Male Vocal Range Chart

Below is an interactive chart showing the approximate range of pitches for the primary four male voice types. By navigating around this chart using your mouse (just click on the bars) or your keyboard, you will be able to explore information provided. It’s designed to provide you with a quick visual and aural comparison of each voice type against others.

As you can see from the chart above, it includes Countertenor, Tenor, Baritone and Bass voices. The entire range for each one are shown by the horizontal bars. The left-hand side of the bar indicates the bottom note the voice can reach whilst the right-hand edge show the top note. Within the bar you’ll notice another darker shade around a smaller band. That’s the range or tessitura where the voice is most at home. This is the part of the vocal range they use most often and feel most comfortabley in.

How to Use the Voice Chart

To demonstrate how a particular voice sounds, you simply choose its bar from list. Next, the widget perform a two note example to show what the vocal range are like. First, it plays a low tone to show where bottom of the voice is, follows it with a short pause, and then plays a high tone to show where top is. This way, you can instantly get a feel for characteristics and the reach of each voice. You won’t have to listen to complete performance or read charts.

In the controls section, there is also a volume slider that allow you to adjust how loudly you want sounds. If you’re in a quiet place, slide the volume slider to the left to decrease the volume. Move the slider to the right to make the tone louder. When you change your voice type, the volume stay the same and does not need re-adjusting for each new selection.

There is also an embedded help panel in chart that’s there when you need a reminder of what it do. Just click the Help button to open a description of features and some additional info about the voice types. This is handy if you’ve forgotten whose note goes where on scale. It also includes a brief explanation of the pitch axis. Just click the button again to close the panel back down.

Interact with chart using a mouse or keyboard navigation. To use keyboard navigation, use the Tab key to move focus between voice bars and the control buttons. When focus is on a voice bar, press the Space bar or Enter key to play range of that voice. The selected item is outlined to show that it is active. This can be useful if you like to keep your hands on keyboard.

To clarify note names, they have included the pitch axis across the top of chart too. You can then use the vertical grid lines that matches certain pitches to judge the interval relationships between them. Notice also where the ranges of each voice type overlaps another, such as bottom of the Tenor range meeting the top of the Bass range. The visual presentation give a quick sense of register comparison.

Fullscreen: Clicking this button will display the chart full-screen. This gives you more room to see details and removes distractions, which is useful if your charts feels cramped on smaller screens. Just click again to go back out of fullscreen mode or use the normal browser shortcuts. The chart reflows to fill available space.

To show this, consider the two most frequently used male vocal registers; the Baritone and the Tenor, with a large degree of overlap between both. Here you can hear that although they have similar ranges, the range of comfort for each voice is different than others. If you wish, listen to the Countertenor range too. This covers an area well beyond the other voices towards alto, hence its special sound. You should of heard how it sounds.

Try out the various voice types. Don’t expect an in-depth analysis from widget. It’s meant as a quick way to explore. Get used to how the men’s voices are laid out on chart. Then, when you wonder what the range of a particular voice type is, come back to chart for reference. Choose whichever voice you’re most interested in exploring first and hear where it starts and finishes.