In classical singing and in choir music it is typical to define one’s voice type. It is used for deciding which roles are most fitting for the voice. The role means here the voice type role in the scale of brightness – darkness and the most suitable singing range.
Voice Type Categories
Voice types are often categorised as followed:
Female Voice Types From High To Low
Male Voice Types From High To Low
There are some examples of these voice types at the end of this article.
Voice Type As Voice Color
Voice color – the brightness or the darkness among other things – is one of the factors that defines the voice type. Brighter voice types usually sing more comfortably and more stably at a higher range than darker voice types.
Voice Type As Singing Range
The voice type can be defined by the strenghts of the voice which means the range in which the voice works and sounds the best (definitions for the best vary!).
In choirs a singer’s singing range is taken into account when deciding which part to sing. Singers for the highest (highest sopranos and tenors) and the lowest parts (lowest basses and contraltos) are most difficult to find. So some singers may sing different voices’ parts even though their own voice color belongs to another voice type just because they can produce more demanding pitches or they can’t produce the pitches typical to their voice color type.
Voice Type Can Change
The voice type can change due to age, experience, education and improvement of the skills. Therefore it’s common that one’s own voice type cannot be defined at the beginning of singing studies or a choir career.