What is vocal tessitura? This comes up a lot, with clients who are just starting to figure out their voice, all the way up to experienced professionals.
Wikipedia defines vocal tessitura as:
“… the most aesthetically acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer”
While this is a factually correct summation, it overlooks critical context for the concept of tessitura. Let me explain.
Vocal tessitura vs. range?
When we talk about vocal range we typically only consider it’s extremes. E.g. “I can sing from this low note X, to this high note Y, so my range is X to Y“.
However, range alone fails to describe the quality across that range, how connected that range is, etc. Moreover, how comfortable is it for the singer to sing in any one spot? How long can the singer linger in the range in question?
It’s not just about top notes and bottom notes – it’s about your ability in-between
YouTube is littered with videos of “Freddie Mercury’s Vocal Range” or “Whitney Houston’s Vocal Range“. These videos typically piece together clips of every note on the keyboard that they ever sang, even if it’s only a high squeak or a low squawk (I’ve seen range clips that include such sounds as “vocal range examples”). To say this is their true vocal range is very generous and simply not representative of their true tessitura.
This does not show where they would choose to sing to give their best quality and singing experience. It is only an amalgamated record of notes they have hammered out on one song or another over their whole career, rather than identifying the range over which they sounded and felt at their best.
Range taken by itself simply cannot answer this question, but tessitura takes account of all of these factors.
Understanding your own vocal tessitura?
Tessitura asks “how comfortable are you” in certain regions of your voice. The core of it is asking a more holistic question regarding where should we place songs in one’s voice, such that:
a) the melody of a song is in the best spot in your voice, taking advantage of the different colours across the different registers in your voice; and
b) the opportunity to style and riff/ornament above that melody is still open to you, while still remaining comfortable.
To understand your own tessitura, you must not only know your range, but the comfortable zones within that range. Where are the sweet spots that you can sing in for extended periods, day in, day out? This means singing well without a hint of forcing, without a hint of damaging or straining your voice, no following tailwind to help you out, etc.
You also need to know what those different areas in your voice are useable for (e.g. where does the melody belong in your voice, where does the style portion sit, etc).
Yelled notes don’t count
Many men can sing/yell/blast out an A4, but that doesn’t mean they can comfortably sing most of Bono’s songs. These live between D4-A4. Most just don’t have the technique to spend all their time up there. Even Bono typically resorts to taking older material down at least a semitone these days.
Similarly, many female singers can sing all the notes in most of Michael Buble’s songs in their original keys, but that doesn’t mean they want to stick their voice in a place where it feels like it’s scraping along the ground. It’s generally just too low for most female singers. They can hit the notes, but it isn’t optimising the song for their voice. Songs for women (assuming they have the capacity to access their upper range without issue) generally need to be taken up several keys to place the song in a better spot for their voice.
Can we change our tessitura?
In short, yes. Through the right training you can absolutely change your tessitura.
I started out singing in a baritone range, and worked my way up bit by bit (taking years) to be comfortable as a high tenor. It’s not the range or power that takes time exactly, it’s to do it so it feels totally free and natural, and to create quality rather than just “merely” hitting the note. It’s not just about unlocking and accessing more notes, it’s about integrating them into your voice so seamlessly, that you forget it’s a new note at all. Many of my clients experience a similar thing, especially if their starting tessitura is very different to the material they want to sing. It just takes training.
However, if a note feels even slightly forced, or that you have to reach up (or down!) for the note, then it’s not integrated successfully. As such, even if we’ve unlocked extra range using particular vocal exercises, those notes will forever feel separate and distinct from one’s voice until they are integrated into the existing voice.
Songs can also be considered to have a requisite tessitura
Consider if we were to go through the melody and count how many times each note occurs, then display this as a graph. We’d end up with very different shape curves depending on the song. Some would have most of the range clustered low then one or two higher notes, others may have most of the range clustered high and the odd low notes, some might have clusters down low and clusters up high, etc. Consider this a “signature” of the required tessitura the song will demand of the singer.
Different voices (even with full training) will have different fully developed tessituras, and what their voices do well/less well. The more range and control you have, the more songs will be available to you, but that still doesn’t mean that you will be able to sing all songs equally well. The tessitura signature of different songs will match better to your voice than others. That’s why it is important to understand your own tessitura, and match it appropriately to both the right songs, and putting those songs in a key that maximises the match between your voice and the song.
Know your voice
I hope that helps you understand the idea of vocal tessitura a bit better. There really is no other way than to really get to grips with your voice as an instrument and understand where melodies and ornamentations belong, and install your voice into appropriate songs as such.
