Alto Vocal Range: Notes, Famous Singers & Karaoke Songs

The typical alto vocal range runs from F3 to F5, two full octaves. Lowest female voice type (contralto). True contraltos are rare; mezzos often sing these roles. On the keyboard above, the green band is the alto range, lined up with the keys it covers, and the grey bands are the other female voice types (soprano, C4–C6; mezzo-soprano, A3–A5) for comparison.

What is an alto?

Alto is the lowest female voice type. In opera it's called contralto, and in a choir it's the alto part. A typical alto sings from F3, the F below middle C, up to F5. Opera recognizes coloratura, lyric and dramatic contraltos, but a true operatic contralto is rare, and mezzos often sing these parts.

If your speaking voice is on the deep side, high choruses make you nervous and you've always liked singing along with the guys on the radio, you might be an alto. That's a great thing at karaoke. A low female voice has a warmth and weight that a crowd notices.

Karaoke tips for altos and low voices

The hard part of being an alto at karaoke is that a lot of famous songs for women were written for higher voices. The fix is knowing where to look:

• Steal songs from the guys. Many songs made famous by men sit right in an alto range when you sing them an octave up. The altos post has a whole section of them.
• Pick songs with a low, steady melody. Soul, country, torch songs and talk-sung rock all play to a low voice.
• Drop the key without guilt. Lowering a song two or three steps is the difference between strained and stunning. The KJ does it all night.
• Use your chest voice. Altos sound best when they sing from the chest instead of floating up into a thin head voice.

How to tell if you're an alto

Your voice type comes from more than your top and bottom notes. Voice teachers also listen for your tessitura (where your voice is most comfortable), your timbre and the spots where your voice shifts gears. Range on its own doesn't decide it. Still, range is the easiest place to start, and it's all you need to pick better karaoke songs.

1. Measure your range. The free vocal range test listens through your mic while you slide from your lowest comfortable note to your highest. It takes about a minute and your audio never leaves your device.
2. Compare it with F3–F5. If your range covers most of the alto band and lines up with it better than with soprano or mezzo-soprano, alto is your closest match. Once you've taken the test, your range shows up on the chart above as a dashed band, with how many semitones you share.
3. Check where it feels good. Sing a song from the list below. If the verses feel easy and the chorus doesn't strain, you're in the right zone. If everything feels like a stretch, try the songs on the soprano page or the mezzo-soprano page instead.

Famous altos

We only list a singer when a source we trust states their range, and we never guess one. The singer vocal range pages are where those sourced ranges live, and altos will show up here as their pages go up.

Karaoke songs for altos

These are the songs from our karaoke lists whose published range fits inside F3–F5 as written, so you can sing them in the original key. The ones with the most room to spare at both ends come first. Each one links to its write-up, with the range source.

1. 1
   Dancing in the Street by Martha and the Vandellas

   Range C#4–A4 Medium 8 semitones to spare
2. 2
   Stop! In the Name of Love by The Supremes

   Range C4–B4 Easy 6 semitones to spare
3. 3
   How You Like That by BLACKPINK

   Range B3–B4 Hard 6 semitones to spare
4. 4
   I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross

   Range C4–C5 Medium 5 semitones to spare
5. 5
   Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses

   Range A3–B4 Easy 4 semitones to spare
6. 6
   Mickey by Toni Basil

   Range B3–C#5 Easy 4 semitones to spare
7. 7
   I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor

   Range A3–C5 Medium 4 semitones to spare
8. 8
   We Are Family by Sister Sledge

   Range A3–C5 Easy 4 semitones to spare
9. 9
   Sally's Song by Catherine O'Hara

   Range D#4–D5 Easy 3 semitones to spare
10. 10
    Hot n Cold by Katy Perry

    Range D4–D5 Medium 3 semitones to spare
11. 11
    A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton

    Range G#3–B4 Medium 3 semitones to spare
12. 12
    Rolling in the Deep by Adele

    Range Bb3–D5 Hard 3 semitones to spare
13. 13
    Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette

    Range A3–D5 Medium 3 semitones to spare
14. 14
    Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter

    Range A3–D5 Medium 3 semitones to spare
15. 15
    Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

    Range G3–G4 Medium 2 semitones to spare

Want more? The Karaoke songs for altos list is built around low female voices. And The Best karaoke songs for women list has more picks for every kind of voice, with range and difficulty for each song. Songs slightly outside your range still work with a key change, and the karaoke song list lets you filter every song by range.

All six voice types compared

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

See them all on one keyboard on the vocal range chart.