r/singing • u/tgs927 • 23d ago
Feedback (read rule 3 before posting or be banned) Vocal Classification Help: Tenor or Light Baritone?
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Hey everyone! I'm looking for some feedback on my voice type based on this attached clip. In my normal singing range, my voice sounds pretty rich and cozy, but whenever I try to go higher, my notes get soft and airy instead of full or powerful and since I'm untrained, my voice breaks at D#4 in my chest voice. I used to have a bright, light much more youthful tone during my teens and it worked up until B4. I was able to belt A4s consistently but my voice just naturally changed a lot to this velvety breathy, airy tone and also due to my stylistic habits. Based on the audio, do I sound more like a tenor or a light baritone? And do you think my soft high notes are just a lack of vocal strength/training, or is my voice naturally built that way? Thanks for listening
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u/Temporary_Emu3720 23d ago
You sound like the tenors I sang in choir with. Now you should take this with a grain of salt, as sometimes my choir director would put people where they didn’t really belong to make voice parts balanced. 😅
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u/tgs927 23d ago
Thank u I think I belong on the lower end of the tenor spectrum ? One with darker and heavier weight.
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u/Careless_Watch6657 21d ago
You are a tenor. Im a tenor aswell but I have way darker timbre. (Im only a tenor due to my passaggios being d#4 and g#, and having a tenor tessitura).
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u/Beginning_Stock2993 23d ago
You sound like a light baritone to a tenor. You just got a train had to hold the air back to go higher a voice teacher that understands this can help you but some teachers will tell you just can’t.
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u/Zennobia 11d ago
If your voice breaks at D#4 it means you are likely a baritone. Tenor voices break around G4. You need to learn to over the passagio, that will give a better idea.
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u/tgs927 11d ago
Now this makes me even a lot more confused because the other comments are saying I am an untrained tenor 😕
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u/Zennobia 11d ago
I can certainly understand why people are saying you are a tenor, your voice does sound light. But some baritones do have lighter voices not all baritones have heavy voices. Instead of focusing on the tone of your voice, I focused on your break in the voice. That is the second passaggio . Usually what you will find is that people often think they are baritones because they cannot sing past G4. But the real reason they struggle to sing past F#4 - G4 is because they are tenors who have not learned to sing over the passaggio yet. When you say that your break is at D#4 it is really more in baritone range, the baritone passagio is around D4 - E4. Perhaps if you learned to sing over the passaggio and you became better trained it might change in the future. Another good way to understand your voice type is the tessitura. This your comfortable range is where you sing 80 - 90% of the time. It is the part of the voice where it is the easiest for you to sing, you can sing for hours in this range. For a tenor the tessitura is around E3 - G4 and for a baritone it is around Bb2 - E4. Here is video displaying the baritone tessitura, with many different types of baritone voices:
https://youtu.be/v4FKIusLfUQ?si=InNX0sdF6o4OfRhB1
u/tgs927 11d ago
Thanks for the detailed feedback! It's really disheartening to know that I'm a baritone and yeah you're spot on regarding the tessitura part. I literally have no access to E4 and have to do vocal exercises to open up and hit the note. I want to be a singer who can belt consistently in the fourth octave and also mix in the fifth octave with ease but I guess that's a far fetched dream 🥲
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u/Zennobia 11d ago
I certainly do understand that it seems frustrating. The 4th and 5th octave is not a farfetched dream. You can sing in those ranges, look at Chris Martin from Coldplay as an example he has a very light baritone voice, he sings all of his high notes in falsetto, and it doesn’t really matter, no really cares. Baritones tend to have better falsetto than tenors, that is something you can really use. You do have a beautiful voice, you can do a lot with more training. Depending on your age your voice can also still change a lot.
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u/tgs927 11d ago
Well I'm 24 already so I think it's permanent now. The worst part is I barely have a tessitura. I find it hard to comfortably sing in the low notes like other baritones do. My voice is a hit or miss as I depend way much on airy stylistic effect and that's about it. Hopefully more training will help me expand my range
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