This page is maintained by Tom Arneberg ( tom@arneberg.com)
(Last modified: $Date: 2000/09/08 20:10:05 $)
For more info about MHBQA, email Kim Orloff at korloff@ix.netcom.com
middle
E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G
^ | | |
|-----------|____________________|____________________|----------|
additional notes add'l notes
in men's range in women's
range
The "good sounding area" is the two-octave spread where both men's and
women's voices have the most effective sound as far as range of voices
is concerned. The men's barber-shop arrangements have to reach up
into this area for cleaner-sounding and singing chords, and the women
have to arrange their chording down into it for the same reason. This
is why we can't effectively transpose barbershop arrangements note for
note, chord for chord, from the men's key to the women's key [or vice
versa], as it takes them both too far out of this good-sounding area.
All of the range scales shown above will adjust according to the
group. Tailor-make arrangements [for a specific group] emphasizing
special voice qualities and out-of-the-ordinary vocal ranges.
Women singing a men's arrangement transposed but not revoiced will sound too high and girlish, without a robust barbershop blend and sound - in many cases the bari will be singing what the tenor should be singing while the tenor will be in the sky, singing the notes the bari should have an octave lower. Conversely, men singing a women's arrangement transposed but not revoiced will quite often sound too muddy, because too many of the chords will be voiced very low and many but not all chords should be revoiced so that the bari SHOULD be singing the tenor notes [those originally assigned to the women's tenor in the women's arr] and the tenor the [women's] bari part one octave higher.
Converting BBS to SATB? Well - this is an interesting subject! Yes, the sopranos could sing the men's lead an octave high; I imagine it would fit in their range BUT I think it would ruin the sound of the arrangement. It certainly wouldn't be barbershop. Yes, the altos certainly should be able to sing men's BBS tenor part (and you'd have a LOT of tenor) [not good in barbershop]. Here are the average BBS ranges of men's and women's arrangements, lined up from top to bottom:
(X=Avg., x=Ideal)
Middle
E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G
|____________________|____________________|
F Tenor E--------------------------G
M Tenor B-----------------------C
F Lead g-----Bb-------------------Bb--c
F Bari G--------------------------Bb
F Bass c---- Eb-------------------------G
M Lead D--------------------------F
M Bari C--------------------------E
F--------------------------------C M Bass
As you can see most female barbershop leads and baris would fall into
men's tenor part, and most female barbershop basses can easily sing
men's lead. Now - as to ranges of Sopranos and Altos - many of these
women probably have wider ranges than they use to sing SATB. Why not
ask both sopranos AND altos to sing men's lead if they possibly can
(some of the altos will probably have lower notes they never use in
SATB and would be classed as women's BBS basses if we got ahold of
'em. And have the sopranos try to sing the men's tenor - they
probably have lower notes they never use in SATB (When I was in high
school maaaaany years ago the teacher made me a soprano 'cause I could
hit the notes and was strong - but I wanted to HARMONIZE and sing
alto, so I sang soprano when the music teacher was near me and alto
when she walked away) But you'd better tell the sopranos and altos
singing tenor to "cool it"! [Kim's note... I sang 2nd alto for years,
but am MUCH happier now singing women's bbs bass & men's bbs bari... I
can always hit the low end C, even though on some days I can also hit
the female tenor E to G (see above) in head voice!]