Okay so I buy my music usual from musicnotes.com but it can suck sometimes because it forgets to give a range, can someone tell me how high it goes? I like reply's with specific notes (example:F5)


Btw if you have seen me post or see my other posts I am sorry about asking SO much about song ranges, I'm 17 and trying to figure out my voice. I do try and contribute to this forum

The highest note in the song is a G5. There are also several F5s in it. The lowest note I believe is E flat 4. It has a high tessitura, so it's definitely a tenor song.

You'd have to have a very comfortable high range to pull it off as a baritone.

Do keep in mind that different Fiyeros have had the song edited to suit their voice. Taye Diggs is an example that comes to mind.

This is quibbling, I suppose, but I believe that they're G4's and F4's. Middle C is C4. Baritone F and G are the first of their kind above Middle C, so they're in the "4" range. Unless I'm mistaken?

As for the song, I think your basic point is the same as what mine would be. You need to be a competent baritone with a comfortable upper range or a tenor to do the song as written. But I don't find it's got too, too high a tessitura, to be honest. At least not compared to the standard fare for younger male roles in contemporary musical theatre.

The original key, in the actual vocal book you can buy is the F and G5. They are at the top of the treble staff. So they are above the tenor high C (C5). I'm sure there are lower keys where it might be written in the Baritone range, but Fiyero is a tenor character, and I believe the high Fs and Gs are the originals as far as I can tell seeing as Norbert Leo Butz sang it that high.


I guess it depends. The parts where he sings the verses, i.e. "Dancing through life, skimming the surface, gliding where turf is smooth" , are down around the E4-C5 range. But when he does, "Woes are fleeting, blows are glancing, when you're dancing, through life!" The "life" is a 2-3 bar held F5. "Nothing matters, but knowing nothing matters", especially towards the end of the song is all in the C5-G5 range.

Almost all of that song sits in the G4-G5 range, which I consider a fairly high tessitura for a guy. It doesn't have large extremes, with E4 being the lowest, and G5 being the highest, but it stays in the head voice a lot especially if a Baritone tries to sing it. It's all head voice for a Baritone. Tenors can drop down to Middle/mixed voice for some of it, but at least for me, I don't think a single note hits my chest voice.

Actually it would be in the G4, not G5, It's written that way in the book because more people know how to read the treble clef better than the bass. There is not THAT big of a difference between baritones and tenors, certainly not an octave. So it's written G5 but know male (except a counter tenor) could sing that, and no man could sing it in his chest range. And it is sung in chest/mixed in the original. Also it is kinda a tenor part just because it's comfortable for them but doable for a baritone. Anyway I'm done pontificating, thank you that's a lot of help!

Not really sure what you mean. In contemporary music, most tenor songs go up to at least an A5. Maria, from West Side Story, as an example goes to a B flat 5, a half tone below the soprano high C written, although it will sound an octave lower.

Most tenors transition into their first passagio (register break) around E4.

Unless someone can correct me, you sing it as written. So if it's written on the Treble staff as F or G5, you sing an F or G5. As far as I understand, the only difference between a Tenor singing a G5 compared to a Soprano, is the tenor will sound an octave lower than the soprano will. But the actual note on the piano is still the same.

If the song has it written as a G5 in the Treble clef, but you physically sing the G4 (a fourth above middle C), that seems ridiculously low to me. I don't think I even enter head voice at a G4, and I'm not a counter tenor. Because if a note is written as a G4 in the Treble clef, I will actually be singing a G3.

Okay well I can say as a man who has studied men's voices the typical chest range for a well trained sing is 2 octaves, bass being E2 to E4, baritone is a little harder to say but somewhere on the range of G2 to G4 or A2 to A4 (which would be more of a baritenor), tenor being C3 to C5. That of course is not including the head range. Anyway in my research on this part it is a sort of baritenor type part (which it would be easy to break into head on a G4 for both a baritone and a tenor). I think you might be singing in the wrong octave to be quite honest. The reason why there is confusion on this is because both men and women's parts are written in the same octave on sheet music so both can read it but if it sounds an octave lower, it is. Men's ranges are not very far apart just like they aren't every far from women's: Contralto is E3 to E5, Mezzo Soprano G3 to G5, and Soprano C4 to C6. Please trust me I do study voices.

Well, men's voices sound an octave lower than women. So, yes if the music is written on the Treble staff as a G5, a tenor would physically be singing a G4.

I guess you're making it sound like one has to transpose the music down an octave. But if you were to sing the music as though it's written as a G4, you'd be singing a G3 since guys sing an octave lower than written.

I just think the whole written music vs. singing is confusing for guys. My performable range, if one is looking at the piano is the A a 3rd down from Middle C up to the A 2 octaves above that. Which in scientific notation from a piano perspective is A3 to A5, because Middle C is C4. However, I guess in terms of how I sound pitch wise, I'm really singing an A2 to an A4, despite it being written an octave higher.

Does that mean the typical tenor range of C3 to C5, would actually be Middle C (C4) to C6 on the piano?

A quick google search reveals that there is contention about whether Middle C is C3 or C4. In Scientific Pitch Notation, Middle C is C4 - 261.625565 hz. However, different keys programmers will say it's C3.


For me, Middle C is C4. It's the middle key on an 88 key piano. That's my reference point for voice types, too. Baritones go roughly two Gs below Middle C (G2) to the G above Middle C (G4). Tenors go roughly two Bs below middle C (B2) to the B above middle C (B4).

To Fiyero27's last question, I would imagine not every piano player classifies their Cs in the same way a vocalist would. However, I should think that a person who considers themselves an accompanist would know where proper Middle C is and all.

C1 - No ordinary male voice will have this note.

C2 - A well-trained bass can have this note. (Bass C)

C3 - Basses, Baritones, and Tenors all have this note. (It's at the lower tenor range)

C4 - Middle C - Basses, Baritones, and Tenors all have this note. (It's approaching the higher bass range)

C5 - Likely only well-trained Tenors will have this note properly. (C5 is Tenor C).

C6 - This is Soprano C.

It's also worth mentioning for anyone who is just following along this thread that the numbering starts with C, not with A. C1, C#1, D1, D#1, E1, F1, F#1, G1, G#1, A1, A#1, B1, C2. And so on.

I think the confusion is just how music is written. Just played around on piano. The right hand of piano music is usually written in Treble clef, so for example, if the piano music writes a note on the 3rd space of the Treble clef, in piano notation that's C5 (one octave above the middle C). However, when I sing it, it sounds the same as the C4 on the piano.

If I transpose a song an octave lower, the actual piano music obviously sounds deep, and too low - however, my vocal pitch matches the piano.

So piano must just be written an octave higher than a tenor sings. So a C4 (Middle C) on piano, would be a C3 in the tenor voice, and a C5 in the tenor voice, would be written as a C6 (above the treble staff) in piano music.

Okay now I realize we've actually been saying the same thing just using incompatible language lol. Yes, on a piano when it says C6 and the song is written for a tenor it means C5, that was both our points it seems. And also just a side note a lyric baritone could sing it in chest/mixed but it'd be kind of a struggle.