Find Your Vocal Range in 1 Minute (Or Less)!

Introduction 0:00
What is vocal range? 0:46
Why knowing your range is important 2:15
Know your low and high range 2:20
Know your weak spots 3:20
Measure your progress 4:10
Find your comfortable range (tessitura) 5:35
Finding your lower range 6:33
Finding your higher range 8:16

Vocal range is an incredibly important part of becoming a better singer.

But what is vocal range, how can you find yours and how do you use it to make better choices for yourself as an artist.

Today, I'll answer all these questions about vocal range and much more. Then, towards the end, we'll take a look at a simple scale you can use to find your range in less than a minute. The scale works for guys and girls, so it doesn't matter how you identify.

Let's get started.

Vocal range is known as the measurement from the lowest note you can sing to the highest note you can sing.

Now vocal range is always written as two letters followed by two numbers with a hyphen between them like this: Ex. C3-G5.

The first set of numbers and letters indicates the lowest note you can sing, in this case a C in the 3rd octave (below middle C).

The second set of numbers and letters is the highest note you can sing, in this case a G in the 5th octave.

Range is written this way as a very simple way to see the extremes of someone's voice. If I know I can sing from an E3 to an E5, I know that a lot of songs that are in that range will fit my voice.

But in addition to knowing how low or high you can sing, there are lots of good reasons to knowing your vocal range.

The first big reason is that knowing your vocal range will help you determine your voice type. Voice types such as Bass, Tenor, Alto and Soprano are determined by many factors. But vocal range is a big part of them.

So if you know your vocal range, you can make a pretty educated guess as to your voice type.

The second reason to know your vocal range is to know where your weak spots are. Many singers have an audible break or bridge point in their voice where they'll be tempted to pull up or disconnect into falsetto.

This may happen on a different note for everyone. But if you know your vocal range, it will be much easier to pinpoint where this trouble spot is so that you can work on it.

The third reason to find your vocal range is to measure your progress in vocal training. I've had many students who start taking lessons and are unaware of how much and quickly they develop.

While this is largely due to very effective singing techniques, it's always good for the student to know how and by how much they're progressing.

If you are just starting vocal training, it's good to test out your range so you can get a before and after snapshot of your range. Then once you've been training for a while, you can test it again to see how much you've improved.

The final reason to find your vocal range is to pick songs that fit your voice. Like I mentioned earlier, if you know that your vocal range goes up to an E5, then you can probably choose songs that go up to that note.

Alternatively, if you're having challenges singing above an E4, you might want to choose songs that stay below that note until your vocal training helps you hit the notes better.

Now that you understand the reasons to find your vocal range, here's a very simple exercise to help you find vocal range immediately.

The exercise is simple:
1. Sing an "Ah" vowel (as in "Awesome") and find the note C4 (middle C) in your voice.
2. Now, sing a descending C major scale going down to the lowest note in your voice.
3. Mark the lowest note you can sing.
4. Next, sing the C4 again but this time sing an ascending C major scale going up to the highest note in your voice.
5. Mark the highest note you can sing.

Now, write both of those notes next to each other with a hyphen between them.

It may look something like this:
Ex. C3-G5.

And that's how you find your vocal range.

Remember you can use this to know how low and high you can sing, determine voice type, find your weak spots, measure your progress and pick songs to fit your voice.

[TheAllthegoodstuff]

When I saw "find your focal range in 1 minute" on a 10.23 duration video I wasn't overly optimistic. This was very fluid and helpful. Fanks. 😃

[somethingsomethingsomethin]

Thia would have been perfect if i were living alone

[ericamedina]

“Just because you can sing the note doesn’t mean it’s going to sound good” Haha! That’s great advice for a beginner like me. Awesome video. You have a fantastic presence and personality on camera! Thanks!

[meredithanimates]

Title: “Vocal range: Find yours in less than a minute!”
Video: *ten minutes long*

[VIDEOHEREBOB]

So true. So many singers overstate their true, "usable" range. Some of the most challenging notes are not always the super highs.

[Ardures]

Finally someone who first sings and is giving exmaple for people to follow, thank you :)

[anonymous]

Timestamp for you guys!

0:46 - What is vocal range
2:15 - Why knowing your range is important

6:33 - Finding your lower range
8:16 - Finding your higher range

[ramseyvoicestudio]

Exercise to find range starts at 7:30. What's your range?
Leave a comment with your range below.

[personxii]

This was pretty helpful!
My entire range is E2-G5 with E3-B4 being the most comfortable, C5 aswell as C3 are both fairly comfortable and I can make both notes sound decent so I think I'm a tenor!

[Frank-in-NY]

Excellent! This was very helpful, you explained this thoroughly, I learned a lot, so thank you!

[cubicinfinity]

This is a very helpful clarification. Our potential vocal ranges are a lot wider than we realize.

[abhisheklama]

When God created me, he was like :

Looks : nope
Good skin : nope
Good hair : nope
Voice : okay
Vocal range : NOPE
Intelligence : nope

Have a great life kiddo!

[omparve]

This was So far the most detailed video I could ever get on YT.

[Wolfythereviewer]

Found out I'm a tenor! C3 to C5 was comfortable. Anything lower felt really weird, anything higher was easier but I could tell I was straining my voice a bit.

[alexandraasbury]

Thank you. This looks like a good place to go to get help!! You seem kind, patient, thorough, and caring.

[loreleie]

Wow, thanks for the useful tips in this video! I tried to record a song today, one that I also produced and it is not in my key range at all. There were areas that were too low for my comfort zone and I was getting very frustrated, having to keep re-recording until I hit the note.

I think im just going to have to bring up the keys a couple of notes higher, but will do that once I learn what low note I can hit comfortably!!! Will be doing this exercise tomorrow when I can turn on my keyboard, thank u!

[DenisMorissetteJFK]

I am a male. C2 to G5. Most comfortable songs for me are those using mostly the combination of G, D and C chords. Examples: Father and Son, Mother, I Started a Joke.

[Booseoksoon.Is.Better]

im so glad I found this bc I was a big choir kid in elementary and mostly through middle before they stopped the program. they are bringing it back so I gotta get myself back to where I was!

[patrik]

F2-F4 (sometimes F#4) in chest voice. D3-A5 in Falsetto. Sometimes my voice jumps to C6. I'm a male btw.

[ST]

My vocal range is from C3 to G5, but I was actually wondering if I’m a contralto or an alto, so I sent a voice recording (of me singing a song) to my niece who is a voice teacher. This was the feedback I received:

I finally got a moment to really listen to your recording— you sound lovely!! My vote would be alto because of how clear and ringy your middle and upper notes were sounding. Contraltos tend to be really rare (at least in the classical/operatic world), but I think the main takeaways from voice parts are that it’s not really about what notes you can and can’t reach, but what sounds and most importantly feels the best!! (Especially with our grad students you can hear altos with very high notes that sing alto because it’s where they feel best and sound best in most music. :)) 3:14