Hello, my name is Betsy and I'm a singing teacher at TakeLessons.
In this video, you're going to learn all about the different voice types
from male and female singers.
We'll also go over how you can determine your own voice classification.
So stay tuned
and don't forget to click the link below to check out our free online singing classes.
Why is it important for you to know your voice type?
I always tell my students it's all about vocal health.
Your voice type is your vocal range, your vocal weight,
your tessitura, your timbre,
and then your vocal transitions, or your breaks, or where they fall.
You want to know those so you can pick repertoire
that's appropriate for your voice type.
For instance, if I'm a very high soprano,
I don't want to be singing something too low it could actually hurt my voice.
Same as if you're an alto or contralto,
you don't want to try to choose repertoire that's too high for you.
It's going to cause strain.
There are two main systems for finding your voice type.
One is the opera classification and the other is choral classifications.
There's not really a place in pop music for voice types.
You would never say Mariah Carey is a soprano or something.
It just isn't used.
For opera, there are soprano,
mezzo-soprano,
contralto for women.
For men you have countertenor,
baritone
and bass.
Most women find that they can sing
in the middle of their range a little bit more easily
so there tend to be more of the alto voices or mezzo-soprano voices
than there are for the higher sopranos.
Same thing with the men.
The middle voice, the baritone, is probably the most common for those.
The choral classification, you have four voice types.
You're going to have either soprano or alto for females,
and tenor or bass for men.
When you think about different singers and the different types of voices,
I always think of like Kathleen Battle as a soprano.
She just has that very light crystal diamond-like voice.
Baritone, think of like that rich middle voice like a Josh Groban.
He would be somebody you would know,
or obviously everybody knows the tenors and Pavarotti,
and those have the higher tessitura
where they're just more comfortable above that range,
where they're able to sing higher than like a bass
or a baritone, where they're able to go lower.
And that would be the deepest voice that we would have.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about voice types is that you can change it.
For instance, I can sing pretty low and I'm a soprano,
but it doesn't make me be able to sing an alto part
in a choir better than a real alto would.
My timbre makes me a soprano, not necessarily my range makes me a soprano.
I'm much more resonant in a higher voice type.
Whereas a real contralto
would be able to cut through that orchestra with a lower range.
That's a good example of choosing your range wisely
and why it's important to know.
Just because you can sing a note doesn't make you an alto or a contralto or a soprano.
Some voice types are specifically male and female.
For instance, like a soprano is a female,
but there are men out there who can sing alto parts and do sing in choirs as an alto.
There are females out there who have a very low tessitura
where they're comfortable singing and they can sing tenor.
There's a number of altos
that transition to tenor parts pretty easily
and do so in major choirs.
A good way to test your range and to see where you're comfortable..
it's all about finding that middle voice.
A good way to start is just play a middle C, that's known as C4,
and just go laaa
and see how comfortable you are where that lies.
For most women, if you put your hand on your chest and sing laaa,
you feel the reverberations and that's your chest voice.
You're using your lung cavity as the space to resonate.
Whereas if you're up here on this C,
laaa,
that's using your head voice
and that's using your sinus cavities to resonate and not your lung cavities.
Somewhere in here is normally where women are pretty comfortable,
and that's like if you would sing up the scale like - Do re mi fa so.
Right around sol or this G, that's where your break is,
for most women.
Some women are lower because they're a real contralto,
some women are higher because they're just very, very soprano.
Right here, I'm going to change to
so
la
ti do.
A lot of people think that they can't sing a full octave
because they try to barrel through it and then they crack.
Well, they have to switch into their head voice.
It's not that you don't have the range,
it's just that you need to use different parts of your voice.
Figuring out if you're more comfortable here where you resonate,
so start here on the Middle C
and then you can just do some daily warm-ups like,
la-a-a-a-a.
Going up, la-a-a-a-a,
la-a-a-a-a.
See where you are comfortable and see if you peter out
up here or more towards down here.
You can also do the same thing going down.
So I would go
la-a-a-a-a,
and then figure out how far down you get.
If you're more comfortable down on this range,
la-a-a-a-a,
then you are probably are a real contralto
and you should probably pick some repertoire
that uses that chest voice for you.
Your voice will change through the course of your life a number of times.
Everybody starts out singing the same range as a boy or a girl,
and then you go through puberty.
Boys' larynx will grow into a man size and a girl's will stay at a woman size.
So your voice will change right around puberty,
and then again, your voice will develop a little bit more into an adult voice
when you are right around 20, I would say between 17 and 20.
Your voice changes again.
Fun fact, women's voices do change as well during puberty.
Everybody talks about boys' voices dropping and cracking and things like that,
but women's do, too.
Then also, at around 30 years old,
your voice will develop again into a different type of voice.
My voice specifically, I got a major 3rd more on the top of my range when I hit 30.
I really didn't think that that would have happened
because I had been singing professionally since I was like 17
and had just about the same range.
Either from daily vocalizing and working on my voice and stretching it,
or just the fact that I got older and it developed into a higher voice,
that could be as well, but I wasn't really expecting that.
It's interesting how your voice can change over the course of your life.
Again, your voice will change when you hit around 55 or 60, just with your hormone change.
Your hormones really do affect your vocal cords,
and so there is a little bit of research going on right now
with hormone replacement therapy trying to extend different people's vocal careers
and just being able to sing for longer and control your voice.
What is your unique voice type?
Has your voice type changed since you started singing?
Leave a comment and let us know.
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