The vocal ranges of the greatest artists of all time(concerthotels.com)

115 pointsby seesawtron6 tahun yang lalu109 comments

The vocal ranges of the greatest artists of all time

https://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

113 comments

piaste6 tahun yang lalu

If you're interested in this sort of thing, there's actually an internet forum of geeks who are quite dedicated to collecting and reviewing the ranges of many, many singers:

https://therangeplanet.proboards.com

Here's the Dimash Kudaibergen page, for example:

https://therangeplanet.proboards.com/thread/30/dimash-kudaib...

watersb6 tahun yang lalu

https://youtu.be/JEz1qGS0T1Q

Dimash Kudaibergen is a rare combination of uncanny natural ability and a hell of a lot of training.

If you are interested in vocal range, I don't know anyone with a greater set of vocal texture.

Opera musicians aren't on this list, but wide vocal range is table stakes for that genre.

BjoernKW6 tahun yang lalu

A range of 6 octaves is positively superhuman.

Even Yma Sumac, who is often cited when it comes to the widest vocal range, was just barely short of 6 octaves.

Since I've just looked this up: Tim Storms ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Storms), the current world record holder when it comes to vocal range, has one of 10 octaves (with the lower end extending into infrasound, i.e. being inaudible to the human ear)!

phaus6 tahun yang lalu

Mike Patton from Faith No More/Mr. Bungle/Tomahawk supposedly has a range of 6.5 octaves, but some people say it doesn't count because it includes screaming. He does a lot of weird stuff but he's one of my favorite vocalists. Regardless of whether or not his range is 6.5 octaves it is definitely extraordinarily wide.

Tim Storms is an interesting case, I've heard of him before but honestly before I heard his music I would have thought it would be impossible to have the widest vocal range in human history and at the same time make music sound so boring and lifeless.

I'm not into Christian music at all but even still Amazing Grace is a legendary song. However, Tim's rendition of it makes me want to fall asleep.

The deepness of his voice is interesting, but out of all the clips of him singing I haven't heard anything that made me feel like he was a world class talent.

Which is quite different from everyone else mentioned in this thread. I don't particularly like the work of many of the musicians mentioned here but their performances are often astonishingly good.

NikolaeVarius6 tahun yang lalu

Whats wrong with screaming? Screaming and growling require very measured technique

phaus6 tahun yang lalu

Nothing IMO, just mentioned that some people have challenged the idea that his vocal range is 6.5 octaves because of it. I didn't say I agree with them.

kasperni6 tahun yang lalu

I get more goosebumps from listening to that song than running around naked in the snow.

lysp6 tahun yang lalu

Exactly who I was going to suggest - Dimash.

F2 - D8 ( clips of his range: https://youtu.be/-ra6JS-qSRY )

emmelaich6 tahun yang lalu

Ian Gillan? David Byron?

globular-toast6 tahun yang lalu

No Kate Bush? I suppose everyone will have their own favourite omission, though.

I'm surprised that Karen Carpenter is not much different to Taylor Swift. The former sounds a lot deeper, but I guess the difference is in timbre rather than pitch.

I had no idea about the range of Axl Rose. But male singers always have an advantage in that they can hit very low notes and also have access to falsetto. Mariah Carey is also exceptional due to access to the whistle register. Christina Aguilera is one of the more impressive singers on the list for me.

Does "vocal range" necessarily mean the singers can hit every note (or every possible pitch) between those notes? I know from singing myself that the notes in the "overlap" portion between different vocal registers can be difficult. Also some vowels are harder to hit at certain notes than others. This can make some songs problematic even if they are technically within your range.

16bytes6 tahun yang lalu

I'm highly skeptical of the lower ranges. Typically, a professional bass has a range down to around C2, and can hit a loud E2. There are some exceptionally low voices, especially in Russian choirs[1] that routinely hit B1s, maybe even a little lower.

To say that Axl Rose can hit an F1, is simply a mis-characterization of what vocal range is. "There was a time" simply doesn't contain any vocals in that range. Barry White did have an exceptionally low voice, but F#1 is similarly unbelievable.

David Bowie growls out an atonal "Well..." in "I took a trip on a Gemini spacecraft". How anybody assigned that a note value is beyond me.

The women have similar problems. Nine Simone hits an E2? That's an octave below where contra-altos normally operate.

It seems "range" in this article means that the singer once produced a noise that had a vague resemblance to a sung note that was interpreted by some article writer. As opposed to say, something that could actually be written down on sheet music and sung. Which is a shame because this list does include some with exceptional ranges.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWihxRM9bU

rabidrat6 tahun yang lalu

That's really cool that they got the information for even some obscure talents like BjÃ¶rk and BeyoncÃ©.

VMG6 tahun yang lalu

is it the http header?

    content-type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1

I suspect the developer used utf8 on his system but has no control over the response headers

allendoerfer6 tahun yang lalu

In this case he could use http-equiv meta-tags.

VMG6 tahun yang lalu

there actually is a meta-tag with utf8 so my explanation doesn't seem to hold

vayeate6 tahun yang lalu

When I saw this I actually googled Beyonce to see if she changed her name like artists do sometimes

kikokikokiko6 tahun yang lalu

As an amateur singer, I feel deeply disappointed by the fact that Chris Cornell isn't on this list. The range this guy had was unbelievable, even in his later years. I personally find it easier to sing Guns and Roses songs than to sing Audioslave or Cornell's solo songs. Such a beast of a singer and composer.

amelius6 tahun yang lalu

It would be nice if the register(s) used by the artist for different parts of the range were shown in the diagram.

For example it is much easier to sing in head register in the higher ranges than in chest register. And as another example, Mariah Carey's famous high notes are sung in flute register.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_register

cambalache6 tahun yang lalu

"Greatest artists of all time"

Mostly American pop singers.

88840-88556 tahun yang lalu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM

jbarberu6 tahun yang lalu

Interestingly I was actually looking to see if they had Till in the list :)

goda906 tahun yang lalu

I guess we could ask, what is the metric of greatness for art? Quality of work? Popularity? Is the artist who does something perfectly exquisite that profoundly impacts anyone who sees it, but ends up only being seen by a small handful of people more or less great than the artist who's work is ok quality, and a bit inspiring, but is known to billions?

ksm17176 tahun yang lalu

Log-scaled popularity (number of listeners) multiplied by the average inspiration felt by each person who hears it

riztaak6 tahun yang lalu

Searched Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, couldn't find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusrat_Fateh_Ali_Khan

seesawtron6 tahun yang lalu

Correct title "greatest artists in the West"?

seanhunter6 tahun yang lalu

More accurate would be "A selection of well-known Western pop musicians". Kind of strange that hn is giving airtime to something like this.

clumsysmurf6 tahun yang lalu

Not a complete list without Bruce Dickinson !

manaskarekar6 tahun yang lalu

Here’s a longer list with some of the best vocalists, headed by none other than Mike Patton.

https://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2014/05/digging-deeper-axl-...

dwd6 tahun yang lalu

Interesting list, surprised to see Doug Pinnick on there. I'm mainly familiar with his bluesy style with Kings-X in the early 90s and would not have suspected he had that kind of range.

piaste6 tahun yang lalu

Or Geoff Tate.

pfarrell6 tahun yang lalu

Or Captain Beefheart

dirkf6 tahun yang lalu

Devin Townsend? Floor Jansen?

NSMyself6 tahun yang lalu

It says a lot about the value of this list that Katy Perry is there but Devin Townsend isn't.... /shrug

bpizzi6 tahun yang lalu

Greetings, fellow prog-metal buddy.

toolslive6 tahun yang lalu

or King Diamond

sloshnmosh6 tahun yang lalu

I named my dog Abigail

(from the album with the same name)

deadman_jack6 tahun yang lalu

Honestly, you could make an entire list of greatest singers just by looking at whoever worked with Ayreon. That project introduced me to SO many great singers and bands.

NikolaeVarius6 tahun yang lalu

Jorn Lande!

soheilpro6 tahun yang lalu

Eric Adams?

ggm6 tahun yang lalu

Low yo-yo

dwd6 tahun yang lalu

David Lee Roth?

Michael Kiske (Halloween) and Rob Halford (Judas Priest) also had decent ranges.

sloshnmosh6 tahun yang lalu

DLR was more of a showman than he was a singer but Halford... now THERE is a singer with range!

aerique6 tahun yang lalu

Chris Cornell

ChrisMarshallNY6 tahun yang lalu

Does "The Singing Vacuum Cleaner" from The Fifth Element count?

Despite the rather ludicrous costume given the actress, the singer behind that piece is actually quite good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inva_Mula

dijit6 tahun yang lalu

For whatever it's worth, that song was considered to be impossible for humans to actually perform..

Humans always being ready to destroy expectations, someone of course did it, Jane Zhang the opera singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJFNYOw4wk

mercer6 tahun yang lalu

Dimash does an amazing version too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zMupUOgQo

ggambetta6 tahun yang lalu

Wow, that's impressive for a human!

ChrisMarshallNY6 tahun yang lalu

Cool!

ggambetta6 tahun yang lalu

"The Singing Vacuum Cleaner"? That's Diva Plavalaguna for you. Show some respect! Green?

ChrisMarshallNY6 tahun yang lalu

That's one of my fave movies, ever, but I always fast-forward through that scene.

ggambetta6 tahun yang lalu

It's one of my favorite movies ever, that scene included - love the song! Why do you skip it?

ChrisMarshallNY6 tahun yang lalu

It's the visuals. I really have a difficult time with that costume. You can actually see the rubber in the inflated "tentacles."

ggambetta6 tahun yang lalu

I'm generally OK with the scene, but I know what you mean. For me it's the scene after, when Korben takes the stones out of the Diva, and the illusion breaks down: https://i.gifer.com/1ObZ.gif I consider that one the very rare imperfect shots in an otherwise perfectly crafted movie (I don't even remember off the top of my head which are the others).

tandr6 tahun yang lalu

Super green

ggambetta6 tahun yang lalu

THANK YOU! At last :)

pivic6 tahun yang lalu

I wish they'd have incorporated Diamanda Galás: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wau9-J1vPDM

dddw6 tahun yang lalu

I guess Mike Patton would have the whole range.

bravura6 tahun yang lalu

Yes, Mike Patton has even a larger range than Axl Rose. He is also much more innovative and experimental, trying a variety of vocal techniques and song styles, which is quite exciting.

dharmach6 tahun yang lalu

>>The World’s Greatest Singers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kupamanduka

sleepydog6 tahun yang lalu

I was expecting Whitney Houston to be higher in the list, there's really no one like her.

nmpennypacker6 tahun yang lalu

Bingo. I'm not sure that her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was taken into consideration by this site.

Freeboots6 tahun yang lalu

This would be super cool if you could play audio of the artist, or just some representation to give an idea of what this means in real life.

I've got no idea what keys play what sound, and even less idea what a "range" is. It would be cool to hear something that would help me understand this.

mkl6 tahun yang lalu

I was hoping the piano keys at the bottom would play notes, but they don't.

karmakaze6 tahun yang lalu

Yes, seeing the keys at the bottom make me want so badly for them to be clickable and play notes. Maybe even bind them to

  1..0-= (black keys)
  QW..OP[]\

  AS..I;' (black keys)
  ZX.../

ReptileMan6 tahun yang lalu

#define GREATNESS MOST_ALBUMS_SOLD

While there are some amazing voices on the list, it is mostly commercially successful.

the_kLeZ6 tahun yang lalu

It's sad that they don't even thought about when in the timeline the vocal note was sang and recorded. The majority of singers shift their vocal range as they age. This is especially true for male singers that usually tend to shift down their pitch.

gdubs6 tahun yang lalu

Paul McCartney is pretty competitive about this and likes to point out that his contemporaries have lowered there pitch, and he has stayed the same.

Impressed at the Axl Rose numbers — I came looking for Robert Plant, who I’ve always thought had a pretty insane range.

zabil6 tahun yang lalu

I am glad with just one album (in his lifetime) Jeff Buckley is on the list.

smitty1e6 tahun yang lalu

WTF Pat Benatar?

This list is just so many promises in the dark without her.

labster6 tahun yang lalu

Damn, now I have to listen to that again. You're a real tough cookie.

Now, I'm missing Ann Wilson here. I've had friends decide they want to try singing Heart songs at karaoke, and I have to warn them: danger! You do not have that much range.

And honestly, Luciano Pavarotti? Frank Sinatra? Frank wasn't known for his range, but kinda strange to leave him of a list of "greatest singers".

BjoernKW6 tahun yang lalu

I think you could say they just tried to hit you with their best shot.

redis_mlc6 tahun yang lalu

Dahoon6 tahun yang lalu

"greatest USAnian pop-singers of all time"

codeulike6 tahun yang lalu

There's a song by the french artist Camille called Money Note which is a sortof satire on the competition to achieve vocal range. The lyrics are pretty funny. At the end she hits a C8, although its kindof as a shriek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3iix0CMJU

mrep86 tahun yang lalu

I think this is only US pop&rock industry, I'm sure there's singers out there better than this. They are awesome, but I don't buy "World gratests...blah". They forgot Ynwie Malmsteem singers, the guy from "Leonardo" song. Sebastian Bach from Skid Row is there? Well...

FlyingSnake6 tahun yang lalu

It’sa sad day when shallow content like this reaches the HN front-page. Calling a narrow subset of U.S.American/UK artists as “greatest artists of all time” is a big joke on the art of singing.

Others are complaining about missing Nusrat Khan, or Dimash but heck, they didn’t even include Western greats like Pavarotti!

Dumblydorr6 tahun yang lalu

Not to mention there is little accuracy in these ranges. They don't tell you the tonal quality of these high and low notes, which may occur properly in only a single song which the singer can't even replicate live. The idea that Axl Rose can legitimately hit that full range with good technique is laughable.

kerkeslager6 tahun yang lalu

Agreed. There's also the issue of falsetto versus natural range. It's funny to see Thom Yorke right next to Freddie Mercury with similar ranges, because Thom Yorke uses falsetto all the time, whereas Freddie Mercury typically didn't. It would not surprise me if Mercury's range was far larger on the high end than Yorke's.

To be clear, that's not a criticism of Yorke--there's a lot more to vocal talent than range, and I'm actually a huge Radiohead fan.

matsemann6 tahun yang lalu

Ooor instead of being angry about the page and calling it a sad day, you could be happy about the interesting discussion it generated? Lots of new stuff here I've never heard about that was cool to check out.

kerkeslager6 tahun yang lalu

Ooor instead of responding only to people's emotions and trying to control them, you could respond to the content of their post and admit they have a point. We all have choices.

Saccharine positivity is ruining HN. In the past few days I've seen HN posts that:

1. Said a company's behavior only looks immoral, but it's actually not their fault, because they're just following incentives.

2. Said volunteerism isn't needed right now because lots of people are out of work.

3. Complained about a long-form article not containing science, because they only read the first few paragraphs of the article.

The first is a reprehensible position, the second is harmfully ignorant, and the third is willfully ignorant. But all they had to do to get upvotes is say these horrible things in a nice tone. Responses which called a spade a spade got downvoted and/or deleted entirely.

This isn't even "being kind". It's not kind to screw people over because you're following incentives. It's not kind to encourage people not to volunteer during a time when the need for volunteerism is at a high. HN is optimizing for a shallow veneer of being kind over actual kindness.

I've considered just leaving HN in the past few weeks, but decided to stick around and try to change things. But at this point, getting downvoted or even banned doesn't feel like much of a loss to me. That's not to say you should care if I leave--you should care that your forum is becoming a place where people pat each other on the back for innovating, whether or not they actually innovate or their "innovations" are uninformed or harmful.

And sure, this did generate some interesting conversation, but the most interesting thing to me is The Range Planet[1] link, which could have been the original submission.

[1] https://therangeplanet.proboards.com

yesenadam6 tahun yang lalu

> Saccharine positivity is ruining HN.

Hehe that made me laugh out loud. I've not heard that before. Has that claim been made before on HN? (Links to comments welcome, thanks.)

kerkeslager6 tahun yang lalu

I've made the claim before, in different words, but to be honest I think the post you're responding to is the clearest summary I've personally written. My thoughts on the subject are a work in progress, and I'm not aware of anyone else saying this. I'd be happy to hear if others think the same thing.

matsemann6 tahun yang lalu

> you could respond to the content of their post

Not so sure what your rant has to do about my post, really.

kerkeslager6 tahun yang lalu

The target audience for my post seems pretty sure what it has to do with your post. I'll be happy to clarify if you're actually asking for clarification, but it seems like you're making a statement rather than asking a question.

FlyingSnake6 tahun yang lalu

I’m not angry, I’m just sad at the lack of depth here. A list that calls it self “greatest of all time”, and excludes most of the musical art from the world is not front page worthy. Also it’s pretty callous to assume that everyone in the world listens to US American pop music. I wonder if you would “check out” the cool stuff with a list containing Nusrat, Bhimsen Joshi, Miriam Makeba, Camané etc.

glaberficken6 tahun yang lalu

HN is US centric

US is "self-centric", "insular"

As in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series

This is a generalization, of course...

wink6 tahun yang lalu

Maybe they tried to include some but their names were even more horribly mangled than BJÃ¶RK and simply fell off the table.

jjulius6 tahun yang lalu

Beyond that, my issue is with the use of the phrase "all time". It really should be, "the last 50 years" or so.

louwrentius6 tahun yang lalu

Interesting that Somebody like Minnie Riperton is missing. She could even articulate in the whistle register.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Riperton

HumblyTossed6 tahun yang lalu

I don't know much about the subject, but take Mariah Carey (not trying to pick on the girls, honest), but she can make a really high pitch sound, so does that count? Or does she have to be able to actually _sing_ at that note for it to count?

jiofih6 tahun yang lalu

It’s called a whistle note, and yes it counts. It’s a lot harder than singing in the standard range.

[deleted]6 tahun yang lalu

johnlbevan26 tahun yang lalu

It would be good to see where Camille comes on there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3iix0CMJU

jerzyt6 tahun yang lalu

As interesting as it is, I'm really curious how this list was compiled. Was it just a manual process, or was it done with some FFT?

As a side note, I'm glad Madonna didn't make the list.

layoric6 tahun yang lalu

Not on the list but a good addition.

Chester Bennington: G#2 - F5

https://youtu.be/ZT9y0GkHtW4

akerr6 tahun yang lalu

Chris Cornell. Maybe C#2-G6? but with power.

https://youtu.be/GNFQzvahiI4

jiveturkey6 tahun yang lalu

"greatest"? what's the definition of "greatest"? specifically, why is justin bieber on that list.

HumblyTossed6 tahun yang lalu

Does the keyboard work for anyone else so you can hear the note? If not, seems like a missed opportunity.

mothsonasloth6 tahun yang lalu

No Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden; he has one of the highest ranges.

Also Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge

lmilcin6 tahun yang lalu

Based on this, the craziest duo in history: Johnny Cash and Taylor Swift.

RBerenguel6 tahun yang lalu

I wonder what Meat Loaf's range is (since it's not in the chart)

jiofih6 tahun yang lalu

Missing Ariana Grande who hits C7 on several songs (and live).

LeoNatan256 tahun yang lalu

Where is Pavarotti?

swyx6 tahun yang lalu

would be nice to sort by some sort of date method where we could see the increase in pitch of pop singing over time

jariel6 tahun yang lalu

Ann Wilson.

Also, dudes have an advantage in falseto.

NovemberWhiskey6 tahun yang lalu

How so? Both men and women have a falsetto register.

jariel6 tahun yang lalu

Men can sing in lower registers, women cannot.

Men reach way into female range by virtue of falseto.

I submit: Axl Rose, at the top of the charts as an example.

[deleted]6 tahun yang lalu

welly6 tahun yang lalu

nkozyra6 tahun yang lalu

Seeing Prince on there made me realize they must be including falsetto in the range, which strikes me as off, a bit.

Since I saw Whitney Houston mentioned, Steve Perry would be a noteworthy 80s omission.

mkl6 tahun yang lalu

Why is that off? Falsetto is still singing. They include whistle register too.

oxymoran6 tahun yang lalu

I find singing to be boring. You are either born with the talent or not. It’s nearly impossible to practice your ass off to go from tone deaf to the voice of an angel. On the other hand, you could pick up a guitar be tone deaf, practice your ass off, and eventually be a virtuoso. That’s much more impressive than being born with an ability to sing.

kikokikokiko6 tahun yang lalu

Good luck if yoy think that anyone can become a virtuoso on the guitar. I believe you do not really understand what this expression means. And on the singing thing, it's just like playing an instrument, you are born with a baseline hardware (your pipes) and software (your ears). It's a little bit more limited, in terms of how much you can improve from this starting point, than with an instrument, but you can for sure get better through practice.