music guide article

What voice are you?

You start getting an inkling that you're sat in the wrong part of the choir when you are always straining to get the high notes or groaning to get the low notes. This page is here to help you (a bit) in the privacy of your own home rather than anywhere else where somebody may overhear you.

Directions

Warm up your voice - you can't do something like this (or sing properly at all) from cold so you need to have your voice warmed up.

Sing the scales below several times each and make a note of which scales you are comfortable singing. Don't kid yourself - just repeat until you get a number on the scales going up and another number on the scales going down - this will give you your range.

Men - remember to sing the lower octave!

Scales going up

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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Scales going down

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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What does it mean?

 

So now you've found the range that you are comfortable with - a scale going down number and a scale going up number. Have a look at the chart below and see which voices matches yours the closest - it probably won't match completely beacause we are all different - just make a "best fit".

	Scale Going Up	Scale Going Down
Soprano (High female voice) Low - C /High - A and higher	8	3
Alto (Low female voice) Low - G / High - C and lower	3	7
Tenor (High male voice) Low - C / High - G and higher	7	3
Baritone (Medium male voice) Low - G / High - F	6	7
Bass (Low male voice) Low - F / High - E and lower	5	6

On the music these ranges look like the picture below - these are the ranges you are expected to cover easily in the music we sing. If you find that you've been singing in the "wrong" section then swap - it's as easy as that! You'll find that you can cover the notes a lot easier in the future.