Figuring out your voice type

[Elysia Windbourne]

Seeking tank invites with a full monster tank...

I found this topic very informative.
A few weeks ago I started singing with a local choir. I'm with the altos (they're such a lovely group of ladies).
Now the conductor says that I'm more of a mezzo soprano. I don't really know much about this - maybe one of you could help & explain it for me? - but she says she thinks I can sing higher than what I do.
I really enjoy singing & I'd love to be confident enough to be a soloist!

...All high trigger with green gold! Please PM me.

 

[SomethingOfAHeart]

I'm almost definitely a mezzo-soprano, probably either lyric or coloratura. I usually get placed as a soprano because I have a good upper register (the highest note I can comfortably hit is the Bflat below High C.)  

[JCVFangirl]

I'm an alto. We haven't quite gotten into separate Alto parts yet, but we have soprano 1 and 2.
I will probably be an Alto 2, though, because I get made fun of for my "man-voice" sometimes -_-
At least I sing pretty XD  

[Mizz Frappuccino]

In my church choir, I am soprano.  

[musiknerd]

Sionja

I really believe that getting hung up on voice classification is a hindrance sometimes - I mean, it's good to know what range you're most comfortable in, but until your voice evens out, you shouldn't make a decision one way or the other. I know I spent way too much time learning about Faecher when I was first starting out; I got it in my head that I absolutely had to be a dramatic coloratura, but haha, that doesn't look like it's going to happen, and I had to learn to be okay with that. (All last school year, we thought I might be a mezzo but then we decided that I wasn't, I guess. I don't even know, haha.)

/tl;dr

I agree with what she says here. I do not know as much about male voices, but in my class (my college is made up nearly entirely of singers), there may be 5 real mezzo-sopranos and the rest are sopranos of some type. Also, just because you sing a particular voice part in choir does not mean you "belong" there. If our choirs placed everyone in their proper voice part, our alto sections would disappear!

I don't think you can try to classify your voice until you're at least 19/20. In high school, my voice teacher (who was excellent) trained me as a soprano... it was an interesting adventure. Real contraltos don't exist until much later- before that you're probably a mezzo. Personally, I'm afraid that I might turn out to be a contralto later in life. Finally, although range can be an indicator, it does not determine your voice type. Your voice type is classified by color (mezzos are darker than sopranos, bass/baritones are darker than tenors) and where your voice sounds best/the most free (for example sopranos high range sounds best; mezzos mid and sometimes low range sounds best).

So... don't get caught up in voice typing! Sing in all of the sections you can (without straining), and work to expand your range and develop your tone/voice quality. But whatever you do, if you're a soprano, don't be stupid...jk biggrin  

[Sionja]

musiknerd

Your voice type is classified by color (mezzos are darker than sopranos, bass/baritones are darker than tenors) and where your voice sounds best/the most free (for example sopranos high range sounds best; mezzos mid and sometimes low range sounds best).

I don't agree with this. Timbre has to do with placement, like if you're a light lyric or a full lyric, but NOT with voice type. I know a couple true mezzos with lighter voices than me, and I am a soprano, albeit a very dark one. At my age (22), I'm very solidly a full lyric soprano; by the time I hit 30 or 35, I'll probably straddle being a dramatic and a dramatic coloratura (because of my speed and agility).

Tessitura is the real deciding factor for voice type. Timbre's just the flavoring.  

[musiknerd]

Sionja

musiknerd

Your voice type is classified by color (mezzos are darker than sopranos, bass/baritones are darker than tenors) and where your voice sounds best/the most free (for example sopranos high range sounds best; mezzos mid and sometimes low range sounds best).

I don't agree with this. Timbre has to do with placement, like if you're a light lyric or a full lyric, but NOT with voice type. I know a couple true mezzos with lighter voices than me, and I am a soprano, albeit a very dark one. At my age (22), I'm very solidly a full lyric soprano; by the time I hit 30 or 35, I'll probably straddle being a dramatic and a dramatic coloratura (because of my speed and agility).

Tessitura is the real deciding factor for voice type. Timbre's just the flavoring.

Yes technically you are right. I was over-simplifying and generalizing in my post. I should have fully explained what I was saying... I'm actually kinda embarrassed that I said it like that. I also assumed that most people reading this would be talking about a choir setting. If you are in a choir, I assume that you are in the alto section? That's how it works in my school anyway with potential dramatic sopranos. But then I turned around and used the term mezzo instead of alto... sorry about that.

But I did touch on tessitura by saying that the sopranos high range sounds best/the most free and the mezzos mid-low range sounds best when comparing the two types of singers. I thought this was a simple, watered down way to explain tessitura, but I should have directly mentioned "in a choir..." in my first sentence. In the future, I will avoid posting information in the forums when I have died at the end of the semester.  

[Cellestia]

It took me a while to figure out my own voice type.....at first I put myself as a soprano, but then when I got into high school my choir teacher told me I was an alto.

.............she was wrong. .__. I'd spent four years in high school (occasionally also singing 2nd soprano) making my range lower when my natural range was actually higher. So when I was finally told by two different voice teachers of mine that I was a soprano, you can imagine I was a little angry at my choir teacher. xD And then a little less than a year ago, me being 21 now, my current vocal teacher led me to discover that I'm actually a lyric coloratura soprano.

.......whew. About time I settled down and didn't leave my voice type as "undecided". lolol Especially since vocals is my major! >.<  

[Calamity Rose]

I've been singing mezzo and alto literature for three years now, only to realize that I have up to an F6! I have to retrain a bit now, focus on singing with less weight. Last I checked, I have from C/D3 (depending on the day) to F6. I'm pretty excited to see where my voice ends up.  

[Philharmonic Helix]

My voice ranges from Alto to Soprano. I'm very good at singing other languages, opera, classical, and blues.

My only problem is that I can't find...well what I would like to call my pop star voice, lol. I would like to be able to sing like Katy Perry would or Demi Lavato, you know like a pop singer would. I feel like my vibrato gets in the way too much.

Any suggestions?  

[AyumiGosu17]

I don't believe in methods to discover voice types. Regardless of what instructors think or say, no one has been able to judge me with these "methods" and get it right. I have been called an alto, a mezzo, a contralto, even a second soprano, because I speak on a very low level, almost like a man I'm so deep - when I was seventeen and auditioning for a vocal scholarship, my future voice teacher exclaimed in surprise and told me that I'm a coloratura soprano. My fiance also speaks on a low, dark, almost growling voice level - he's almost a counter tenor; he's up there with Pavarotti, and they're trying to call him a bass!

My personal opinion is that only you, the actual owner of your voice, can tell exactly what you are. Others can offer their opinions and suggestions, but only you can be right about it.  

[AyumiGosu17]

ShowerCat_Natsuki

My voice ranges from Alto to Soprano. I'm very good at singing other languages, opera, classical, and blues.

My only problem is that I can't find...well what I would like to call my pop star voice, lol. I would like to be able to sing like Katy Perry would or Demi Lavato, you know like a pop singer would. I feel like my vibrato gets in the way too much.

Any suggestions?

My best friend is the same way. It's very possible that you won't have a "Katy Perry" voice. If your voice ranges through the woman's spectrum and you have a constant vobratto, it's more than likely that you are a mezzo soprano. You may never have a "Katy Perry" voice, just based on that. It doesn't mean you can't do other forms of pop music - you could probably pull off the larger, fuller voices of Cher and Christina Aguilera and the like, but not the flute-like, bell tones of a smaller voice.  

[AyumiGosu17]

Calamity Rose

I've been singing mezzo and alto literature for three years now, only to realize that I have up to an F6! I have to retrain a bit now, focus on singing with less weight. Last I checked, I have from C/D3 (depending on the day) to F6. I'm pretty excited to see where my voice ends up.

Well, how old are you? A woman's voice will change all the way up until you're 30+.  

[Philharmonic Helix]

AyumiGosu17

ShowerCat_Natsuki

My voice ranges from Alto to Soprano. I'm very good at singing other languages, opera, classical, and blues.

My only problem is that I can't find...well what I would like to call my pop star voice, lol. I would like to be able to sing like Katy Perry would or Demi Lavato, you know like a pop singer would. I feel like my vibrato gets in the way too much.

Any suggestions?

My best friend is the same way. It's very possible that you won't have a "Katy Perry" voice. If your voice ranges through the woman's spectrum and you have a constant vobratto, it's more than likely that you are a mezzo soprano. You may never have a "Katy Perry" voice, just based on that. It doesn't mean you can't do other forms of pop music - you could probably pull off the larger, fuller voices of Cher and Christina Aguilera and the like, but not the flute-like, bell tones of a smaller voice.

Yes it is hard because that is how my voice was trained by my teacher and once you get vobratto going it's really hard to stop it some times. I guess I just need to try and work on it more and break my voice in so to speak.
Thanks for your help.  

[AyolLovesYou]

Hi I'm Jessica, and I've been singing for like a long time and I'm a very high soprano and alto but not so good at alto so yeah...