Tenor or baritone...or somewhere in the middle?

[TheTecknician]

Male aged 53. I don't sing in public but I do at home quite a lot, singing along to popular records by well-known acts but obviously with the featured vocalist there too. I'm trying to decide what my vocal register is. I can comfortably hit the deeper notes associated with baritones such as Jim Morrison, Neil Diamond, Scott Walker and so on but I can also easily manage songs like Bright Eyes which I guess is in the tenor range - certainly as far as the Art Garfunkel version. Anyone care to 'diagnose', as it were? Thankyou.

I would suggest you engage a singing teacher who can listen to you and advise. That way someone gets paid for exercising their skills, rather than squandering them for free on the Internet.

It isn’t solely about the range. A baritone being able to hold a tenor note does not make them a baritone, or vice versa. What’s your vocal color? Your tessitura? The pitch range of your passagio?

No one can tell you without hearing you, or without the knowledge required to tell you.

Baritone is between tenor and bass, and from you description it sounds accurate. My dp is a tenor and can comfortably sing well into my range (soprano) to a c5

Dépends on the singing technique. My music teacher vibrated thé sound in his sinuses and coule hit 2 octaves above middle c. Our organist could get up to E flat. His choir were taught to sing liké that and so didn't have problèmes with losing trebles when their voices changed.
I sang treble but used to have a range of 4 octaves thanks to very strong abdominal muscles. Could actually sing thé bass part.

Try a music teacher.

Do you have a keyboard? You can easily work out your range on that and look it up on a range calculator. Off the top of my head, Jim Morrison can get down to E2-ish (lowest note on a standard tuned guitar) and Bright Eyes goes to A5. Which would make you a pop baritenor (like Freddie Mercury - although he could falsetto to F6).

The pop definitions of the vocal ranges are typically wider than those in classical singing, as we are allowed to belt and use mics.

Get singing lessons (to learn how to use a mic and how to belt safely) and join a band, you'll have a whale of a time.

Thankyou @SuzieNine. I have a piano and electronic keyboard, not that I'm much good at playing either. I've never heard of pop baritenor before.

I can also do reasonably well songs like How Long (Paul Carrack) and My Brother Jake (Paul Rodgers). It must be the Yorkshire in us all!

^ this!

Just realized how badly I ballsed that sentence up 🤦🏻‍♀️

meant to say a baritone being able to hold a tenor note does not make them a tenor!

Mischaracterizing vocal type is very common, especially in any untrained voice, and going solely by range is part of it (I’ve personally been classified as both a contralto and a mezzo - I’m a coloratura contralto). There’s huge overlap in ranges - mezzo may be able to hit soprano notes, but they’re never going to have the lightness to their voice that a soprano has, and it won’t sound ‘right’. Conversely, a soprano isn’t ever going to have the tessitura of a mezzo in a mezzo role because they lack that depth to their voice.

You also have the subcategories - a lyric tenor is distinct from a sprinto. A lyric mezzo distinct from a dramatic. A coloratura soprano distinct from a lyric.

@InterIgnis I'm never really sure whether it makes sense to apply concepts from classical singing to pop/rock music. It always strikes me as akin to trying to analyse a rock song using common practice as a reference point. Of course there are plenty of pop singers where you can listen to them and say "well, obviously Kate Bush is a lyric soprano". But there are many more who's use of belting, distortion and falsetto, often with little formal training, mean they don't really map onto any classical category. Also the use of amplification significantly increases range for a lot of singers who might have a weak head voice.

In the pop world baritone, tenor, alto etc are used much more as just a shorthand for range (e.g. when booking backing vocalists) rather than a particular voice type.

Thank-you both. I hadn't realised there were so many ranges and registers and other factors involved for what is seemingly a simple instrument.

Tony Bennett was something of a vocal projection expert and was known to demonstrate in concert by performing a song or two without a microphone .

Well, it does provide a useful standard system that puts voices in general categories (and a starting point from which people can dive in deeper if they wish to), no matter the style of vocal. It helps inform technique, and best practice for maintaining the voice. Besides, a soprano/mezzo/tenor/baritone that belts is still a soprano/mezzo/tenor/baritone.

Even if not an opera devotee, most people know what is meant when a singer is described as a soprano, or a tenor. That isn’t to say that as a concept it doesn’t have its limitations, but as a foundation it’s an excellent one.

If it’s something you’re interested in I really would recommend finding a vocal instructor, and specifically one that teaches bel canto.

On a related note, I believe Tony Barrett was a student of bel canto.

@TheTecknician have fun. Forgot to answer you about 'baritenor'. Basically a baritone that can sing well into the tenor range. Very common in musical theatre and pop/rock, where amplification permits singers to extend their range beyond what they could manage un-amplified.

What is 'belting' please?

Put simply, using the power of your chest voice (your lower range) in the head (high) voice range:

Very, very easy to damage your voice by doing it if done wrong.

What @InterIgnis said, complete with operatic/choral classifications giving some basis for deciding about individual voices, even if they're not entirely relevant.

Much obliged. I'll not be belting any time soon! I doubt the neighbours would approve.

Is this kind of instructional technique the work of a vocal coach or singing teacher..or both? My ex-piano teacher also did voice tuition but I'm not sure exactly what (apart from microphone technique).

Both. Some use ‘singing teacher’ and ‘vocal coach’ interchangeably.

It would be the work of a teacher, yes, one that specializes in contemporary and/or musical theatre. Belting isn’t used in opera, and a lot of classical teachers really, really dislike it.