. . .I meant after the weekend. So where were we? Oh yes, making songs singable through changing keys and creative control. We’ll start with keys.
Generally speaking the average singer lies between a baritone and tenor for guys and a mezzo and a soprano for girls. So a focus on the tessitura of a song will direct you to whether you need to change it’s key or not.
WHAT?
Most people have a voice that’s not too high or too low. So you need to see if the song stays really high or really low the whole time and change the key to fit peoples voices. That make better sense? Now let’s look at the word tessitura and decide what is too high and what is too low.
Tessitura refers to where the pith of a song stays. For example, if a song is really high and stays high the whole time, it has a high tessitura. If a song is really low and stays low for the majority of the time, it has a low tessitura. Now if a song is kinda in the middle but every now and then has a really high note, or really low note, it’s considered a medium tessitura because while it went really high or really low once or twice, most of the time it stayed in the middle. The song “Grace Like Rain” has a medium tessitura even though it has that high note in there. High tessitura songs need to be lowered. Low tessitura songs need to be raised.
What is too high or too low? First you need to consider your own range. Know your comfortable limits. For me it’s somewhere between the Bb below middle C and the F an octave and a half up. Now I can sing higher and lower, but I’m most comfortable there, and you’ll rarely find a worship song that spans further than an octave and a half. So when I find a song in a key and it goes past those ranges, I immediately know already I’m gonna have to raise or lower it. Next you need to consider the average singers range. Honestly, the octave starting on middle C is where you’re gonna have the best luck. NOTE: girls, realize you need to be thinking an octave higher when I’m talking about notes. That is a good general tessitura. So then if the majority of your song lies there, your good. It’s okay if you have a note go above or below every now and then, prolonged singing high or low is what we’re avoiding. I personally do not like to sing above the E an octave and two steps above middle C, and below the A below middle C, that’s where you’ll start losing people. Remember, we want everybody to be able to sing all of every song if we can.
But this does mean work on your part. Figure out your range and then for each song you sing if it is in an acceptable range for you and the people singing with you.
Please tell me if you’re confused. Tomorrow (and I mean tomorrow, I think) we’ll talk about creative control of songs. Peace.
