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Old 02-14-2021, 09:41 AM
Cecil6243 Cecil6243 is offline
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Default Why do so many popular male singers

sing in a higher register? Sometimes it's frustrating when you want to do a song and can't reach those notes. Boston comes to mind and many others. I love the guitar with their songs but the vocals -- nope.

Is it just something someone started and and others followed or is a higher voice more interesting or something?
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Old 02-14-2021, 10:30 AM
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Sing it in a lower key if you want.
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Old 02-14-2021, 10:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil6243 View Post
sing in a higher register? Sometimes it's frustrating when you want to do a song and can't reach those notes. Boston comes to mind and many others. I love the guitar with their songs but the vocals -- nope.

Is it just something someone started and and others followed or is a higher voice more interesting or something?
Hi cecil

Male singers come in different ranges…tenor, baritone, and bass.

Guitars (and other accompaniment instruments) allow you to adapt keys. If you can't sing that high, adjust the key downward.




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Old 02-14-2021, 10:40 AM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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The male tenor voice and the female alto voice, both singing pretty much the same range of notes in their songs, have been found to be most appealing to listeners (and buyers) of modern pop music over the years. That's not true of folk songs or much of country music, however.

The reality is that the majority of male voices are baritones. James Taylor is a baritone, not a tenor. He tends to sing in a higher register because that's what most people want to hear. Frank Sinatra was a baritone, but he mostly sang in a lower register because that's what people wanted to hear in his day.

And yes, for most of us, songs need to be transposed down a little bit to make them singable for most of us, especially as we get older. The challenge is how to change the key of song and still make it sound reminiscent of the original recording.

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Old 02-14-2021, 10:40 AM
Nymuso Nymuso is offline
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There are exceptions. Jim Morrison and Eddie Vedder spring immediately to mind, but many others are out there. Besides, as previously stated you can put any song you want into any key that works for you.
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Old 02-14-2021, 10:42 AM
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IMO, it’s highly dependent on the generation and the genre. Contemporary and traditional country is full of bass voices. Music aimed at teens seems to have a higher register. And there are always exceptions.

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Old 02-14-2021, 10:47 AM
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In rock music, especially, a tenor male voice sits well in the overall band mix enabling an audience to hear the singer better and it also enables the singer to hear themselves better in the mix.
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Old 02-14-2021, 11:01 AM
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Great question!

IMO, it goes back to the influence of singers like Little Richard, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, who came from the gospel tradition.

As I understand it, African-American culture sets great store by high male voices, regarding falsetto as particularly sexy - whereas traditional white European culture regards it as effeminate. (Countertenor range was originally sung by castrati.)

But then it seems it works in white popular culture as well. Think about how much those girls screamed when Lennon and McCartney hit their falsetto "ooh"s. Pow, that hit the spot all right!

Then in the late 60s the heavy rock style was established by Robert Plant - another natural tenor, inspired by the black gospel singers - and his vocal style became the norm for rock music from then on (at least the heavy and metal genres).

The point is that male voices pushed to their upper limits connote passion, even a helpless abandonment to emotion. Rock music is all about passion - it has to sound overwhelming to listen to, an immersive experience. Thats the reason for the excessive volume (so you feel it physically in your body) as well as the high vocals. The guitars scream, and the voices do too. It all expresses the powerful confusions and frustrations of adolescence, especially male adolescence. It kicks out the jams!

The first piano player from Dexy's Midnight Runners once told me that their lead singer (Kevin Rowlands) used to deliberately pitch his songs at the top of his range - above his comfort zone - because he wanted that sense of strain that communicated maximum emotion.

There's still a place for bass and baritone, of course - especially in country music: the likes of Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Glenn Campbell, even Elvis. In pop there's Neil Diamond. And Leonard Cohen, with his fabulous "golden" bass voice.
In blues, you even had what's called a "false bass" tradition, from Charley Patton to Howlin' Wolf - achieved by adding a growl, without necessarily going very low. (And Wolf famously used falsetto too.)

In folk and acoustic music, there seems to be no special preference. "Natural" voices, in whatever register, are what matter.
Then again, bluegrass has a tradition of "high and lonesome", thanks to Bill Monroe - that keening, nasal sound. Obviously it was natural for him (another tenor), but it also cuts through on recordings, matching the pitches of fiddles and mandolins - that would have been useful in the older recording days, when bass frequencies were not so well reproduced.

BTW, I find as annoying as you do. I'm a natural bass (inasmuch as I can sing at all, which is not much). I can handle Leonard Cohen, in his register. If I sing a Neil Young song I might keep the same key, but I'll be the octave below!
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Old 02-14-2021, 03:22 PM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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Robert Plant comes to mind as does Bruce Dickinson. Both are fantastic in their genres and I can't sing their songs.
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Old 02-14-2021, 03:40 PM
Cecil6243 Cecil6243 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rllink View Post
Sing it in a lower key if you want.
Of course but doesn't sound the same. I want to sound like the artist if I do a song. Insecurity I guess.
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Old 02-14-2021, 03:44 PM
Cecil6243 Cecil6243 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi cecil

Male singers come in different ranges…tenor, baritone, and bass.

Guitars (and other accompaniment instruments) allow you to adapt keys. If you can't sing that high, adjust the key downward.




Like I said in the previous post it doesn't sound the same. Boston just doesn't sound the same with a vocal like Johnny Cash.

Actually just joking as I don't sing that low as I am a tenor but holy crap some of those singers!

BTW there is a recording of Johnny Cash out there singing Heart of Gold by Neil Young!

Last edited by Cecil6243; 02-14-2021 at 06:33 PM.
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Old 02-14-2021, 03:47 PM
Cecil6243 Cecil6243 is offline
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Robert Plant comes to mind as does Bruce Dickinson. Both are fantastic in their genres and I can't sing their songs.
Was told here by someone Robert Plant can't hit the higher vocal part of Stairway to Heaven anymore.
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Old 02-14-2021, 03:56 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Originally Posted by Cecil6243 View Post
Was told here by someone Robert Plant can't hit the higher vocal part of Stairway to Heaven anymore.
Yes, it happens with age.

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Old 02-14-2021, 04:06 PM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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Originally Posted by Cecil6243 View Post
Was told here by someone Robert Plant can't hit the higher vocal part of Stairway to Heaven anymore.
Wouldn't surprise me. Those high notes become more difficult for many singers as they age. Too bad we didn't see Led Zeppelin reunion tour a couple years back. That would have been a $1B tour.
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Old 02-14-2021, 04:08 PM
KarenB KarenB is offline
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Of course but doesn't sound the same. I want to sound like the artist if I do a song. Insecurity I guess.
Try sounding like yourself. There's only one you. Everybody else is taken. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy your own unique sound.
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