Intensifying the Emotional Power of Your Songs With Vocal Range

Yes, there is a trio called “The Three Basses“, created on the coattails of the much more famous “Three Tenors.” The bass voice appears less able to generate the kind of wow-factor that the tenor voice is able to create. The three tenors were able to have audiences on their feet even before the music was finished.

There’s something about the human voice when it explores the upper regions of its range. We are emotionally stirred and excited by it. And that doesn’t just apply to the classical/romantic arias that the Three Tenors were likely to sing. In the pop music genres, higher singing generally intensifies emotions.

Instruments can sometimes do the same thing. While the upper regions of the piano range don’t necessarily stir the soul, a guitar solo moving upward has a similar ability to the human voice to generate excitement.

As a singer-songwriter, you likely create your songs without giving much thought to what key they should or could be in. You probably naturally settle into some key that works, and maybe leave it at that. But it’s worth spending time moving the key up and down until you find something that works for the song, not just for your own vocal range.

Here’s what I mean. As your voice moves higher, listeners pick up a natural kind of tension in the singer’s voice. That tension comes from what is known as the tessitura – a singer’s natural range. The term tessitura is often used to describe the range of a song, but its more useful application is in describing the range of the singer him/herself.

That intensification of tension is quite often interpreted by audiences as an intensification of emotional value. In other words, the higher you sing, the more emotionally intense the music tends to sound.

And that can be a very useful bit of information when it comes to deciding on what key to choose for your songs. In that respect, key choice can be an important songwriting decision, not simply a matter of production.

If you’re trying to intensify the emotional power of your songs, vocal range can play a crucial part. Here are some tips to consider when writing your songs and choosing the key:

1. For songs that are particularly emotional, create your melodies to have a climactic high point. In many songs, this will be a moment in the chorus. The climactic high point serves as a beacon, a place where the emotional value of your song is highest.
2. Move the key of your song up until that climactic high point is at or near your upper limit. This all depends on how emotional your song is, of course, and so you’ll want to do some experimenting. Not every love song needs you screaming out those highest notes.
3. Keep verses lower than choruses. All high singing all the time tends to dull the effect of what higher singing can do for you. If it’s all high pitched, it’s far less effective than crafting a melody that moves up at just the crucial moment(s).
4. In collections of songs (i.e., albums), don’t write every song to hit your highest notes. Again, all high singing all the time dulls the potential effect.
5. Consider key changes within songs. If you find that you really like a high version of your song, but you’re not able to sustain the high notes for the entire tune, try this: choose a key that’s just high enough to be comfortable, then change key upward for the final chorus repeats. That ensures you end with good intensity without risking wrecking your voice.

Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter

Do you simply need some chords to get you started? “Essential Chord Progressions“, and “More Essential Chord Progressions” are part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages. Hundreds of chords to use as is, or modify to better suit your songs. Get today’s Deluxe Bundle Deal: READ MORE.