The vocal ranges of the greatest artists of all time | Hacker News Reader

The vocal ranges of the greatest artists of all time

concerthotels.com

115 pointsseesawtron109 comments

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...

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.

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)!

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.

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

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

Exactly who I was going to suggest - Dimash.

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

Ian Gillan? David Byron?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

"Greatest artists of all time"

Mostly American pop singers.

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

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

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?

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

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

Correct title "greatest artists in the West"?

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

Not a complete list without Bruce Dickinson !

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-...

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.

Or Geoff Tate.

Or Captain Beefheart

Devin Townsend? Floor Jansen?

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

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.

Greetings, fellow prog-metal buddy.

or King Diamond

I named my dog Abigail

(from the album with the same name)

Eric Adams?

Jorn Lande!

Low yo-yo

David Lee Roth?

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

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

Chris Cornell

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

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

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

Wow, that's impressive for a human!

Cool!

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

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

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

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

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).

Super green

THANK YOU! At last :)

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

I guess Mike Patton would have the whole range.

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.

>>The World’s Greatest Singers

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

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

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

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.

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

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.../

#define GREATNESS MOST_ALBUMS_SOLD

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

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.

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.

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

WTF Pat Benatar?

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

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".

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

"greatest USAnian pop-singers of all time"

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

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...

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

> 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.)

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.

> you could respond to the content of their post

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

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.

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.

HN is US centric

US is "self-centric", "insular"

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

This is a generalization, of course...

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

Not on the list but a good addition.

Chester Bennington: G#2 - F5

https://youtu.be/ZT9y0GkHtW4

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

https://youtu.be/GNFQzvahiI4

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

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

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

Also Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge

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

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

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

Where is Pavarotti?

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

Ann Wilson.

Also, dudes have an advantage in falseto.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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