hi everyone!
just wondering what the average voice range is! I can sing three octaves and sometimes more (when I'm really warmed up)!
explanatory note: the 'number to number' means that you can sing 2 1/2 octaves or something!
Charlotte

I can sing three and a half octaves on a very good day. Most days it's more like nearly three! (F below middle C to F three ledger lines above stave)

Fully warmed up, three and a bit.

Have sung the C below middle C - but not in public. Have sung the F two and a bit octaves above middle C - but not in public.

In performances I've sung the D below middle C, and the D three octaves above it (but not in the same concert).

Cheers

Katyjay

ps someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the jazz singer Cleo Laine hold the record for the widest range measured - at about 4 and a half octives. Impressive or what?

2 Octaves and one note I can get from the F below middle C to the G off the stave (not with ledger lines!! ) Mind you it hasn't really bothered me, coz I usually sing second soprano, which is right in the middle for me and I never sing by myself!

i can get F below middle C and about up to E top space..

Blimey... I don't think I even have a range... I turn up to choir, yes, it's compulsary, my teacher hasn't said anything about having to actually produce a recognised note...

QUOTE (katyjay @ Jan 12 2005, 07:55 PM)

ps someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the jazz singer Cleo Laine hold the record for the widest range measured - at about 4 and a half octives.  Impressive or what?

She certainly could sing over four octaves at one time, but that would not have been a record. The Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (b. 1927) is described in the Penguin Dictionary of Musical Perfomers as having a range of five octaves.

QUOTE (kenm @ Jan 12 2005, 11:45 PM)

The Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (b. 1927) is described in the Penguin Dictionary of Musical Perfomers as having a range of five octaves.

Five octaves?!? I heard that Julie Andrews has a v. large range. Does anyone know how many octaves she can sing?

5 octaves is massive!!!

I know! More than a flute!

I was trying to think of in terms of a piano and that is a really big distance!

Considerably more than a flute!

Totally unwarmed up and not necessarily nice to listen to I can sing F below middle C to the Bb on a leger line above the treble stave. I don't know what it would be warmed up, but I would imagine pretty much the same but just nicer to listen to

This may be a simple question, but I'll ask anyway! Do singing lessons extend the range you've already got, or improve the range you've already got, or both?!

QUOTE (kenm @ Jan 12 2005, 11:45 PM)

The Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (b. 1927) is described in the Penguin Dictionary of Musical Perfomers as having a range of five octaves.

Theoretically, could everyone achieve that if they worked hard enough and practised long enough, or is it more down to physiological differences between people? I don't intend to aim for this goal(!), I'm just curious.



Amber
x

QUOTE (elmo @ Jan 14 2005, 01:43 PM)

This may be a simple question, but I'll ask anyway! Do singing lessons extend the range you've already got, or improve the range you've already got, or both?!

I think both, but as I've only just started vocal technique classes myself, I'm probably not the one to say. however, I've read lots of posts on this forum where people said that they found out they could sing notes that had seemed to be miles away after they started taking singing lessons, so I suppose that supports this theory.

i don't have singing lessons and i can only go from F-sometimes E below middle c to D on the 4th line of the stave

QUOTE (july @ Jan 14 2005, 04:56 PM)

QUOTE (elmo @ Jan 14 2005, 01:43 PM) This may be a simple question, but I'll ask anyway! Do singing lessons extend the range you've already got, or improve the range you've already got, or both?! I think both, but as I've only just started vocal technique classes myself, I'm probably not the one to say. however, I've read lots of posts on this forum where people said that they found out they could sing notes that had seemed to be miles away after they started taking singing lessons, so I suppose that supports this theory.

I think, and I could be totally wrong, that it doesn't necessarily extend your range, it's just that you weren't able or didn't realise you were able to extend that range before... if that makes sense? I don't know though. But a friend at college had singing lessons, and she had always thought of herself as an alto, but when she had lessons she found out she was actually a lazy soprano! and it was not that her vocal chords had changed or anything, she just learned how to use them properly.

I don't have singing lessons and I have a range of about 8 notes! Haha!

I always used to think that I was a struggling soprano but then I started voice lessons and found out I was an alto. I've got a range from about the C below middle c to the e just over an octave above middle c!

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Jan 14 2005, 07:00 PM)

I don't have singing lessons and I have a range of about 8 notes! Haha!

haha me too!

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Jan 14 2005, 09:55 PM)

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Jan 14 2005, 07:00 PM) I don't have singing lessons and I have a range of about 8 notes! Haha! haha me too!

I don't think I even have that!

lol Helen!

QUOTE

I don't think I even have that!

Yes you do, don't be stupid!

I have the range of about an octave (probally out-of-tune and horrible). No-singing lessons, but being dragged to harmony group.

QUOTE (Amber @ Jan 14 2005, 02:38 PM)

QUOTE (kenm @ Jan 12 2005, 11:45 PM)  The Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac (b. 1927) is described in the Penguin Dictionary of Musical Perfomers as having a range of five octaves. Theoretically, could everyone achieve that if they worked hard enough and practised long enough, or is it more down to physiological differences between people? I don't intend to aim for this goal(!), I'm just curious.

I think lots of people work hard at it, and if everyone could achieve that range then more people would. As with most human characteristics, nature and nurture both have important effects.

another club Helen! the we have a range of less than 8 notesclub!

Nat, if you are so bad at singing then why does Sally say you sing school solos?

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Jan 15 2005, 08:57 PM)

Nat, if you are so bad at singing then why does Sally say you sing school solos?

she lies!!!!

I want to know who's claiming to have the really huge range!

They would be a record-breaker... whoever it is must have just clicked that option for a joke or something. Come on, own up!

Not moi, Cecilia I am online now

QUOTE (cecilia @ Jan 16 2005, 08:57 AM)

Come on, own up!

sorry I just couldnt resist

QUOTE (sarah-flute @ Jan 15 2005, 11:20 PM)

I want to know who's claiming to have the really huge range!

even though i've passed my grades....i have a small range....about 2 octaves and a bit....

Elmo - both improve with lessons usually.

I have reached the B just an octave below middle C and the D two octaves above (ie recognisable notes over 3 octaves), but consider my performing range to be low D to high F# or G - ie a little over 2 octaves.

As for the peruvian soprano, is there something like a falsetto for women as there is for counter-tenors. which could explain why she goes that high? If you check this site out, the bio section has her range - note they say SHE CLAIMS 5 octaves....does not mean she would perform them....did not translate into Callas-fame....Also range doth not make the singer!

http://www.sunvirgin.com/

QUOTE (lafrog @ Jan 16 2005, 04:07 PM)

performing range to be low D to high F# or G - ie a little over 2 octaves.

My choir director calls 'performing range' tessitura, which means the part of your voice you can work with, develop tonally etc.

QUOTE (july @ Jan 16 2005, 04:54 PM)

My choir director calls 'performing range' tessitura, which means the part of your voice you can work with, develop tonally etc.

Check out a previous thread of the Viva Voice "If Everyone Loves A Soprano"...which also discusses the whole range question.

Your choir director is right, Tessitura is what you work with, and Ambitus is what you can reach (those 5 octaves of the peruvian lady! if you listen to a sample on the website, you'll understand....); both looked at together really determine what "voice" you sing. This applies to trained voice though: as I've said elsewhere I always thought I was an alto just because I could sing those low notes and not really the high ones, and hold my part, but in fact I basically did not know how to sing properly....and I now sing Mezzo.

I can sing from the C an octave below middle C to the C two octaves above middle C. That's my range at it's biggest. Performance-wise, however, the F below middle C to the A almost two octaves above middle C (ie. what is called "high A" by many folks).

QUOTE (cecilia @ Jan 16 2005, 08:57 AM)

They would be a record-breaker... whoever it is must have just clicked that option for a joke or something. Come on, own up!

*looks around suspiciously...*

im presuming it was saxophonist.

look a few posts up from here

ahhhh......... I missed that...

*is a bit ditzy, you'll have to forgive.... *

i will forgive once and once only, do not do it again!!

Im so very, very sorry

*walks off and begins to weep very feebly*

i also forgive u saxophonist just this once!

Oh thankyou!!

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Jan 18 2005, 05:42 PM)

i also forgive u saxophonist just this once!

yeah me too... just don't do it again *grin*

QUOTE (Saxophonist @ Jan 18 2005, 05:44 PM)

Oh thankyou!!

my pleasure!

On a good day I can go from a D# below middle C to a C#, sometimes D two octaves above middle C. So that's about 3 octaves. My usual range (what I would sing in public) is an F below middle C to an F or G an octave and a bit above middle C. I could stretch to an A if I had to. I'm a mezzo, by the way.