Baritone Vocal Range: Notes, Famous Singers & Karaoke Songs
The notes a baritone typically sings, A2 to A4, on a piano keyboard, plus karaoke songs that fit the voice as written.
Are you a baritone? Sing into your mic and find out in about a minute.
Test your vocal rangeThe typical baritone vocal range runs from A2 to A4, two full octaves. The most common male voice type. On the keyboard above, the green band is the baritone range, lined up with the keys it covers, and the grey bands are the other male voice types (tenor, C3–C5; bass, E2–E4) for comparison.
What is a baritone?
Baritone is the most common type of male voice. It sits between the tenor above and the bass below, and a typical baritone sings from A2, the second A below middle C, up to A4, the A above it. Opera lists nine baritone subtypes, which tells you how much ground "baritone" covers.
If your speaking voice is somewhere in the middle, high rock choruses make you strain, and you sound best when you sing along to crooners and country singers, you're probably a baritone. Most guys are. That's good news at karaoke, because there are piles of great songs written for exactly your voice.
Karaoke tips for baritones
The classic baritone mistake is picking a tenor song because you love it, then hitting a wall in the chorus. Here's how to sound your best instead:
- Pick for your range, not your playlist. The songs below fit A2–A4 as written, so the chorus lands where your voice is strong.
- Lower the key on the big rock songs. A tenor anthem two or three steps down can sound great on a baritone. The crowd won't notice.
- Lean into warmth. Crooners, soul and country show off the rich middle of a baritone voice.
- Talk-sing when you're unsure. Rhythm and confidence carry a song further than a high note.
How to tell if you're a baritone
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.
- 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.
- Compare it with A2–A4. If your range covers most of the baritone band and lines up with it better than with tenor or bass, baritone 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.
- 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 tenor page or the bass page instead.
One more thing: the baritone range is exactly one octave below the mezzo-soprano range (A3–A5). On average a man's top notes sit about half as high in frequency as a woman's, which is one octave.
Famous baritones
Singers whose sources put them in the baritone voice type, each with their range on the same keyboard:
Karaoke songs for baritones
These are the songs from our karaoke lists whose published range fits inside A2–A4 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.
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Want more? The Best karaoke songs for men 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
| 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.
See them all on one keyboard on the vocal range chart.