Vocal Range - How to Know What Key to Sing in for a Specific Song
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- Опубліковано 4 кві 2018
- Vocal Range - How to Know What Key to Sing in for a Specific Song
• Vocal Range - How to K...
Take some piano lessons from Scott Houston “The Piano Guy.” In this video, you will learn to sing songs in the key that is best for you to sing a particular tune in.
Different songs all have different melody lines that have different vocal ranges between their highest and lowest notes.
Examples:
1. The Birthday Song in first the Key of F and then in the key of C (moving it down)
2. Take Me out to the Ball game in the key of C then in the key of F (moving it up)
For that reason, a particular song will be best played for your particular vocal range in some particular vocal key. i.e. You need to shift the melody line into your range as best you can and then determine what key is needed to fit the melody line there.
Your vocal range doesn't identify one key that is best for you for every tune. Rather, you should learn to sing tunes in whatever particular key that gets the tune's melody into your vocal range.
Scott talks a little bit about the topic of transposing, which lets you easily “slide” a tune up or down a few notes to get the melody comfortably in your range. The main concept is just taking the chord changes to a tune and moving them all up or down the same interval (or number of half-steps) throughout the entire tune.
Again, no one has one key that is the easiest key to sing in of all songs. Rather, you'll have a favorite key to sing some particular tune in, and that key may be different for different tunes based on the range of that tune's melody line.
Scott’s life goal is to help you learn to play the piano through piano lessons that you can take anywhere and at any time to get you started having some fun at a piano or keyboard as quickly as possible.
Scott Houston is the host of The Piano Guy television series on Public Television and has taught hundreds of thousands of folks like yourself, how to have some fun on their piano or keyboard. He wants to help you get there too-as quickly as possible.
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Vocal Range - How to Know What Key to Sing in for a Specific Song
• Vocal Range - How to K... - Навчання та стиль
Not all songs’ highest or lowest notes will land on the same degree of the scale, hence why your comfortable key will vary from song to song. Very helpful video!
And in a world where nearly every male role in musical theatre for the past couple decades has been written for "baritenor" voices (because apparently making everyone strain for a note is an easier path to drama than having them act) it would be nice if musical directors were actually willing to let people sing in the appropriate key for their voice.
.... and ..... we have a winner! Ha!! Mark that's one of the funniest, and dead spot-on comments I've gotten here on YT in ages. You speak the truth!! Heck I even hear aging pop/rock stars continue to try and yodel the long not attainable high notes of their youth trying to sing their own tunes in the original recorded key! Why they don't just have the band slide it down 2 or 3 half-steps is beyond me. The musicians playing in that caliber of groups certainly have the chops to do it ... I just don't get it. Thanks for the comment. S.H.
Very informative. Thank you for teaching me how to transpose a song to fit my vocal range.
Thanks soo much. Nobody ever explained it this way, but I hate regular karaoke because I'm a very good singer, but if it is not in my range, boy do I sound awful trying to reach notes!
You're not alone! ha! Yeah - pros sing tunes in their ranges, or don't sing them publicly, right? Make all the difference in the world.
@@pianoinaflash I watch old Elvis vids and he's always pointing and telling the band which key he wants before he sings.
Also, I love the little trick with the last note of a song. That is too cool!
Again, a brilliant description. Simplified and gives one confidence on a subject matter that I had a serious phobia for.
Thanks a lot for explaining this so well. I understand this concept so much better now. Thank you.
Excellent explanation! Thank you soooo much, now I understand! Billy G.
Awesome Video, very informative! Thanks and God Bless!
Very useful. Thank you.
Appreciate you Scott! This is such an important step to finding your voice.
Thank you! Super clear!
Thank you sir!! I've been struggling understanding keys on my guitar and this video makes it do easy to understand. 👍👍
I've wondered about this for a long time. Thanks. BTW: you started me on piano. I recommend your material to people all the time. I quote 2 of your main approaches: use the fingers you like and start with a song you like. The magic begins from there.
So glad it (and previous stuff I've done) has helped. Have fun!
Thank you. This was very helpful.
This was very helpful. Thank you!!
Super helpful and simply explained.
This video answered my wondering 🤔
Tks a bunch. Sir !
Great video. Very informative. I learned a lot.
Extremely helpful thank you so much for making this 👍👍 clearly and methodically well organized and easy to understand.
Thanks Troy! Glad it helped out.
Learned alot here,Thanks alot!!!
WOW, best explanation ever. You are a very-very-VERY good teacher 👨🏫
Thank you!
This video was so helpful, thanks a mill Piano Guy! You are the best !
You’re an amazing teacher! Tyty
This is awesome. Thank you.
Awesome ... Thank you!!
Thanks Scott, great advice!
You got it...
Brilliant explanation! Thank you very much!
I'm glad it helped you out... thx!
SO informative. Thank you so.
You're welcome! Hope it helped ...
Thanks, you teach within my frequency.
Thank you !!
This is so basic and explicit. Thank you.
Thank you.
I really appreciate how well you explained this. Thank you very much, Scott.
You're so welcome!
Great job.
This made sense, thank you
Thank you ❤
Thank you for that 🙏🏻
Thank You
thank you it helped a lot
Thank you
I was struggling to understand this but that really visualized it. Now unto trying it out for the songs i like to play. Maybe i can improve my singing like that.
I am not a singer by any means, but a very informative video. Thanks!
Excellent
Thank you so much sir 🙏🙏🙏
Very helpful
thanks for this video it makes a lot of sense to me i forgot i use to do this in my punk band believe or not lol fun times
this is lit! thanks fam!
Love it ❤
Great 👍🏾 tips
VERY VERY HELPFULL!
Great! Glad it helped.
Lovely video 💜 the idea is much more clear now
Glad it helped! Have fun!
Y'all, I'm already in love with this guy
Cheers mate
Thank you for this FABULOUS video! I have been pondering this answer for so long, and as I'm now going to be purchasing a ukulele to add to my singing, I have been perplexed as to whether I should buy a tenor or a baritone, as they are tuned in different keys. I didn't know how important or not that was but I guess it's not. At least not as far as "key" wise. It's the range and not the key, so either of those should be okay. Thank you!
Glad it helped! Have fun...
Awesome thank you mr. White you earned a sub here
This is delightfully basic and retro
I tune my guitar in d standard, I can hit most rock highs on an acoustic platform cover easily and be able to continue singing and covering most covers without risk of error or throwing out my voice too quickly because most of us don't have the vocal false chord range of Chris Cornell's legendary high.
This was very helpful. Thank you so much! 🎹🎤
Thank God I got it it was always a mystery to me but not any more yeah I had to give this guy a thumbs up thanks mate
Glad it helped!
xcellent!
...marvelous explanation, my very dear friend... ... I use to sing with my guitar, then I use this fantastic gadget called capo, when I need to change a key!!!
🎹🎼🎵🎶🌹🎶🎵🎼🎹
Great lesson! I'm a guitar player (not much of a singer) but I have to say.. you've put together a great tutorial/foundation here that'll help anyone understand their vocal range. Appreciate the tips & tricks.. Cheers!
I've always been a dummy at understanding music. This was SO helpful. Super clear. Thank you!
You're welcome! Glad it helped...
@@pianoinaflash but how do you know it which octave to moved to? Or can you move anywhere? I don’t understand which octave you’re referring to or maybe that’s the wrong question. Please help 🙂
Good video... I'm glad to have a "transpose" feature on my digital keyboard.
NOW you know how that comes in handy... Ha!
Thank you very much for the good explanation. However, from the pianist point of view, what notes should he sing in his heart when he shifts the key ? If you were the pianist playing the accompanying music, do you do fixed do solfege, singfrom C , or you do a movable do solfege?
Always the best teacher ever
*blush* Thanks!
True..He explains so well
Wonderful video!! My lead choir singers are moving to other states and I've been trying to figure our how I can sing until I get the new lead singers ready. This is extremely helpful. My congregation probably thanks you as well!!!
Great! Glad it helped... :-)
Great explanation. Are there only certain keys that I can select as my 'key'
I had it back wards trying to match the chords
Hi there. I enjoyed your presentation and found it very interesting and helpful. As I play Harmonica and sing when I perform, I need to get a good quality microphone headset to use so as to obviate the need for me to try and cope with holding a hand-held wireless microphone at the back of my Harmonica. I would be very grateful if you would share with me the brand and model of the headset microphone you are wearing for this video presentation. The timbre of your voice and clarity of the overall sound says much for the mic you are using as it picks up every nuance of your vocal expression. Look forward to hearing from you on this by way of a posting in reply to mine. All the best to you. Cheers
That is an ancient Shure SM-10... I think I originally got that Mic in the late 80s when I was performing live all the time. Ha! That thing is an absolute warhorse and tough as nails. Because I wanted some integrated in-ear monitors (and a lot less obtrusive appearance) I have since switched to another headset made by DPA that is much smaller and less obtrusive ...
What about half steps. What if you need to slighty drop it?
So as a tenor, what keys would typically work for me? I don’t know theory so I need a bit help with understanding this, I have songs so I have to figure out their keys. But what would the typical keys for a tenor be?
interesting!
So if I could sing in both ranges a little better in the higher range what does that make me a baritone?
Is that will fort? Or his brother Phillip, William or Richard Forte?
The video is very informative, but the volume is pretty low. I had to raise my headphone to 100 (I use it on 10!) in order to hear it better.
What if your trying to find the key for a choir?
I always thought that singers had a particular key. WOW was I wrong.
❤
thanks, any way to find the key if I don't have any instrument but producing in garageband ?
There keyboard app that are really good
🎹🎼 I wish I could play keys
Transposing right?
So, transposing the song?
He was choking on that 2nd part of the melody every time lmaoooooo. good video though
Each song has its key and professional singer have to learn certain keys for certain songs
I have to sing at a funeral in less than two weeks. (Yeah, I’m a little stressed.) I find this video about “how to find out what key to sing in for a specific song” only to learn that you “don’t want to get into specific keys.” But you recommend I DO find one that suits my range. Great! Guess I’ll keep looking. You know, “specific keys” and all that. But thanks for a great…title.
Sorry Andrew, but I think you missed the entire point of the video ... The idea is that there is NOT a "specific key" that works for everyone for any specific tune. It will likely be different for every singer based on their range, which you can find out by doing what I did on this video with whatever tune you are trying to figure out the best key for YOU to sing it in. If what you mean by your comment is that you've done that and found a range that works for you, but you don't know at that point what key that represents for that tune, you have 2 choices. 1) find the very last melody note of the tune wherever you are singing it after finding a good range for yourself - the very last one... and it is *highly* likely whatever that note is will in fact also be the key of the tune. Last note an Eb for example? then you're probably in the key of Eb as well. Choice 2) Ask whomever is going to be accompanying you to listen to where you are singing it, and have them hone in on the key. If they are worth their salt, they'll be able to figure it out pretty quickly once they hear where you are singing the melody. Hope that helps!
I can't sing but I can sing ok w/ music. ( Who doesn't? lol I also have no natural musical talent really. lol). I always knew our voices have a range because it's evident when I can't hit low notes from Randy Travis (I LOVE his voice!) or high notes from most females. (I have a deep voice for a female, but not as deep as a man's). Since menopause I notice I'm hitting a few lower notes as well without cracking. There are many singers I can sing with perfect and I tend to love their songs most (Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, Alabama, Blackhawk, Tim McGraw, etc). I've always wondered what key these songs are in (and I understand the range thing). But I'd love to even know what my range is. I can't tell notes from hearing them so I have no clue how to figure this out.
Go to a piano, sing the lowest note you are comfortable with. Match that note on the piano. Do the same for the highest note you can comfortably sing. Find that note also. Your range is between these two notes. With practice you may be able to sing a few tones higher and lower, thereby increasing your range.
Is it more difficult if you are in a key with a lot of sharps or flats?
meh... maybe? If that is giving you trouble just go one more half-step up or down and you can usually move from a "tough" key to an easier one...
So if you look at the circle of 5ths, F is at 11 o'clock and C is at 12 o'clock. I can play November Rain quite well on the piano yet singing it is quite difficult, it opens in E then most of the ballard is in the key of B, however I can't actually sing in that range, so as C to B on the Circle of 5ths is almost a tritone apart, do you use the Circle to determine where you're best suited to for vocal ranges, ie Bb, F, C, G being only a 5th apart or use the notes linerarly, ie C down to B then Bb etc... ?
Either would work, but the circle of 5ths (or 4ths if you're going the other direction...) really has no connection to what we're talking about here. The thing to understand is just that you are trying to "slide" the melody up or down however far you need to get it in a range you can sing it. If you're just barely not able to get the highest or lowest notes of a melody sung, then you just need to move a smidge one way or other (i.e. what you are calling linearly). if you're not even close to being able to sing the high or low note you probably need to move a bigger interval than just a few steps just to save some time as you are figuring out where it works with your voice. By doing that you may happen to have moved either a 5th or a 4th which would be the next or previous stop around the circle. But, there was no magic that "the circle" caused to get you there - you're just trying to find a range that works for you. Hope that helps clarify! Have fun... Scott
@@scotthouston6780 Thank you, I appreciate your explanation
Hey i have a question. When i look up guitar tabs it would say something like “key Bm” but when i look up the vocals it would say “key D major”
Arent vocals soppose to be the same key as the guitar/instruments?
Sounds like you are just finding different versions of the tune notated in different keys. But to be clear - yes - the vocals and the harmony (guitars/pianos/whatever else is playing the chord changes) need to be in the same key. Hope that helps!
Is it better to perform your song in as high a key you can comfortably manage? Let’s say you have a song that you can sing comfortably in two different keys, is it usually better to choose the highest? I’ve written songs and often find they do sound better moved up a full step from the original concept.
Thats a good question. I'll have a guess and say it depends. 😁
Kidding, I'll still have a guess though. Yes. 😆
Hello PianoGuyTV, love your videos so much and I am hoping, given your education and experience, that you might be able to put to rest this question ?
If yes, this is the question: Should or shouldn't a singer use the term 'register' (or 'range') rather than 'key' ie: 'I can't sing in that key" when speaking about their vocal range ? I've heard many singers over the years, both in person and in videos, say that they "... can't sing in this or that 'key" or '''thats not in my key, I need to sing it in a lower/higher key" etc.'. So, the question is: Isn't it that they can sing in the 'key' (keys are either major or minor etc) but maybe the song isn't in the 'RANGE' that singer is comfortable with ?
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated !!
Hi! 100% YES to the fact that a singer has some range/register that if extended a lot higher or lower will make something uncomfortable (or unable) to be sung. That has absolutely zero correlation to keys in general. The connection is that a singer might not be able to sing *one particular tune* in a *some particular key* because that key would place the melodic range in a register uncomfortable for him/her. That has zero correlation to whether or not some *other* tune's melody would be good or bad for them in that same key. It just depends on the melody ... Hope that helps! SH
@@pianoinaflash Thank you for the quick response ! My experience has been that most people do not really answer the question so its either my fault for not explaining my thought properly or the reader has been so used to speaking this way, they don't get the point of the question. This is not meant as a knock, so don't misunderstand, everybody says: 'I can't sing in that 'key' or that 'key' is too high/low for me" and have done so since long before I was born.. But, when you think about it, its not that you can't sing in that 'key' .Of course you can sing in the 'key' - a 'key' only denotes how many sharps and flats and says nothing about where to start on the keyboard other than the route note.
How many 'C' notes or 'A' notes on the 88 key piano? Rather, one should say: "This song is not in my 'register' or 'voice range', so saying: "We need to lower (or raise) the pitch (transpose it or whatever) so that its in my voice range", not say 'in my 'key'.
It may just be that there is no easy way to say it so this is why people just say 'not in my key', even though its 'technically' incorrect !! Its not in your "voice range" is correct.
Of course as long as people know what you mean, the actual words you use don't really matter - thats why I say 'technically speaking'.
**People still say "I video taped' this or that even though they recorded it digitally. We still talk like we are back in the days of actual rolls of film and video tape even though its pretty much long gone technology. We need to invent some new words for the digital era too while we are at it !!.
@@flynnlizzy5469 "We need to lower (or raise) the pitch (transpose it or whatever) so that it's in my voice range", not say 'in my 'key'. - Exactly correct. 100% agree.
@@pianoinaflash Thank you for responding !
Do I as a singer have a favorite key? So is it possible that my voice like to sing in F# key in many songs OR does it depend on the song which key fits my Range?
Watch again and it will answer your question, but no, your voice has a range. You then find the key for a song that will put that particular tune "into" your range. I suppose if you sang a bunch of songs that all had a similar range of the melody line, then it could "seem" like you tended to have "a key" for your voice, but it's all a function of finding the highest and lowest notes in the melody of a tune, then shifting the key until those high and low notes fit within the range of your voice.
@@scotthouston6780 thanks Scott!
Likeee
Quite helpful. And on that “note “, let me share this - If you are ever compelled to render the National Anthem, my choir-director wife once advised me: ‘whatever you do, find the lowest note you can manage, and start so that on the ‘say’ in the first three notes of the song is that note … ‘Oh-O say’, because if you don’t, by the time you get to “rocket’s red glare’ you’ll realize there’s about to be a hernia all up in here … and even if you survive THAT, you’ve still got ‘la-and of the FREEEE’ coming up. FWIW, I THINK that interval is a perfect fifth, so in MY case, I would need to start on A2, because that will place “say” on D2, my lowest (fairly) reliable note, so that I have some hope of reaching the high notes. The highest being the A just below middle C, which is where I start wanting to go into falsetto. With a nominal 1 1/2 octave range, The Star-Spangled Banner is one that is going to task me anyway, and where I “start” it becomes a make-or-break consideration, and I suspect that I’m not alone among most bass-baritone adult males with a fairly average vocal range that isn’t routinely stretched or exercised. Thoughts?
Funny response that I agree with completely (and can relate to as a bass/baritone in range). I always chuckle to myself just as you described when, after hearing "say" in the first measure I always pray it's terrible and gravelly so there is hope for the remainder. :-) That's why our national anthem should be America the Beautiful instead. Ha!
very interesting. I always thought that the note that the song started in was the key of the song. Why did you go so far down on the birthday song from F to C why not try singing it in D, D# or E ?
I could've moved down less (or farther)... The point is to try it in a few different places to find out where it fits in the vocalist's range the best...
@@pianoinaflash I wish that more musicians in bands would understand this. There are so many musicians and bands that think songs should only be played in the so-called original key.
Put me in A flat Scott
C okay
F high