Lowest notes sung by tenors (10,810 views)

[Steingrim]

Feb 21, 2022 22:11:37 GMT IhateMana said:

Rose, Lennon and Presley are baritones chief

Elvis Presley, definitely. McCartney and Axl Rose could be extended baritones. Both are or have been able to sing into the upper fifth octave. Axl Rose has a fairly low speaking voice. Todd Hall mentioned above sounds similar, his bolded D2 sounds totally real. 

I suppose that the focus of this thread is natural tenors with good low notes. Good modal E2s and below is going to be hard to find.

[Steingrim]

Feb 22, 2022 0:17:31 GMT kaji said:

I don't think Presley was always a baritone but the other two are undoubtedly baritones. Calloway and McCartney are tenors for sure though, even if Calloway's low end is freaky. It's very audible he's a tenor when he sings classical. He even played a tenor role in a Gershwin opera.

Elvis Presley sounds very much like a baritone when he sings Love me Tender from A2 in the mid-50s. There's a later home recording where he sings a non-phrased C2. His bass notes were fairly good but not secure enough for live performances. 

[Steingrim]

Feb 22, 2022 0:17:31 GMT kaji said:

And don't have a thread on him yet (working on it). But Michael Spyres is a classical tenor who has a C2 - youtu.be/gye97Un9h8k?t=224 https://youtu.be/jAWkeUXV9Tg?t=213

But is it any good ? He descends through som soft modal notes and ends on a more powerful C2, but it's again, strohbass. His earlier G2 has more power and could possibly be good enough for baritone, by opera standards. 

This choral bass has a video where he demonstrates the difference at around A1-F2 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=rapDmrpGnog

He's extremely good at that kind of stuff and can go far lower with it.

[kaji]

Feb 22, 2022 9:36:17 GMT Steingrim said:

Feb 22, 2022 0:17:31 GMT kaji said:

And don't have a thread on him yet (working on it). But Michael Spyres is a classical tenor who has a C2 - youtu.be/gye97Un9h8k?t=224 youtu.be/jAWkeUXV9Tg?t=213

But is it any good ? He descends through som soft modal notes and ends on a more powerful C2, but it's again, strohbass. His earlier G2 has more power and could possibly be good enough for baritone, by opera standards. 

This choral bass has a video where he demonstrates the difference at around A1-F2 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=rapDmrpGnog

He's extremely good at that kind of stuff and can go far lower with it.

No one said the lows in this thread need to be modal. You won’t find many tenors with a true modal bottom C. His strohbass is good enough for me to count it in his range.

Feb 22, 2022 8:46:08 GMT Steingrim said:

Feb 22, 2022 0:17:31 GMT kaji said:

I don't think Presley was always a baritone but the other two are undoubtedly baritones. Calloway and McCartney are tenors for sure though, even if Calloway's low end is freaky. It's very audible he's a tenor when he sings classical. He even played a tenor role in a Gershwin opera.

Elvis Presley sounds very much like a baritone when he sings Love me Tender from A2 in the mid-50s. There's a later home recording where he sings a non-phrased C2. His bass notes were fairly good but not secure enough for live performances. 

I am aware of the recording you speak off but that still does not sound like a natural baritone to me. Not enough density in the instrument. It is more apparent live and when he performs with actual baritones (like his duet with Sinatra).

[Steingrim]

Feb 22, 2022 12:42:21 GMT kaji said:

Feb 22, 2022 9:36:17 GMT Steingrim said:

But is it any good ? He descends through som soft modal notes and ends on a more powerful C2, but it's again, strohbass. His earlier G2 has more power and could possibly be good enough for baritone, by opera standards. 

This choral bass has a video where he demonstrates the difference at around A1-F2 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=rapDmrpGnog

He's extremely good at that kind of stuff and can go far lower with it.

No one said the lows in this thread need to be modal. You won’t find many tenors with a true modal bottom C. His strohbass is good enough for me to count it in his range.

I get that, but for the sake of a truer comparison it's interesting. I can fry an E1 that sounds like a musical note and get a Bb5 in falsetto. I can whistle on in breath to the top of the piano. If I try harder I can probably fry an A0 that doesn't sound like much. So now I can sing from the bottom to the top of the piano ? My opera buff friend and concert pianist manager thinks that I would do better as an operatic tenor than the other categories because my bass notes don't reach 100 decibels. Which is totally hilarious. My G2 isn't so bad but I basically can't sing anything that loud. So it all depends.

['S]

Round 69 in dumb thread ideas.

[Steingrim]

It seems to me that Paul McCartney's A1 is subharmonic, or the whole descent through E2-F#2-A1. Usually the "natural" note layered one octave above would be quite distiguishable but some singers like the youtuber bass2yang are very good at it. McCartney must have spent a lot of time on getting that as close to perfect as possible.

[kaji]

The McCartney A1 is very audibly strohbass to my ears.

[Steingrim]

Feb 23, 2022 15:19:37 GMT kaji said:

The McCartney A1 is very audibly strohbass to my ears.

In that case it's better than a lot of tenors' efforts at singing below G2.

[Steingrim]

Feb 22, 2022 12:42:21 GMT kaji said:

Feb 22, 2022 8:46:08 GMT Steingrim said:

Elvis Presley sounds very much like a baritone when he sings Love me Tender from A2 in the mid-50s. There's a later home recording where he sings a non-phrased C2. His bass notes were fairly good but not secure enough for live performances. 

I am aware of the recording you speak off but that still does not sound like a natural baritone to me. Not enough density in the instrument. It is more apparent live and when he performs with actual baritones (like his duet with Sinatra).

He sings a lot of E2s here :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tHUYVLDkN4&t=12s

Sinatra isn't any better at that. E2 is below both singers' tessituras, which may start as high as A2 for a baritone. The recording of their duet is of a poor quality, it works better for Sinatra's more piercing voice than it does for Elvis' voice.

[Brenda]

I feel like most of this thread is being voice type discussion, which automatically makes the thread kinda suck.

[Steingrim]

Feb 26, 2022 2:48:04 GMT Brenda said:

I feel like most of this thread is being voice type discussion, which automatically makes the thread kinda suck.

Everyone isn't a tenor. Axl Rose is confusing since he's able to sing with phrasing way up into the fifth octave. Elsewhere he's classified as a bass baritone, and finding one of those that can sing low C isn't hard. 

[Ultimoot]

Chad Kroeger

clearly his tessitura there is "on the verge of a baritone" but i don't give a fck

[Steingrim]

Robert Plant deserves an honorable mention for his very decent A2 in "Going to California". Not bad for a super tenor.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDIz4talyQk&t=144s

[Goober]

Brendon urie got some D2's

[Hennessy Macklemore III]

Wow there have been some very bad examples of the thread criteria in here so far, between listing numerous singers who aren't actually tenors, and notes that aren't actually that low. When I read "lowest notes sung by tenors", I think of notes in the lower second octave onward, sung by...actual tenors; not baritones known for singing high.

A few that come to mind for me are Neil Patrick Harris' sustained D2 in "House of Freaks", Bruce Dickinson's boomy-ass E2s in live versions of "Sign of the Cross", Mark Slaughter's E2s in "Do Ya Know", Michael Mills' B1s in "Everybody Dies", and maybe Rob Rock's D2s in "Holy Man".

There are some other examples that come to mind, but they're all from singers that I'm not 100% sure about being tenors anymore, so who knows l0l

[Steingrim]

Oct 11, 2023 3:41:12 GMT Hennessy Macklemore III said:

Wow there have been some very bad examples of the thread criteria in here so far, between listing numerous singers who aren't actually tenors, and notes that aren't actually that low. When I read "lowest notes sung by tenors", I think of notes in the lower second octave onward, sung by...actual tenors; not baritones known for singing high.

A few that come to mind for me are Neil Patrick Harris' sustained D2 in "House of Freaks", Bruce Dickinson's boomy-ass E2s in live versions of "Sign of the Cross", Mark Slaughter's E2s in "Do Ya Know", Michael Mills' B1s in "Everybody Dies", and maybe Rob Rock's D2s in "Holy Man".

There are some other examples that come to mind, but they're all from singers that I'm not 100% sure about being tenors anymore, so who knows l0l

Which register the note is sung in and its quality would affect the impressiveness rating, even among actual tenors. Michael Spyres manages a miked B1 in a scale in some video, and that is chest voice. I'm not so sure that he should sing much lower than E2 or D2 in that register, though. He's definitely a tenor, with a really good C5 and a decent D5 too.

[bassmanmatteo]

Oct 11, 2023 12:39:38 GMT Steingrim said:

Oct 11, 2023 3:41:12 GMT Hennessy Macklemore III said:

Wow there have been some very bad examples of the thread criteria in here so far, between listing numerous singers who aren't actually tenors, and notes that aren't actually that low. When I read "lowest notes sung by tenors", I think of notes in the lower second octave onward, sung by...actual tenors; not baritones known for singing high.

A few that come to mind for me are Neil Patrick Harris' sustained D2 in "House of Freaks", Bruce Dickinson's boomy-ass E2s in live versions of "Sign of the Cross", Mark Slaughter's E2s in "Do Ya Know", Michael Mills' B1s in "Everybody Dies", and maybe Rob Rock's D2s in "Holy Man".

There are some other examples that come to mind, but they're all from singers that I'm not 100% sure about being tenors anymore, so who knows l0l

Which register the note is sung in and its quality would affect the impressiveness rating, even among actual tenors. Michael Spyres manages a miked B1 in a scale in some video, and that is chest voice. I'm not so sure that he should sing much lower than E2 or D2 in that register, though. He's definitely a tenor, with a really good C5 and a decent D5 too.

Could you please send the link to the B1? I haven’t heard that one. I’ve only heard him down to C2.

[Steingrim]

After the C2 scale, at 0:40. A-G#-F#-E-D-C#-B

He just doesn't tell you where the scale ended.

[kaji]

Oct 11, 2023 3:41:12 GMT Hennessy Macklemore III said:

Wow there have been some very bad examples of the thread criteria in here so far, between listing numerous singers who aren't actually tenors, and notes that aren't actually that low. When I read "lowest notes sung by tenors", I think of notes in the lower second octave onward, sung by...actual tenors; not baritones known for singing high.

A few that come to mind for me are Neil Patrick Harris' sustained D2 in "House of Freaks", Bruce Dickinson's boomy-ass E2s in live versions of "Sign of the Cross", Mark Slaughter's E2s in "Do Ya Know", Michael Mills' B1s in "Everybody Dies", and maybe Rob Rock's D2s in "Holy Man".

There are some other examples that come to mind, but they're all from singers that I'm not 100% sure about being tenors anymore, so who knows l0l

Baritone known for singing high like who? Who are you referencing there?

[Hennessy Macklemore III]

Well people have so far mentioned Axl Rose, Chad Kroeger, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. Some of them aren't even "baritones that are known for singing high", they're just obvious, famous cases of baritones, so bringing them up here at all is pretty stupid.

[kaji]

Oct 12, 2023 23:10:27 GMT Hennessy Macklemore III said:

Well people have so far mentioned Axl Rose, Chad Kroeger, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. Some of them aren't even "baritones that are known for singing high", they're just obvious, famous cases of baritones, so bringing them up here at all is pretty stupid.

Agreed about everyone but one. 

[Hennessy Macklemore III]

So are you gonna say which one or

[kaji]

Oct 12, 2023 23:42:38 GMT Hennessy Macklemore III said:

So are you gonna say which one or

Elvis, and not because of his high notes. His C#4-F4 to be exact. And I do not think this is such a rare opinion. I've spoken to many people who study voice either contemporary or classical who have said the same. 

[Hennessy Macklemore III]

Alright then