Prince (43,723 views)

[Baronessa]

E♭5 - C♯6, tenors get jobs like that all the time innit.

[Steingrim]

Apr 6, 2024 13:57:29 GMT Yojojo said:

But if we're GOING to do this old song and dance again, I put forward that Prince's vocal type is "The Bari Formerly Toned as Tenor"

The first notes that I found that don't sound like fry to me, is the really poor F#2 from "there's lonely" and then the ok G2 from "future soul song". He uses every register, and he could well be a low tenor or something.

[Yojojo]

Apr 8, 2024 14:03:06 GMT Steingrim said:

Apr 6, 2024 13:57:29 GMT Yojojo said:

But if we're GOING to do this old song and dance again, I put forward that Prince's vocal type is "The Bari Formerly Toned as Tenor"

The first notes that I found that don't sound like fry to me, is the really poor F#2 from "there's lonely" and then the ok G2 from "future soul song". He uses every register, and he could well be a low tenor or something.

Then swap bari and tenor, idgaf

[Homelander]

What about "Rave Un2 the Tenor Fantastic"?

[Yojojo]

- Anothertenorholenyohead
- I Wanna Be Your Tenor
- Thieves in the Tenor

[IhateMana]

i have been listening to this dude for like 8 years I promise you he's a baritone. can y'all stfu now?

[Goober]

did anyone get a chance to ask the guy before he sadly passed away

[Yojojo]

Apr 8, 2024 19:59:18 GMT Goober said:

did anyone get a chance to ask the guy before he sadly passed away

*sigh*

I didn't wanna have to come clean, but...

At some point in 1998, while during a trip to London, I stopped at a pub. It was nice and quiet there, but as I downed my pint of Carling, sat at a table was the man, the myth, the legend himself... Prince Rogers Nelson! I tried my darndest to contain my excitement, but at one point I had to use the lavatoire. So I hopped to the bog lickety-split and began pushing out a pinecone, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening, and a deep voiced grunt as some bloke walked into the restroom. I heard him potter over to the urinal, and began draining the lizard. 

He pissed loud as fuck, comparable to the sweet sound of sizzling KFC. Then, I heard the guy moan and ramble in a very Corpse Husband type voice, "fuck me... all these years of trying to sing the 7th octave... I've done it... it's pain to speak in the 2nd octave, it is!" He then started singing a note-perfect rendition "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic".

At this point, I'd finished up, and the guy mumbled "fuck me..." and the guy was actually Prince! I was like "wow Mr. Prince I had no idea you were a bass all along" is what I would've said if he didn't threaten me and said "listen you little shit... you don't tell anyone about this" but I freaked out so and acted in self-defense. I dropkicked him in the tibia, then took his body into the stall and flushed him down the toilet. This worked because Prince is only like 4'6.

To this day, I can never forgive myself knowing what I did. I'm glad Prince survived, but I now live with the truth of what I've done... oh yeah, and Prince really is a bass.

[wbradycall]

Nov 30, 2020 17:17:21 GMT mrrobot166 said:

Baritone?

You're banned and won't be able to respond to me, but I am also interested to know if he's a baritone or a tenor of some sort (he's referred to as both).

[wbradycall]

Feb 25, 2021 19:46:37 GMT halloweenjack95 said:

Feb 25, 2021 13:12:29 GMT kaji said:

I could see him as a possible tenor so there clearly is a ‘possible debate’.

He is a Baritone. What makes you think he is a tenor?

Yeah haven't heard enough of his voice to give a solid opinion, so I won't agree neither disagree. So far, he definitely doesn't sound like one of those super obvious high tenors. He sounds kind of in between a high baritone overbrightening and a low tenor with just a heavier vocal weight. And at the end of the day, I really don't care about his voice type, though sometimes I try to classify contemporary voices for fun.

[IhateMana]

Prince seems to be someone people initially misclassify because he's usually masking his timbre with his flamboyant vocal acrobatics, and it kinda distracts you from how heavy and pushed his chest voice is. But uhh, hope some of these can illuminate the baritone thing a bit more:

He can do this
This kind of agility in the lower range would be unusual for a tenor (please ignore the one F#2 he wiffs here)
No self-respecting tenor writes this melody line knowing they'll have to sing it live later (also side note, listen to how nasal the chest parts are after these lower lines)
again, it's pretty easy to miss this cause of everything else, but his mid-range sounds like this
This G4 sounds like it hits him, not the other way round
and finally, for those that have never heard this, he talks like this lmao

[VocalDudeGuy]

No self-respecting tenor writes this melody line knowing they'll have to sing it live later (also side note, listen to how nasal the chest parts are after these lower lines)

This link speed ran becoming dead

[Steingrim]

Jun 24, 2024 21:14:07 GMT IhateMana said:

No self-respecting tenor writes this melody line knowing they'll have to sing it live later (also side note, listen to how nasal the chest parts are after these lower lines)

I agree with you that he's a baritone, and in the Purple Rain movie he speaks slightly lower than in the last clip, especially when he's moody. But the low part of the above melody line (E2-E3) is all fry, that's part of why the next part sounds odd, in contrast. More than anything Prince is a master of employing all kinds of registers, on the fly.

[sophiam122]

He sounded like a very obvious tenor.

[Baronessa]

You know, it would be a big mystery, but then you hear G4s like this and suddenly this argument seems a lot less impressive.

[VocalDudeGuy]

I mean you never know, maybe Prince didn't drink water for like 19 hours before doing that recording.

[sophiam122]

Maybe Prince sounded like a mid-high tenor with screams and falsetto in timbre.

[Yojojo]

or maybe he's not a tenor... stop with this bari-washing this is discrimination

[VocalDudeGuy]

Nah you're all wrong, Prince waz a suzper flexeble vuice that could'a bean a basso profound or a souprano. I mean, he had a ronge of A1-C7, his range could overlap with the vucal ranges of all vocal tipes. He coulda been any voice type he wonted to be!!!! Anyways, I'm a Baritenor with a vocal range of G2-F4, and I was windering how I could squeak out a C#6 like my favorite youtuber, could you guys help me?

[Steingrim]

Jul 2, 2024 2:33:55 GMT VocalDudeGuy said:

Nah you're all wrong, Prince waz a suzper flexeble vuice that could'a bean a basso profound or a souprano. I mean, he had a ronge of A1-C7, his range could overlap with the vucal ranges of all vocal tipes. He coulda been any voice type he wonted to be!!!! Anyways, I'm a Baritenor with a vocal range of G2-F4, and I was windering how I could squeak out a C#6 like my favorite youtuber, could you guys help me?

He has a bolded G#4 in chest voice, with a lot of distortion. There are many A4s on the list, a few Bb4s. His recorded chest range seems to be approximately F#2-B4. He could be termed a baritenor. Unless someone can find a really good chest A4, or higher?

[IhateMana]

[Steingrim]

I was basically agreeing with you :

Jun 24, 2024 21:14:07 GMT IhateMana said:

This G4 sounds like it hits him, not the other way round

But Prince isn't about voice type, whether that's supposed to be "all encompassing" or not.

[Homelander]

Jul 1, 2024 22:49:59 GMT Baronessa said:

You know, it would be a big mystery, but then you hear G4s like this and suddenly this argument seems a lot less impressive.

Barry Gibb struggles with G4s in the exact same way (if not worse), yet he is pretty much universally agreed to be a tenor (at least by this forum). As challenging as those G4s are, plenty of tenors struggle with that note, especially doing it in what's basically pure chest voice like Price is doing in that recording.

[Bink]

Yeah see the difference is have you heard the difference between the speaking voices and lower registers of those two.

[Steingrim]

Jul 26, 2024 6:45:01 GMT Homelander said:

Jul 1, 2024 22:49:59 GMT Baronessa said:

You know, it would be a big mystery, but then you hear G4s like this and suddenly this argument seems a lot less impressive.

Barry Gibb struggles with G4s in the exact same way (if not worse), yet he is pretty much universally agreed to be a tenor (at least by this forum). As challenging as those G4s are, plenty of tenors struggle with that note, especially doing it in what's basically pure chest voice like Price is doing in that recording.

Some tenors are likely to struggle with a G4 because it's in the secondo passaggio area, which may be an entirely different problem. But ref the recent discussion here about voice types in terms of tessitura and brightness. The Gibbs all sound very bright, at any pitch. Which may lead people to think of them all as tenors, but they may not all be that.