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ExternalPiglet1 t1_je353mt wrote

How much of Aha's song Take On Me can they sing...that's a good range indicator. I'm kidding, but it's also a massive range.

Think of the common choir groups: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass (there's more, technically) Based off the natural/comfortable ability of the singer, one of these ranges sorta just makes sense. Most of the time, the range someone talks at will be a good indicator of where they would sit in a choir.

But to determine the limits of a range, you're testing notes until you waiver or strain too much. A tuner would help, but it's up to you how much you want to track it or push it. Most people don't talk at their limits, so to tell a full range from talking only gets harder. How they breathe while talking might be an indicator, or if they're monotone or not.

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duchesskitten6 OP t1_je37mub wrote

But the voice is measured mainly by the tones in which a person speaks, right?

What I found confusing is that countertenor is said to be the male equivalent of alto/contralto, but apparently this isn't accurate since countertenors have a range of E3 to E5 (and they use falsetto, otherwise their voices are tenor/baritone) and contraltos have a range of F3 to F5 and contralto is more masculine (or at least deeper) sounding than the countertenor voice.

However, there are contralto singers which aren't that deep, like Eula Beal.

Also, I hear that the stereotypical female singer is soprano. However, there is a significant number of mezzos and I just discovered that children's voices are mezzo (A3-A5) and personally my own voice didn't change in a perceivable level since childhood. I sing soprano (last week the choir conductor asked me to correct it a bit since it was sounding a bit deep in the beginning) so I am suspecting I am actually a mezzo. However, there are times in which I cannot tell a mezzo from a soprano, a mezzo's voice doesn't necessarily sound youthful and sopranos can sound youthful (such as Anita Auglend from Sins of Thy Beloved).

Another detail: this choir only has, in theory, four voice types: soprano, alto, tenor and bass, so I suspect that some might be in the middle and perhaps the basses are actually baritone, since basses are rare.

Another thing that is confusing me is that, when I watch videos of voice types for fun, this video and this video apparently have singers of multiple ranges singing the same note. How can that be? 🤔

I would appreciate if you helped me to see it more clearly.

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ExternalPiglet1 t1_je3exvz wrote

There is a lot ground to cover, I honestly don't have all the specifics. To me there's a lot of gray area, but it comes down to what does the song require. To simplify things, it makes sense for a choir to use the 4 major ranges, it makes writing the composition easier at least.

Those videos are interesting. The main showcase seemed to be how when hitting those notes called out, how effortless was it. I'm a tenor, yet I can still carry notes out of range. The trade-off is that I lose volume or stability. Or like how my low note might be a baritone's high note. It's the same note, but who's more comfortable with it.

Keep trying to figure it out though, it's a good rabbit hole to get into. Cheers~

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