A question we get asked quite often is,
“Am I a soprano, alto, tenor, mezzo, bass, or baritone?”
How do you go about determining your vocal type?
The truth is there are a lot of devious types of people in the music industry. They can make you feel like they know more than you know about your own voice. We are here to tell you that’s total crap!
The person who knows the most about your voice is you.
Those terms (alto, bass, etc.) are used to represent where you feel like you do best with your voice. They are not something that somebody else arbitrarily tells you about your voice. For instance, if you feel like you really like soulful, sultry songs, you probably will sing them a lot. This will then help your voice develop features of being an alto, because most jazz sultry singers are altos. If you are somebody that likes to sing ballads like Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, the more that you sing those types of ballads, the more your voice will move into that soprano tone. Most of those singers are sopranos, not all, but a lot of them are. If you like to sing songs like Adele, and you like for them to be really emotional, but not go crazy, crazy high, you might find yourself being more of mezzo.
Now this doesn’t mean that you’re not born with certain qualities of your voice. You definitely are. But the point is that you sing with muscles, and your muscles have to be worked in a specific way to create certain abilities. With this knowledge you can determine your own vocal range. No baby is born singing like Adele, Whitney Houston or Rihanna. So the reality is that over time, they have worked certain muscles to create certain abilities within their singing.
The key to determining your vocal type is actually by using what you already have and then molding your voice into the sound and vibe you are aiming for.
Looking at a piano and deciding what notes sound the best in your voice definitely will help you. However, please realize that if you’re doing that as an adult or a teenager, you’ve already kind of pushed yourself in certain directions based upon what you like to sing.
Our biggest advice to you, when it comes to determining your vocal type, is to decide what you like to sing and sing about then sing it often. The more that you sing it, the better your sound is.
Don’t allow somebody else to tell you what you sound best at singing, because then you’re going to need them for the rest of your life to know whether or not you sound good singing. And the thing about it is,Don’t allow somebody else to tell you what you sound best singing, because then you’re gonna need them for the rest of your life to know whether or not you sound good singing. And the thing about it is,
Your confidence comes from Within.
So if somebody is giving you advice, they better be telling you how to fix the thing they’re telling you is wrong with you. If you put yourself in a box, you will always remain in that box. So remain boundless in your creativity!
