Vocal ranges

Vocal Range Chart: Every Voice Type, Note by Note

All six voice types, soprano to bass, on one piano keyboard, with the notes each one typically sings.

Typical ranges of the six voice types. Green (F): female voices. Teal (M): male voices. Middle C is C4.

Where does your voice land? Sing into your mic and find out in about a minute.

A vocal range is the span of notes you can sing well, from the lowest one you can hold with a clear tone to the highest one that still sounds like music. Singers sort those spans into six standard voice types, and the chart above puts all of them on one piano keyboard so you can compare them note by note. Middle C is C4, the C labelled in the middle of the keys.

Every typical range on the chart covers two octaves. The bands overlap a lot, which is the point: a voice type is about where your voice is strongest and most comfortable, not a fence around the notes you're allowed to sing.

Vocal range chart: the six voice types

Here are the typical ranges, highest voice first within each group, with the source for every one.

Typical vocal range of each voice type
Voice type	Typical range	Voice	Source
Soprano	C4–C6	Female	[1]
Mezzo-soprano	A3–A5	Female	[1]
Alto	F3–F5	Female	[1]
Tenor	C3–C5	Male	[1]
Baritone	A2–A4	Male	[1]
Bass	E2–E4	Male	[1]

Ranges: Wikipedia, "Voice type", which follows the classification in McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Alto is listed there as contralto.

Vocal range names, in order

From highest to lowest, the female voice types are soprano, mezzo-soprano and alto (contralto in opera). The male voice types are tenor, baritone and bass. That order is the whole "vocal range order" most people ask about, and it's the order of the bands on the chart, top to bottom.

There's one more name you'll hear: countertenor, the highest male voice. Countertenors mostly sing in falsetto, using their regular voice only for their lowest notes, so they're not one of the six on the chart.

Male vs female vocal ranges

On average, the top of a man's range is about half as high as a woman's. Half the frequency is exactly one octave, and you can see it on the keyboard: the tenor band (C3–C5) is the soprano band (C4–C6) moved down exactly one octave. The male voice types all sit roughly an octave under the female ones.

Female voice types

SopranoC4–C6
Mezzo-sopranoA3–A5
AltoF3–F5

Together: F3–C6

Male voice types

TenorC3–C5
BaritoneA2–A4
BassE2–E4

Together: E2–C5

The overlap in the middle matters at karaoke. A tenor and an alto share most of the notes from F3 up to C5, so plenty of songs work for both. A man singing a song made famous by a woman usually just drops it an octave, and the other way round. If the octave jump lands too low or too high, a key change of a few steps closes the gap.

Range isn't the whole story

Voice teachers weigh four things when they classify a voice: range (the notes you can sing), tessitura (where your voice is most comfortable), timbre (the color of the sound) and the passaggio, the spots where your voice shifts gears. Solo singers get classified mostly by tessitura, and choirs mostly by range. Range on its own doesn't decide your voice type, so treat any chart, including this one, as a map, not a verdict.

For karaoke, tessitura is the useful idea. A song is easy when most of it sits in the part of your range that feels good, even if one note pokes out the top. That's why the song pages here check the song's whole range against yours instead of only its highest note.

Find your own range

The fastest way to see where you fit is the free vocal range test. Sing your lowest and highest comfortable notes into your mic, and it tells you your range, the closest voice type and karaoke songs that fit. Your audio stays on your device. Once you've taken it, your range shows up as a dashed band on this chart and on every voice type page, so you can see exactly how much you share with each type.

Explore each voice type

Each page has the range on the keyboard, how to tell if it's you, famous singers and karaoke songs that fit it as written.

Soprano vocal range C4–C6 Mezzo-soprano vocal range A3–A5 Alto vocal range F3–F5 Tenor vocal range C3–C5 Baritone vocal range A2–A4 Bass vocal range E2–E4

Famous singers' vocal ranges

Curious how your voice compares with the singers you love? The singer vocal range pages put famous singers' ranges on the same keyboard, with sources for every note, and the songs of theirs that are friendliest at karaoke.

Karaoke songs for every voice

Low voices have it easier than you'd think. The list of karaoke songs for altos is built for low female voices, and the best karaoke songs for men are split into baritone and tenor picks. For higher voices, the best karaoke songs for women run from easy first-timer songs to showstoppers. Every song with a published range is also in the karaoke song list, where you can filter by your range.

Vocal range chart FAQ

What is a vocal range chart?

A vocal range chart lines up the voice types on a piano keyboard so you can see the notes each one typically covers. This one shows the six standard types: soprano (C4–C6), mezzo-soprano (A3–A5) and alto (F3–F5) for women, tenor (C3–C5), baritone (A2–A4) and bass (E2–E4) for men. Each typical range is two octaves.

What are the vocal range names?

The six standard names, high to low, are soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto (contralto), tenor, baritone and bass. The first three are female voice types and the last three are male. Countertenor is a rarer seventh: the highest male voice, sung mostly in falsetto.

What is the order of vocal ranges from highest to lowest?

Female voices, high to low: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto. Male voices, high to low: countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass. Because the male types sit about an octave lower, a tenor and an alto share a lot of notes even though the tenor is the highest common male voice.

What is the difference between male and female vocal range?

On average the top of a man's range is about half the frequency of a woman's, which is one octave lower. You can see it on the chart: tenor (C3–C5) sits exactly an octave under soprano (C4–C6), and bass (E2–E4) sits under alto (F3–F5). The two still overlap around middle C.

Vocal Range Test: Find Your Range & Songs That Fit Sing your lowest and highest notes, get your range and the karaoke songs that fit it. Karaoke Song List: Search 500 Songs by Decade, Genre & Range Every song we recommend in one searchable list, with range, difficulty and length. Karaoke Songs for Altos: 38 Picks for Low Female Voices Crowd-pleasers, ballads and songs made famous by men that sit right in a low female voice, each with its vocal range from published sheet music. Best Karaoke Songs for Men: 42 Picks From Baritone to Tenor Deep voice or high one, there is a song here that fits. Johnny Cash for the low guys, Journey for the brave, plus talk-sung safe bets and a few funny ones.