Help! I’ve been assigned to sing alto in choir but I’ve been told I’m a soprano?

Disclaimer: Voice types are not an exact science, this article reflects my experiences and observations, as well as some knowledge acquired from Pedagogical lessons. Always talk to your teacher if singing something feels too high or too low.

One thing I heard very frequently at the beginning of the semester were first-years expressing confusion about what their voice type was. One after one, when asking what they sang, I was told variations of “I sing _ in choir but I thought I was a _.”

I also remember feeling confused about this during my first year. Growing up, I had sang practically every part on the treble staves while in choir, ranging from second alto all the way to first soprano, and occasionally descant parts. I assumed I was a middle voice, or some kind of wonderous Mezzo. After sophomore proficiency I noticed I had been marked down in my music transcript as a Soprano.

The hard fact is that range in adolescents is not solidified. In fact, most biological females do not have a completely settled range until their late 20’s-early thirties. So, for a while, especially in middle school and in some high school voices, female choir voice parts are interchangeable (unless a student has expressed discomfort with some notes). Biological males’ voices change at a fast and noticeable rate during puberty, so usually by their late teens, provided they have training, it is safe to assume their voice ranges and parts.

So what’s the deal? How do we figure this out? Well, the answer lies in texture and timbre.

Timbre is a term that is most often associated with instruments, but I find it usefull in describing vocal color. Timbre is what gives each instrument it’s unique sound, and is determined by the overtones and the balance of said overtones in the pitches that the instrument creates. Timbre’s can be described as nasal, covered, buzzy, bright, deep, dark, and light.

Every human being on earth has a unique timbre because our bodies all have different shapes and porportions, although they are made of the same stuff. Someone else might have a lot of rensonance in their chest, giving them a more buzzy sound, whereas another person might have it in their nose, giving a more nasal timbre.

Texture, on the other hand, is kind of like the glitter on top of the timbre. We as vocalists learn to adjust our timbre to better blend, but one thing that is harder to change is our texture. Also described using adjectives, texture can include rough, soft, airy, powdery, crystalline, pointed, to name a few.

In a choir situation, directors need their singers to blend so that they can evenly balance the chords in the music. And, this can be done by balancing textures. A singer could have a lovely low range, but have such a soft vocal texture that they would be better suited in a part higher up, and vice versa.

Personally, I have a very loud voice with a crystalline and bell-toned texture. My sound is clear, a mixture of light and dark, but tends to be less pointed and more centralized. As a solo soprano, my voice is very large. If I were to sing first soprano in choir now, my voice would stick out of the texture, thus creating problems with balance. So, I was assigned to sing alto and middle parts, depending on divisi. To me, this makes perfect sense. In fact, my alto section is mainly comprised of other solo sopranos.

So, in all, in a choir situation, although range will be a consideration, vocal texture and timbre tends to play more of a role in part assignment.

Here is a short list of adjectives and other descriptions that, in my experience, often match up with voice part distribution (Note: not all of the descriptions will always fit, sometimes tenors are light and sometimes pointed):

Remember folks! Always speak to your choir director if you are experiencing discomfort while singing your assigned part. AND, no voice part is inherently more superior than the other (more on that later).

Go forth and sing!

Key Points:

• Voice types and parts are not an exact science.
• Human voices take time to mature, so they change a lot.
• Always talk to your voice teacher or choir director if something hurts or feels uncomfortable.
• There are all sorts of adjectives and descriptors used to make vocal color tangible. These vary in choral vs. solo settings.
• There are all sorts of subtypes of voice parts (search Fach voice typing).