I've discovered that my vocal range covers alto and tenor, but I definitely prefer singing alto. Are there any ways of making sure that my voice stays in the alto range as I get older?

"Building walls dosent keep the world out, it simply locks you in"

Tread carefully :-)

Karslima is a female. I have sang in choirs with many female tenors over the years. They are usually better at sight singing and accurate pitching!

All singers have some control over their range - I am a tenor, but I know how to change my vocal set up and access my vocal fry, which means I can grumble away with the basses. I will let the experienced singing teachers offer advice to the OP, as it will be far better than anything I can offer.

Forgot to mention - the alto part in cathedral choirs is almost always sung by men.

Not quite - alto / tenor refers to range not gender. You do get ladies who sing tenor, but it has a different timbre.

I'll let the singing teachers comment on voice maintenance.

Keep using the upper register... if you want to maintain your range you have to use it, and be very careful about how you use the extremes of your range. Although you will be fawned over a lot as a tenor, if you want to sing it with the power of a male tenor you do run a risk of vocal damage I suspect...

I read this with interest and would also love to see any further tips on maintaining the top range, as I'm another low female. I have heard that it is usual for the bottom of your range to gradually drop with age - eg a tone a decade for example. I was shocked a few years ago (in my mid 30s) to accidentally discover I had a bottom Bb when throughout my teens and early 20s I could practically pitch from a low Db which was my then lowest note.

When I get a chance to sing I try to sing up - I'd hate to lose the top. Have sung tenor occasionally and enjoy it a lot but I don't have the volume of the men when I do, and have always had the sense that I'll always have my lower range no matter what.

Interestingly both my children have fairly low speaking voices compared to their peers; I wonder how much that is because my speaking voice probably pitches about the same range as my husband's (I think he's tenor range though he doesn't sing much). At a children's choir my daughter has sung in since she was little one of the teachers once said she thought she'd end up an alto - but I don't think we can have any idea at this point. Now she's doing more church music, age 9, her top end is starting to go up and up, just as her younger brother's is. Both of them have top C+, and I don't think I ever got anywhere near that as a child. Descants at Christmas were probably the only time I really tried though, and I guess I lost confidence in top G and higher by my mid-teens.

My advice is to learn to love your voice and enjoy singing every note within your natural range. To force your voice to sing outwith this range or to somehow shift your upper or lower notes to align it with someones else's range is a very very bad thing to do and can only end in very bad results.

I assume you wish to sing at your best . This may be much better in some areas than most others in the range in which you hope to sing. There are numerous voice characteristics within the general description of SATB. Germans have been calling this characterisation, FACH.

So don't contemplate singing at your worst by forcing yourself to move your larynx unnaturally upwards or downwards. If you do this you may be in for a great deal of trouble as you put stress on your vocal folds.

You may find that you need to have your voice characteristics analyzed so that you know which songs you should concentrate on singing. My advice would be to have a session or two with a singing teacher in a similar range (tessitura) and who can teach you to sing in a similar genre to your own , preferably someone who has some recent knowledge of vocal technique. Vocal technique is changing at the speed of light.

This will ensure that you sing at your best safely and that you continue to enjoy your singing.

Best of luck. Let me know how you get on.