A Few Clarifications + Technique Talk (13 February 2020)

One small feedback did point out the presence of baritones with wide ranges. Absolutely. My series title + the Amazon descriptions of my books do somewhat generalize in associating baritones with a lack of ability to sing high notes and this is certainly not true in all cases. What I'm mostly talking about however is chest, or belting register, not necessarily total range. Wikipedia says this about baritones:

Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2-F4)

Although this is talking about choral, and not popular music, it's also typical for a baritone's voice around that F4 note or even a bit before to begin to 'break' and lose the ability to keep a 'belted' sound quite as easily. This is where if you haven't acquired the ability to adjust your technique* or don't have a naturally higher belting range than what is typically in parts written for baritones, you'll naturally start wanting to use falsetto (the high, airy sound, used for instance when a man wishes to imitate a woman's voice). I don't actively note-match, but my personal voice break is quite conventional for a baritone, so most of my song choice's notes would fall below that F4 mark.

Of course, some songs, especially of a laid-back, low-intensity nature don't suffer for not trying to sing around this vocal break and embracing a little bit of falsetto use even if original artists don't (such examples are noted in the books) but there are also times keeping a full belted sound is more suited. Take for example Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". The first verse is reasonably low and easy, the second verse jumps a whole octave and fitting with the lyrics is sung with a powerful sound - for all intents and purposes he's shouting the lyrics at someone. Now imagine if he'd whimpered the whole second verse in falsetto. The effect would be far less intense.

The purpose of my books primarily is to give those who either don't have the time, money, or motivation (any of those reasons is valid) for vocal lessons or otherwise to work intensely on their belting ranges, but still can and want to sing, a range of individual song options where they can most likely sing along with the original artists, belting (and sometimes using falsetto) as they intended in their original recordings.

* Crucially, I also in no way discourage active technical improvement if one wants to go that route, but I also believe those who don't go that route for whatever reason deserve catering to as well. That's where I like to think I come in.

- Aaron