most
of the notes lie in a song — the notes that a voice feels most comfortable singing.) Many altoos can
sing as high as a soprano, but they can’t stay as high as a soprano. For example, some roles in operatic
literature require the alto to sing as high as the soprano lead, but the alto usually doesn’t
have to sing as many high notes as a soprano does — thank goodness —because the alto comfort zone
is usually different than the soprano; altos prefer to live in their middle voices. On the other hand, a
soprano hates to live in her middle voice, preferring to sing high notes and soar above the orchestra.

To further confuse you, many sopranos sing alto repertoire. How dare they! That’s not fair, but it’s a
fact. As in other aspects of life, after the soprano becomes famous, she sings repertoire that she enjoys
and that may be music written for somebody else, such as altos. So just because a
soprano sings a song doesn’t mean that it’s a soprano song. You have to look at the details, such as
the range of the song, and decide whether that range fits your voice.
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✓ Range:
The alto range is usually G below Middle C to a High B or High C. Many altos vocalize as high as a
soprano but can’t handle the repetition of the upper notes.

✓ Register:
The register transitions for the alto usually occur at E or F (first space) just above Middle C, and the E
or F (fifth line) one octave above that.

✓ Strength: altos have a strong middle voice.

✓ Voice tone:
The alto voice is usually darker or deeper than her soprano counterpart.

✓ Weakness: A alto’s head voice is often her weakness.

✓ Subdivisions:
One subdivision of alto is contralto. contraltos can usually sing from F below Middle C to about an
F (fifth line) below High C. A contralto has a darker, richer color and is more at home in the lower
part of her voice. Sometimes singers darken their voices intentionally to make themselves sound like
contraltos. The contralto may take her chest voice–dominated sound up to a G (second line) above
Middle C and shift into head voice around the D (fourth line), an octave above Middle C.

Alto range G below Middle C to B (B5)

Highest range of the gents: Tenor

✓ Range: The tenor range, is about two octaves, with many singing a little lower than C (second
space in bass clef) and a little higher than the male High C (third space treble clef).

✓ Register: The tenor voice doesn’t make a huge transition from his lower voice to his middle voice.
His transition into his middle voice occurs around D just above Middle C or the E-flat just above
Middle C and then a transition into head voice around G or A-flat above Middle C.

✓ Strength: The tenor’s strength is his head voice.

✓ Voice tone: The tenor voice is usually bright and ringing.

✓ Weakness: His weakness is often his chest voice.

✓ Subdivisions: A subdivision of the tenor, called the baritenor, reigns. This voice type is someone
with the power to project in the middle voice and the higher, ringing money notes of the tenor.
The other voice type that you frequently hear in the opera world is the countertenor — a male singer
who sounds like a female. This voice type sings in the same range as the alto (sometimes soprano) and
sounds similar. When you’ve heard the countertenor singing enough, you can distinguish him from a
alto. Until then, just enjoy the unique quality that these gentlemen bring to the singing world.

Tenor range C one octave below Middle C to C one octave above

Middle C

He’s so low: Bass

Bass is the lowest of the voice types. The bass is the guy who sings all the
cool low notes in the quartet.

✓ Range:
His range is usually F (below the bass clef staff) to E (first line treble clef) but can be as wide as E-flat
to F

✓ Register transitions:
The bass changes from chest voice into middle voice around A or A-flat just below Middle C and
changes into head voice around D or D-flat just above Middle C.

✓ Strength: His chest voice is his strength.

✓ Voice tone: His voice is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest of the male voices.

✓ Weakness: His head voice is his weakness.

✓ Subdivisions: Filling in the middle between tenor and bass is the baritone. Baritones are very
common. Young bass singers often start out as a baritone and then the voice changes. The baritone
can usually sing from an A (first space bass clef) to F (first space treble clef) below the male High C.
The bass-baritone has some height of the baritone and some depth of the bass; his range is usually A-
flat (first space bass clef) to F (first space treble clef) and sometimes as high as G below the male
High C. The baritone’s register transitions usually occur at the B or B-flat just below Middle C and
the E or E-flat above Middle C.

Bass ranges from F about an octave and a half below Middle C to E above Middle C