Occasionally, when backing vocalists, I hear them say 'I sing in Bb', or I usually sing in my favourite key - G'. They sometimes proved themselves wrong, when I had to change key to one which fitted their range better - didn't tell them -but where did this concept come from, and is there actually any sense in a statement such as that? I don't mean they say they sing a particular song in a particular key - good vocalists do this - but they state that they sing everything in x key.
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That's absolute non-sense if it's meant as a general (i.e., song-independent) statement. Of course every singer has a certain range, and also a comfort zone. But the range of a song, i.e., its lowest and highest note, is not determined by the key, but by the way the melody is written. Of course, chances are that in a certain key the lowest note is the root or the fifth, and that the highest note is the root, but there are too many exceptions to use this as a guideline.
Matt L.
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The notion of a favorite key for someone's voice is not as far-fetched as you might think. Professional singers intimately know their voices and their "money notes", the exact spots where they can achieve the ideal sound. These spots can be as delicately placed as a semitone, so it does make sense that someone likes singing in E as opposed to E flat, since their high e sounds a lot better than their high e flat.
Kilian Foth
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1A favourite key for a specific song, I'll buy. I do it myself, as do so many far better vocalists. However, the blanket 'I sing in C'? – Tim Jan 04 '17 at 07:45
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Ask a professional singer about Bruchlage (don't know the English term, sorry) and they'll bend your ear about how incredibly important it is that you accomodate their key. Gerald Moore used to claim that in any given recital, he'd have to transpose classical songs more often than not, on the singer's explicit wish. – Kilian Foth Jan 04 '17 at 07:47
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Understood, and with you all the way. Often that extra semitone, either way, will stop success. But I'm asking about people who have said - quote - ' I always (or only) sing in x key'. – Tim Jan 04 '17 at 07:50
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1You're right, the preference makes a lot more sense for particular songs than for music generally. I assume the reason that specific preferences generalize somewhat to a general preference is that classical music follows predictable patterns - composers use in-scale notes much more often than foreign notes, melodies tend to climax on the tonic or the fifth, etc. – Kilian Foth Jan 04 '17 at 07:54
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That sort of reasoning makes some sense, and may be the basis for the explanation.. I'm looking for evidence. But most of the people who've said this to me don't sing classical stuff. – Tim Jan 04 '17 at 08:13
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The only people I have ever heard give this answer are untrained people who have a basic knowledge of how a capo works on a guitar. What they tend to do is shift the capo to the same fret every time and don't realise that capo on the 3rd fret is not always the same key. – SaggingRufus Jan 04 '17 at 12:33
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@SaggingRufus - Never heard it from a guitar player, but I understand what you say. Always from a singer who has a little knowledge - or perhaps can remember the name of one key. – Tim Jan 05 '17 at 13:23
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@Tim just enough knowledge to be annoying. I remember playing in wind symphony and having someone ask the director to transpose the music (for all instruments) 3 times. – SaggingRufus Jan 05 '17 at 13:33
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1@SaggingRufus - I'm of the firm opinion that a vocalist should be more than aware of both the key he needs to sing a particular song in, and his tessitura. Love it when a singer says 'you find the key'. I generally do, about a tone too high. Well, we all make mistakes, and his was not being in control! – Tim Jan 05 '17 at 13:37
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When a singer says that they sing in a certain key, it's just ridiculous. They sing within a certain range. The vocal range of a specific song is the real issue, not the key.
Ken Teel
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