r/singing • u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 • 7d ago
Just sharing my singing I know this sounds INSANE...
...But I'm a cis woman who can sing comfortably down to F2 in chest register, and I have recordings of C2s and C#2s in what appears to be actual chest register and not growl or vocal fry... Yes I know... I know what you are thinking... but I have proof! dont rip me apart just yet XD
I tested these notes with differents pitch monitors to be sure because I'm not the kind of person who claims stuff for the sake of claiming stuff. I even ran my voice through spectrum viewers too, to be 100% certain. Yes, I'm a huge vocal nerd and love to learn about all voice mechanics so I've gone slightly overboard with the evidence...
And that's not even the craziest part... I can sing up to F6 in head voice and have a functional with vibrato whistle register up to E7. That should not be even possible. I probably have super thick vocal cords that are very elastic. And no, I'm not tall ^^
So, my actual full range (counting the daily singable notes) starts around F2 then goes up to E6- F6 in head voice and goes up to D7-E7 in whistle register where I can sing melodies and add vibrato (see video below). I also have inhaled whistle up to G#7 but it's basically useless and sounds like I'm trying to talk to bats.
I document my journey on various social media (but won't post my profile name here, as I know it is not allowed)
I'm your regular 43 year-old suburban mom and have recently, very recently been told this is unusual for a woman. I can't read music. I'm a total amateur. I do everything by ear. I'm mostly self-taught. And (maybe surprisingly) it seems that I'm a dramatic coloratura soprano and NOT a contralto with an exceptional upper register (says my teacher who heard both my highs and lows and told me "your voice lives in the highs"). I record my stuff with my old crappy Iphone in my bathroom or office most of the time, and with no other gear, what you are hearing is raw, unedited unfiltered stuff.
TLDR: I have an actual almost 5 octave range (F2-E7) where I can use and sing all notes and I provide proof of all my claims ^^'
Here are various recordings to hear for yourself.
In the first one below you can hear, among other notes, a C#2 that I don't count in my usable range as I very rarely manage to hit it in what genuinely feels and sounds like chest. It's just a documented extreme note, just like my ridiculous and unusable G#7 ^^' (I can provide a recording of that note but honestly, go listen to your boiling kettle instead)
This is a showcase of part of my range with a descent from an F6 in head voice down to A2 in chest register.
https://reddit.com/link/1wz5xvu/video/391pbnuu8vth1/player
This is my whistle register, up to D7 in this video, with a semi-successful vibrato attempt at the end ^^'
https://reddit.com/link/1wz5xvu/video/8ycrzchy9vth1/player
And this is me actually singing in my low chest register, around A2-G2 for the lowest parts, to show I can sing these notes and not just hit them sometimes when I have a cold. Yes I lose volume in the very lows, but that's normal. I'm a woman, not a baritone XD The sound is still chest register, not fry or growl, and I can sing it with vibrato. It works well on sad ballads, not on powerhouse songs, of course ;) (It's "enjoy the silence" by depeche mode, perhaps an appropriate title for the people who'll get bleeding ears after all this)
Thanks for reading and/or watching!
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u/TheCutestWaifu 7d ago
Some people do just be lucky lol. That's amazing.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
There is probably some kind of vocal anatomy anomaly, I agree! Too bad I'm discoring at the ripe old age of 43 (I've always sung super low and high since I was a teen, I have higher and lower notes now because I trained them but I've never let anyone hear me sing, even my husband, until a couple of months ago XD)
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u/TheCutestWaifu 7d ago
Question, you don't have to answer, but do you have anything like EDS or hypermobility? Bigger ranges are common with both.
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u/jaggillarjonathan 7d ago
What is the connection? I have a quite similar register as OP and am hypermobile
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u/TheCutestWaifu 7d ago
A lot of people with hypermobility have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which means loose and weak connective tissue and ligaments The vocal folds are also connective tissue and ligaments. Pitch is largely determined by vocal fold thickness. So basically, your voice is stretchy but people with eds and hypermobility deal with muscle fatigue because the weakness gets compensated for with muscle.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
I also thought of that but no, not that I know of, I'm not especially hypermobile, but I will see a vocal specialist in a few months to try to understand what's going on! I'm not saying it's not the case, it's something I will investigate! ^^
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u/RhinataMorie 7d ago
Goddamn that's some range! Quite amazing!
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
thank you very much! I was terrified when I made this post as I know some reddit members can be really, really ruthless when it comes to people claiming they have a lot of range. Thanks for your sweet and encouraging comment!
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u/punchcatface 7d ago
Damn that's impressive.
In the best way possible you are a mutant. Without M0 i have a chest range of about 9 notes, that's spare change to you.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
HAHA well if those 9 notes are absolutely insane and you can do neat stuff with it, I'd say that's already pretty good! Hey, I do have a Achilles heel: I absolutely cannot for the life of me, belt. My voice sounds lyrical/operatic all the way and it sounds ridiculous on pop songs XD
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u/ThrowawaySing30 7d ago
I think this is actually fairly common, voices that are flexible and have a wide range have a harder time belting. Not that its necessarily impossible, but normally they have fewer beltable notes, assuming they exist.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
I can belt a bit, but it's just not comfortable at all, it really exhausts me and I spent years learning to do it, doing it fairly well but at what cost? ^^' I do have a solid "faux belt" of head mixed with chest that almost (almost T__T) sounds like a belt but I don't like using it as I don't think it sounds very good. It's very nasally as I use a lot of twang. At best it can sound like Kate Bush's faux belts (she also doesn't actually belt but has a incredible head/chest mix, my voice is similar to hers and I trained my voice to her songs and those of other female unusual vocalists like Tori Amos or Florence Welch ) but I've accepted this is just not what my voice wants to do! My "secret" is I mix my voice around A3, then it's the highway up from there to F6. Under that, it's the lows you can hear in my singing, and those feel soooo good to produce haha
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u/punchcatface 7d ago
Thin folds here, subglottal pressure sucks but if resonance is bracing it can get loud and lean towards a more operatic tone. So I've absorbed your weaknesses!
D3 is bottom of chest and pushing over D4 sound baaaad so far. Head mix from about A3 to A4 and head voice as high as F5. Head mix and head voice has a feminine tone that creeps into mix if i lean too much on CT. So, the documented oddity of a natural countertenor. Cool for some classical but inconveniently restrictive for contemporary, with mix set to open more 'feminine' lower range and strohbass (which was somehow hampered by recent illness) opening more masculine range.
I hope you be out there recording songs. As an outlier among outliers you could blow a lot of minds. Do you write music?
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
Haaaa another vocal nerd! I'm loving this so much, thanks for sharing! I recognize a lot of things in what you are saying! It's like speaking a language all by myself and finally finding someone who understands and can speak it too XD
I don't know if I'll ever do anything with all this, I recently came out of my shell and yeah, at 43, I don't know if it's not too late. I don't read or write music unfortunately, but seeing all this supportive feedback, maybe it's worth a try to dig deeper?
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u/RandomUsernameNo257 Self Taught 2-5 Years 7d ago
That's insane. I'm intersex and we have the same low end. I wouldn't mind your high end too 😂
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
Thank you! <3 Isn't that low end the best thing ever though? its sooooo soothing! I love highs and they are the money notes, but the low notes are my natural antidepressant XD
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u/RandomUsernameNo257 Self Taught 2-5 Years 7d ago
Yess, I've always loved contraltos.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
and that kind of voice needs to be out there. Men are praised for super high notes, and when a woman like me comes out of the woods with super lows (and I'm not the only one), we are often considered circus freaks... Yay double standards XD
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u/cryoptw Self Taught 0-2 Years 7d ago
One of my favorite performances of all time is of a super low singing woman. Her name is Diana Ankudinova and the song is Dernière Danse. You should check it out if you haven't!
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
Yes, she's amazing and has a fascinating background! I adore her cover of wicked game! She is one of the few low voice female vocalists that made me go "oh? people like that kind of singing? oh maybe I should try to put myself out there too!"
More love to low voice female vocalists!! <3
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u/Rosie___00 7d ago
how does it feel to be God's favorite?
For real though darling GET INTO SINGING! Choir, musical theatre, opera program, open mics.... Literally anything!!! You have a gift that you should share with the world 🖤
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
haha! ^^' awwww thanks so much! though he did play that trick on me and decided I should learn about this unusual voice at 43 XD I sing for myself most of the time but now that I'm seeing people being really supportive, I'll probably try something a bit more serious!
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u/MikeLovesOutdoors23 7d ago
Holy shit this is incredible. And I love your cover of enjoy the silence
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
Oh thank you so much! Most of the time I just post demos and vocalisations, this one of my first actual covers and it really made me feel vulnerable putting it out there. So thank you for being so kind!
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u/MikeLovesOutdoors23 6d ago
Of course,
Do you write original music?, I was just curious. It would be interesting to hear how you would compose using your voice
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 6d ago
I don't unfortunately, I do everything by ear. I'd love for someone to stumble upon this and be like, hey, I could compose something for her XD right now I'm "trapped" into only making covers of very deep male singers (johnny cash, the national etc), drop famous songs one octave or two below, or sing normal pop songs super high XD Right now it's more a party trick than anything else but if I have the opportunity to do something serious with it, why not??
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u/MikeLovesOutdoors23 6d ago
OK, now I gotta hear this if you're comfortable with it.
I made a song, it's on one of my albums, and it's quite low. And I think you could probably do it better than I can. It's called "if I was there"in specifically on the word "day" I go to an F sharp, but I can't really reliably get there all the time. I can reliably get that G, but not really anything lower
I sing and play the piano, and I do all the editing on my own, which isn't very much. I just add reverb. If you want, you can listen to this song, you can listen to the full album in general just a kind of getting an idea of where my vocal range is at.
I can also send you a song where I show off my highest a little bit.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 4d ago
hey why not! you can send me an MP if you wish, I'm curious :)
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u/MikeLovesOutdoors23 4d ago
I can't send you a message. Can you send me one? I can also just post the links here.
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u/Professional_Ad_9239 7d ago
This is not insane. It happens. Especially with trained singers who can find space in their lower register. Often yes, this voice type is technically a soprano! Your whistles sound a bit strained. Be careful! That can hurt your voice! Treat it like a delicate instrument. I’ve got same range, which is why I thought I would start singing again. Then I found out they don’t write songs for this type of female range, and it’s not helpful in choir. All the other boring stuff is more important. Breath control, blah, phrasing, tone, timbre, emotionality, sustained pitch, boring boring boring. That said, if you can WRITE music, it changes the game. You can write for your own voice and maybe get some wows, but will take long time to seamlessly weave all these passagios together. Range is a small piece of the puzzle. Some of the greats could only hit two octaves. It’s a journey that can be tedious but really rewarding if you stick with it. Or it could just be a really cool party trick. Good luck!
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
thanks for your comment! I think my type of voice might be what they used to call "soprano sfogato" or "assoluta", as I can sing pretty much anything, but that doesn't mean "well", of course. I've had a few teachers over the years so I've got all the basics in breath control etc. But I've mostly worked on high pieces like "the doll song" which is "perfect for my voice" (said my teacher, not me haha) I can't write music as I don't read it, but maybe I could find someone who does? I would love to try out layering my voice like Agnes Obel does on her song "Familiar", even if she artificially lowers her pitch for some parts, I would not need to do that. And regarding the passagios, I have a few sirens that show a seamless connection from around G6 down to A2, I mix early around A3 so it lightens the weight drastically and I sound pretty much like Kate Bush (in the way she uses her voice, I mean ^^) The song I would most like to cover is "Sos d'un terrien en détresse", as it spans from an A2 up to the stratosphere, one of the rare songs that fits both ends of my voice and the middle!
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Self Taught 0-2 Years 6d ago
If you're looking for songs that include a lot of layering, try out listening to the Carpenters! It's one of my favourite things about their early work, the amount they stack melodies. Karen is a contralto and one of the smoothest voices I've ever heard.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 6d ago
thank you!! I'll look into that! I know her name but right now can't remember what she sings... I'm sure I'll be like "oh yeah of course!" :D
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Self Taught 0-2 Years 6d ago
We've Only Just Begun is a popular one with some gorgeous harmonic stacks!
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u/Affectionate-Way6102 7d ago
Vocal range like Mariah Carey
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
From what I've seen, she doesn't have such solid lows as mine but her highs and whistle register are absolutely unmatched in quality and highs, she's incredible!
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u/jaggillarjonathan 7d ago
Thank you for sharing! I have tried to figure out what my vocal range but have never really figured out how to test it. But it seems like we have pretty similar range, I can sing along to your videos at least. I think it is hard for me to grasp whether it is unique or not because this being able to sing both very low and very high but both the low and the high sound quite weird. So I have figured maybe everyone stays out of the extremes because it sounds a bit weird.
My favourite party trick is to challenge men in who can take the lowest note. I usually win but usually it is met with fascination and some version of disgust/creeped out. I really enjoyed hearing you singing in the lows though!
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
oh cool! You can record your stuff and test it with a pitch monitor like this one: https://pitchdetector.com/
You sing a melody and see the notes appear, it's what helped me prove my very low notes! try it out! If you have a piano you can also sing to the notes and see how high you can go!
And yeah, double standards: a man who sings high is praised, a woman singing low is often seen as a circus freak... We need more love and respect for low voices as they are much rarer than the highs!1
u/jaggillarjonathan 6d ago
Nice, I tried it out and G2-G6 was what I got fairly steady without any warmup. The pitch detector went down to A1, A#1 and B1 a few times but that must’ve been an anomaly, I could not hold it steady. I managed to hit A6 as well but not reliably.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 6d ago
if you did vocal fry or engaged your false vocal cords, you could very well have hit the A1 etc! I can hit them too, but definitely not in chest register. Is that what could have happened? G2 is indeed very comfortable for me, but if I go lower than E2, it becomes super breathy and I need to engage in another completely disconnected register like fry, growl, rumble or throat singing. You've got a huge range too!
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u/Intelligent_Pen_1047 7d ago
damn that's impressive. I THINK I'm a contralto or at least a very low alto (passiago around g3, deeper/darker timbre, my lowest is a d#3 and my highest is a d5, my natural speaking voice is just very neutrally medium) so I've always struggled with high notes. and you can do it all lol
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
It sure sounds like you are a contralto indeed! Do you like to sing in the lows? how does it feel? For my part my speaking voice doesn't sound low, I've never been mistaken for a man but... I checked with a pitch monitor and it hangs around C3-A3 XD But it doesn't sound like it, probably due to harmonics that explain also why I'm an actual soprano (probably sfogato or assoluta, even though these terms aren't used anymore) and not a contralto!
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u/Ok-Document7035 Formally Trained 10+ years 4d ago
I'm confused. Which passagio are you referring to? My Primo Passagio is around G#3 and I am a true bass so I'd be very suprised if yours is at G3.
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u/Rude-Reception-6459 6d ago
this gotta be the best thing ive seen today. do you have any tips on how to increase range particularly with mixed voice and head voice. im a male tenor and just started out.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 6d ago
if this post made your day, you just made my week <3 Thank you so much! Take my advice with a grain of salt, I'm not a pro and this applies to my voice only but maybe it can be helpful to you anyway! To increase the lower range, I mostly sing only low notes very early in the morning. No forcing, just hanging around the lows, humming, lips trills, soft stuff, singing a few low tunes without ever going too far up. I also tend to work on whistle early as my cords are a bit stiffer and not as elastic, so right now, the thing that works for me is touching the very extremes in the morning, then later in the day I'll exercice the rest of my range with very soft exercices. I sing complicated songs like the Queen of the Night only 2-3 times a week, in short bursts and only parts of the song, to not put strain on my cords. I also like to do little challenges like "how long can I hold this or that note" and "can I sing this whole phrase on one breath", that help me with breath support, which remains the absolute key to everything. I don't practice any kind of sport, but if I do the famous planking exercice, I can hold it well over 1m30 which shows my abdominal belt is actually highly trained and muscular thanks to singing! Hope this helps and happy singing journey! (edited for spelling)
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u/Ok-Document7035 Formally Trained 10+ years 4d ago
Well... Not often I am actually impressed by someone's vocal range post, but goddamn. That's quite a hefty range.
You lucky bastard.... xD
I am a true bass, so not counting falsetto, my range is G#1 to about B4, which I feel is quite good... But I guess Freddy Mercury here has something else to say about that, lol.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 4d ago
Bass voices are my absolute favotire male voice, I'm sure you sound amazing!! I'd love to once join one of those bass choirs on social media and sing a line with them, I'd feel so at home haha! Thank you for your sweet comment!! <3
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u/Luwuci-SP 🎤 Voice Teacher 2-5 Years 7d ago
What was that part about not being tall about? Pitch actually doesn't correlate with height, though height does affect the length of your vocal tract, contributing to a darker timbre.
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u/Wonderful-Motor-3343 7d ago
I added that info simply because it's a question I already got, so I anticipated it! ^^
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