What Is Your Singing Range?

 

image from https://www.liveabout.com/pitch-notation-and-octave-naming-2701389

Introduction

From the highest note you can sing and the lowest note is your vocal range. Most singers have a two octave range approximately, which means there are about 24 notes you can sing comfortably and clearly without straining your voice. Your range will be described with a note and number for your lowest and highest notes, i.e. D#3 to D#5.

Importance of knowing your range

Every singer should know their own vocal range in order to choose songs that best suit their voice and won't cause a strain that damages their vocal cords or attempt to sing songs that contain notes they cannot reach. When you know your range, you will always be able to choose songs in keys that best show off your talents. You will know how to ask your guitar or keyboard accompanist to play in the right key for you and also find backing tracks that have been made in your preferred keys. 

How to work out your range

There are several free phone apps that will also tell you your range by asking you to sing your highest and lowest comfortable notes, such as: 

• Vocal Range Vocaberry
• Vocalizzo Lite
• Singscope

You can also use this Youtube Video from Jacob's Vocal Academy

Alternatively, if you have access to a piano, then sing a comfortable note that is in the middle of your range (i.e. not too high or low). Find this note on the piano by trying a few different piano notes until you can match it, then play every black and white note going down the piano (to the left) and sing each note until you reach your lowest note and can't sing any lower. Do the same from your middle range note going up the piano (to the right) to find your highest.

Remember to warm up your voice before taking the test so your full range is available. 

What the range numbers mean

When measuring a singer's range, we refer to octave numbers (e.g. C4 from the fourth octave, etc). This is most easily shown on the piano, where the notes cover just over 7 octaves, spanning from A0 to C8 (see diagram at top of page). 

Although everyone's singing voice will be slightly different, singers generally fall into these ranges, as described by Anne Peckham (2008):

• Soprano: (highest female) C₄  to C₆+
• Mezzo-soprano: (female) A₃  to A₅ 
• Contralto: (lowest female) F₃  to E₅ 
• Tenor: (highest male) B₂ to A₄₊
• Baritone: (male) G₂  to F₄ 
• Bass: (lowest male) E₂  to E₄ 

The image below shows the medium octave on the piano, with Middle C highlighted in blue. Most singing ranges cover all or half of this octave and beyond. 

image from https://www.liveabout.com/pitch-notation-and-octave-naming-2701389

Finding the key of a song or the highest and lowest notes

If you choose a well-known song, you will probably find the key and highest and lowest notes online, such as on sheet music sales websites, such as: 

Music Notes.com

The image below is from Music Notes.com's sales page for Adele's 'Someone Like You': 

Sheet Music Direct tells you the original key (at the bottom of this list) and allows you to change the key of the music (Transposition) before you download it. 

Finally, you can also work out the highest and lowest notes in a piece of music either by singing along or by looking at the sheet music. Can you find the highest note in 'Someone Like You' by searching for the note on the highest line or space on this page? (Hint: Only read the top line above the lyrics for each of the four rows - the next two lines are for the left and right hands on the piano)

Bibliography

Peckham, A. (2008). Vocal workouts for the contemporary singer. Boston: Berklee Press, Milwaukee.

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Alternatives to Wikipedia! Other websites with Music information

 

When researching and writing essays, you should avoid Wikipedia as the information is not reliable. A reliable website will contain fully researched information, usually written by a qualified journalist or an academic (university lecturers, professors, research assistants, etc). Since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, it is susceptible to incorrect, biased or missing information.

5 Alternative Websites to Wikipedia for Performance and Technology

Here are 5 fully researched and reliable websites with the same information instead. Click on the titles for embedded links.

1. All Music Guide

This website includes: 

• Artist biographies for thousands of artists
• Discographies  
• Reviews of songs and albums by journalists and public
• Composer / Songwriter credits
• Musician / Band member credits
• Lists of artists who have done cover versions of this artist's songs
• Lists of artists who have influenced them, or been influenced by them
• Lists of artists they have collaborated with
• Awards won by the artist 

2. Encyclopedia Britannica 

This website includes: 

• Artist biographies for thousands of artists
• Discographies 
• Awards 
• History of different musical genres

3. Stereogum

This website includes: 

• New music reviews
• New artist interviews
• New releases and genre playlists
• Top Ten lists

4. Sound-on-Sound (Music Technology)

This website includes: 

• Instrument and recording equipment reviews
• How-to guides for using equipment in the studio or live
• Explanations of recording & mixing processes & concepts
  

5. Sweetwater (Music Technology)

This website includes: 

• Instrument and recording equipment reviews
  
• How-to guides for using equipment in the studio or live
• Explanations of recording and mixing processes and concepts

Other helpful websites for music research

List of various music websites (compiled by University of Richmond, Virginia, US)

UK Newspapers (reviews, interviews and articles): Guardian, The Times

Current music news and interviews: Billboard, NME

Also: 

• Official artist websites
• Fan-made wiki pages with interviews from magazines, newspapers, websites, tv, radio, etc 

BTEC Guide to Lower 6th Subsidiary Diploma in Music Performance

 This article has been adapted from Donna Hollick's Coulsdon College guide to BTEC Grading for BTEC RQF Certificate in Travel & Tourism, Sept 2020

You are studying the BTEC Level 3 QCF Subsidiary Diploma in Music Performance. Your qualification size is 60 credits and is equivalent in size to an A Level.  You will be studying 6 units across two years, all of which are assessed by internally-marked coursework. 

The following overall grades can be awarded for the certificate:

• Pass 
• Merit 
• Distinction
• Distinction*

Your 3 Lower 6th Units are:

• Unit 23 – Music Performance Techniques 
• Unit 40 - Working and Developing as a Music Ensemble
• Unit 22 - Music Performance Session Styles

You will be assessed for all of these units by internal coursework.

The marks below show how many points you will get for each grade. 

 

IMPORTANT - HOW YOUR GRADE IS CALCULATED

Each unit has 3 or more tasks and your work for each task is graded at Pass, Merit or Distinction.

For example, here are the grades for Unit 23: 

You must achieve all the criteria to get a Distinction for the whole unit (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, M3, D1, D2, D3)

all the Pass and Merits to get a Merit, (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, M3)

and all the Passes to get a Pass (P1, P2, P3)

If you get all the Pass grades and all of the Distinctions, but only 2 of the Merits – your overall unit grade will be a Pass. 

Calculating your overall grade for the Subsidiary Diploma

To calculate your overall grade, the points from all 6 units studied across 2 years are added together to give you your overall grade (e.g. Units 23 + 40 + 22 + your 3 units studied in the 2nd year). 

E.g. Lower 6th Units

Unit 23 - Merit = 8

Unit 40 - Distinction = 9

Unit 22 - Merit = 8

Upper 6th Units

Unit X - Merit = 8

Unit Y - Distinction = 9

Unit Z - Merit = 8

Your total points are = 50. 

This number is now multiplied by 10 to give your qualification grade = 500 points overall

Practice time!

1. Agatha gets 3 Passes and 3 Merits - what is her grade overall?

2. Rupert got 2 Distinctions, 2 Merits and 2 Passes – what was his overall grade?

3. Mabel got 5 Distinctions and 1 Merit – what was her grade overall?

4. Cliff got 4 Passes and 2 Merits - what grade did he achieved overall?

5. Priya got 2 Distinctions, 3 Passes and 1 Merit – what grade did Priya gain overall?

Stretch and Challenge

Please give your target grade that you would like to achieve at the end of the year and give 3 strategies you will use to achieve this!

Target Grade – 

Strategies:

1)

2)

3)

Unit 33 Paul's example - Programme and Planning notes

Rehearsal Video - Weds 16th Sept - at college

Body and Soul - Programme Notes

1. 'Body and Soul' - Piano, Db Major, with a slow, rubato feel. This moving Broadway ballad with music by Johnny Green and lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton has been recorded by many jazz greats, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Benny Goodman, John Coltrane and Tony Bennett. It is a good example of the jazz style known as 'Torch Songs'. Torch songs are generally sad and portray yearning for an unrequited love, examples including 'Cry Me a River' and 'But Not for Me'. Whilst 'Body and Soul' is in a major key, which might normally sound happy, the tempo is slow and the verse begins on the minor 2nd chord, which gives a sadder mood. 

I learnt the song from a live concert bootleg recording by '80s songwriter, Joe Jackson, who named his 6th album after the song and whose sophisticated piano pop tunes have been a big inspiration on my own style. In this version, I will be performing the song as a piano solo combining melody and chords. 

Information from JazzStandards.Com

Joe Jackson, 'Body and Soul' 1984

Body and Soul - Planning notes

Choosing the song

During August, I chose this song to learn as I came across it in a piano song book and remembered it as a song I first heard as a teenager. Although the song comes from the 1930s, it was revived in the '80s, which was when I heard it performed by Joe Jackson. Since then, I have heard several other performers' versions, mostly on recordings from the 1940s and '50s. 

How I learnt the song

I had previously sung it (from Joe Jackson's version) and memorised the melody, but this is my first time to learn it on the piano. I found the chords and melody in this book PHOTO 1 . Whilst most piano sheet music gives you both the left hand (bass/chords) and right hand (melody line) parts, the version here is a 'topline' arrangement, featuring just a melody line in single notes and chord names. This allowed me to decide how to arrange my version and I chose mostly single bass notes in the left hand part and inverted chords with the melody note at the top, played by my right hand little finger or ring finger. The rest of the chord in my right hand then forms a mid-range harmony. 

I faced some challenges since the key of Db Major has 5 flats and I am less familiar with this key on the piano. There are also many unusual extended chords, some of which are chromatic and outside of the normal 7 chords of the key (such as E dim 7 and Bb7b9), so I began by working out the notes of these chords. Since some chords might require 5 notes, I have spread these notes across both hands, playing the root as a bass note in the left hand. I have then chosen whether to all of the remaining notes in the right hand or leave some out, such as the 5th of the chord, which is often optional. 

The song has an AABA structure, which each section lasting for 8 bars. The A section is the verse and refrain ('body and soul' sung on the last line each time) and the B section features new chords. There is also a modulation up a half step in the Middle 8 where the whole song changes to the key of D major for 4 bars, then D minor for the final 4 bars, with a chromatic descent at the end. 

My interpretation: choosing the mood

I knew the feel of the song I would aim for in terms of tempo and mood, based on the story of the lyrics. The lyrics present a narrator who is passionately pleading with their lover to give them another chance. The lyrics do sound a little dramatic, and it fall into the category of 'torch song' which was popular in that era: 

"My heart is sad and lonely, for you I cry, for you, Dear, only. Why haven't you seen it? I'm all for you, body and soul." 

Since I have chosen to play this as a solo piano piece without vocals or lyrics, I will have to show the sad mood of the lyrics through my interpretation, using tempo, dynamics and phrasing. Although different versions of the song choose different tempos, I want my version to be medium slow, around 70-80bpm but not always keeping to strict time, as I wish to slow down some sections to put across the dramatic mood of regret and reflection. I have also added some changes in dynamics, where I vary from soft to medium loud. I also use the sustain pedal to let the notes ring in a legato style as I feel this matches the message of the song: sad and reflective. 

My interpretation - other changes

As well as deciding on how to arrange the voicing of the chords, I also added an introduction based on the final two chords shown on the page in the 'turnaround' between verses and added an ending which temporarily moves the key to B major, with a further chromatic run-down and ascension to a Db major 7th chord, followed by some inversions. 

Further improvements

I would like to add further developments to the verses (part A) since at present these do not vary on each repeat. I am also still making the ending smooth. 

Starting a new Blogger Webpage

 

Blogger Beginner's Tutorial

This helpful tutorial will show you how to create a new Blogger website in Steps 1 and 2. If you want to change the layout of your blog, you can also follow Step 3. We are very grateful to Rebecca Cristaldi, a lecturer in the Media and Performing Arts departments, who wrote this guide.

STEP 1 – Gmail Account

• You will need to set up a Gmail account in order to access blogger.com

• Make sure you keep your username and password somewhere safe so you don’t forget it!!! 

• Once you have a Gmail account you can use this to log in to blogger.com

STEP 2 – Create a new blog

• Your new blog name will be your name followed by  ‘Music Blog’ – 

(e.g. Paul’s Music Blog)

• Your new blog url needs to be one word and all lower case. It will be your full name followed by ‘coulsdonmusic’ – e.g. paultornbohmcoulsdonmusic.blogspot.co.uk 

• Once you have entered your name and

url, click on Simple option under Template section (you can change this later)

• Then Click  on the ‘create blog’ button

Step 3 - Customising your blog

• Once your blog has been created, you should see the following screen – under the first image, click on Customise

• From this screen, you can change the template (we recommend using 'Awesome Inc. Artsy')

• šYou can change the background:

• šYou can change the layout of the page:

• šOr you can change the font and font colours:

• šOnce you have finished customising – click ‘Apply to blog’ then ‘back to blogger’

A COVID Guide to Studying Music at Coulsdon

  

image from https://www.timeout.com/news/face-masks-just-became-the-hottest-music-merch-of-2020

Our Music courses normally involve group rehearsals, singing and sharing of music equipment, all of which are now coming under restrictions due to COVID. Some changes will be necessary but we are doing our best to ensure all students can continue to study their courses with minimal disruption. 

The following guide explains how Music lessons will be taught under revised health and safety guidelines. We kindly ask Music students to respect and co-operate with these 8 areas of guidelines to reduce risks to all students and staff. 

1. CLASSROOM LESSONS

Lessons will still be held in class, although some teachers in the college may be teaching online from home, just as some students may be learning from home due to health reasons, shielding a family member or isolating with the virus. Important lesson resources will also be shared online, so students should check Moodle regularly.

During class lessons, it will be necessary to keep to a fixed seating plan to minimise possible contamination of computers. 

At least one classroom window should be open in each room during the day to ventilate the space.

Students should use the hand sanitiser in corridors on the way to and from lessons. Students may wear masks or other PPE if they choose to. 

2. CLASSROOM EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS

All classroom equipment, including computer keyboards and mice, guitars and instruments, should be wiped before and after use. Teachers will supply wipes. The microphones will be regularly sterilised but should also be externally wiped. As usual, equipment such as microphones, cables and headphones must be signed out, treated carefully and returned before the end of the lesson. 

No equipment, including instruments or computers, should be shared until it has been cleaned first. 

Students should bring their own pens and stationery equipment to lessons. 

Technology students should bring their own headphones. 

Any music books that are used should be left to one side and pointed out to the lecturer at the end of the lesson. Pages can be photocopied to prevent regular use of the same book. 

3. RECORDING AND LIVE SOUND DESKS

This equipment should be very carefully and gently wiped before and after use, since over-cleaning may damage the equipment. It is also possible to operate this equipment from phones and tablets via virtual controller apps, which can limit the risk of contamination due to handling. 

PRESONUS StudioLive 32 U.C. Surface Controller App

Android - Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.presonus.ucremote

iPAD - Apple Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/presonus-uc-surface/id909365316

PRESONUS StudioLive 32 QMIx-U.C. Controller App

Android - Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.presonus.qmix

iPhone - Apple Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/presonus-qmix-uc/id703208043

4. REHEARSAL ROOMS & GROUPS

The small rehearsal rooms (214 - Drum room, 215 - Piano room, 217 - Mixing room) will now have a limit of one music student only. As always, these rooms are off-limits to non-Music students and any student inviting guests to these rooms will lose the privilege of using the room. 

The larger rehearsal room, 213, can accommodate a group of up to five students working at a 2 metre distance. 

To facilitate social distancing, full groups could work as pairs instead, such as:  

• one singer and one guitarist or keyboardist
• one guitarist/singer and a drummer, 
• one keyboardist/singer, one bass player and a programmed rhythm track

Singers could work with backing tracks and guitarists with loop pedals. With smaller groups, songs could be creatively re-interpreted to 'unplugged' or stripped-back arrangements.

5. SINGING

Singing is an activity with a higher risk of infection spread, so groups of two or more singers should either stand back-to-back or side-to-side in a line, at a sensible distance from each other. The room must also be well-ventilated with at least one open window. 

6. LIVE EVENTS & LIVE SOUND ENGINEERS

Live gigs can be given online or to camera with virtual audiences. Live sound engineers can work in small teams with a small number of performers. Shows can be edited to professional standards using free Open Broadcaster software, such as https://obsproject.com

7. RECORDING AND MIXING AT HOME

Technology (and interested Performance students) should take advantage of the free recording and mixing software available for use on computers and phones: 

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-music-production-software/

https://www.musictech.net/guides/buyers-guide/free-music-making-mobile-apps/

8. COVID SYMPTOMS

Any student  who becomes unwell with symptoms of COVID-19 whilst onsite must inform their tutor and/or lecturer then go home immediately and be advised to follow the Government COVID-19: guidance for households with possible coronavirus infection guidance

If you are unable to go home immediately, you should ask to be escorted to an on-site isolation room to wait.  

All BTEC Courses - Start and End Dates, Marking, Resubmissions, Extensions, Late Submissions & Re-takes

 

Here is a guide on:  

• submitting work, 
• receiving your grades, 
• late submissions, 
• resubmitting work, 
• requesting an extension,  
• re-taking a unit if you do not pass. 

Further guidance on all of these topics can be found in the BTEC Course Handbook on Moodle. 

📅  START, END & MILESTONE DATES 

All BTEC units have a start and end date, when all final work is due. This can be found at the top of the assignment brief. 

For instance: 

Unit 5

Start Date: 10th September 2020

End Date: 10th December 2020

In this example, Unit 5 has 3 tasks: 

• Task 1 has a milestone date of 8th October 
• Task 2 has a milestone date of 12th November. 
• Task 3 is due at the end of the project on 10th December. 

Students should submit Tasks 1 and 2 to Moodle by the milestone dates, so the lecturer can check their work and give general feedback to the class (teachers cannot give specific feedback on grades to students until after the Unit end date). 

Students can continue to improve their Tasks 1 and 2 evidence based on the general class feedback before the final end date. 

😎 Milestone dates also allow students to spread their workload across the term rather than attempting all unit tasks in the final week that work is due. 

SUBMITTING WORK

All tasks should be uploaded on time to the hand-in folders under each unit section on Moodle. Moodle will accept uploads of most files, including Word, Powerpoint and Excel documents, mp3s and others. Students should avoid uploading PDFs as it is not possible for the lecturer to add typed comments onto these. 

✅ When you upload work to Moodle, you will be asked to tick a box confirming the work is your own and not copied from any other source. This will count as your 'declaration of authenticity' for your BTEC submission. Your written work will also be checked by the TURNITIN app, which checks your submission against written text online to ensure that you have only used short quotations. 

For this reason, you must also submit a copy of any written work on a blog to Moodle. Simply paste your written blog submissions into one Word document and upload it to Moodle. 

💯RECEIVING GRADES 

Your work will be marked within a three-week term-time period to allow time for first marking and for a sample of marked work and the grades to be checked and agreed by a second member of staff. Your work will be returned to you with comments via Moodle. Your grade will also be recorded on MyPT. 

LATE SUBMISSIONS

If a student has missed the final end date for a unit, they must immediately contact their lecturer and agree a new hand-in date, within a fortnight of the original submission date. Any student handing work in late loses the right to request a resubmission.

🔄 RESUBMISSIONS 

After the marked work is returned, if the student thinks they can improve their grade, they may request the chance to resubmit and must then notify their lecturer of their request. The lecturer will only agree to a resubmission if: 

• all of the original work was submitted on time by the unit End Date 
• the lecturer has authenticated the original work as the student's own and believes that it is possible for the student to improve their grade by working independently with no further help from the lecturer. 

The lecturer will then grant a resubmission and state a new hand-in date. Your work will be marked within two weeks, allowing time for a second lecturer to agree the grade is fair and accurate. 

➕DEADLINE EXTENSIONS

If a student knows in advance of genuine circumstances beyond their control that may cause them to miss a deadline, then the student should inform their lecturer no less than 2 weeks before the deadline to request an extension. Extensions are agreed at the discretion of the lecturer. 

FAILING A UNIT

If a student submits incomplete work, fails a resubmission or submits work that is plagiarised (copied from somewhere else - see below) then this can mean they have failed the unit. In this case, the student is normally offered the opportunity to take a new unit once all other units have been completed on the course (usually in May). This new unit will be a different unit from the other units on the course (i.e. re-take students will not repeat a previously taken unit) and the maximum grade awarded will be a Pass. 

❗PLAGIARISM

Students are encouraged to use websites, books, videos, television programmes and other sources to research their work. Any quotations taken from these sources should be kept brief. Longer quotations should be summarised. If a large amount of text is copied, students are at risk of being accused of plagiarism, suggesting that they have not done the work themselves but copied it from somewhere else. A student accused of plagiarism risks failing the unit and the course and is risking their place at college. For further guidance on how to avoid plagiarism, see the blog on Harvard Referencing. 

Music Technology - 30 Credit Certificate - A Guide To BTEC Grading

This article has been adapted from Donna Hollick's Coulsdon College guide to BTEC Grading for BTEC RQF Certificate in Travel & Tourism, Sept 2020

You are studying the BTEC Level 3 RQF Certificate in Music Technology. Your qualification size is 180 Guided Learning Hours and is equivalent in size to 0.5 of an A Level.  You will be studying 2 units, one internally-marked coursework and the other is an externally-marked exam. 

The following grades can be awarded for the certificate:

• Pass 
• Merit 
• Distinction
• Distinction*

Unit 6 – DAW Production 

You will be assessed for this unit by an external exam.

The marks below show how many points you will get for each grade. 

 

Unit 2 – Studio Recording Techniques 

This unit is assessed by coursework. The table below shows the number of points available for this unit.  For unit 2, points are allocated depending on the grade awarded. To get each grade – all criteria within the grade must be achieved.

For example 

Unit 2 consists of 

• Pass grades - P1, P2, P3, P4, P5
• Merit grades – M1, M2, M3 and M4, M5
• Distinction grades – D1, D2, D3

IMPORTANT - HOW YOUR GRADE IS CALCULATED

You must achieve all the criteria above to get a Distinction,

all the Pass and Merits to get a Merit,

and all the Passes to get a Pass.

If you get all the Pass grades and all of the Distinctions, but only 2 of the Merits – your overall unit grade will be a Pass. 

 The grades awarded for Unit 2 can be seen below:

 

To calculate your overall grade, the points from Unit 6 are added to the points from Unit 2 to give you your overall grade

The points awarded from Unit 6 and Unit 2 will be added together to calculate the final grade which you can see in the table above.

For Example

Mohammed achieved a Pass for Unit 6 and got 12 points. He prefers coursework though and got a Distinction for Unit 2 which is 16 points. Mohammed has 28 points altogether so Mohammed was awarded a Merit for his BTEC Certificate in Music Technology. 

Practice time!

1. Agatha studied a BTEC Certificate in Music Technology. She gets a Near Pass in her exam for Unit 6 and a Merit for Unit 2 coursework – what is her grade overall?

2. Rupert also studied on the same course – he got a Distinction in Unit 6 and a Merit in Unit 2 – what was his overall grade?

3. Mabel studied on the same course. She did very well and got Distinctions on both units – what was her grade overall?

4. Cliff struggled on the course and was awarded a Near Pass on the Unit 6 exam and got a Pass in the Unit 2 coursework – what grade did he achieved overall?

5. Priya studied with the group and got a Merit for the Unit 6 exam and a Pass for the Unit 2 coursework – what grade did Priya gain overall?

Stretch and Challenge

Please give your target grade that you would like to achieve at the end of the year and give 3 strategies you will use to achieve this!

Target Grade – 

Strategies:

1)

2)

3)