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What kind of tenor is Michael Jackson?

eighthnoterojo

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I was wondering if any of our resident MJ experts here can tell us, what exactly is MJ's vocal range? What is his highest note, and what is his lowest? And if precise examples could be given, that would be great. I've been looking for a website with a description of MJ's vocal techniques and capabilities; haven't found anything, but there surely must be at least one. If anyone knows of one, maybe they could show us. Description of his head voice, chest voice, timbre; stuff like that is what I'm after. I've found this kind of info on other singers, but not MJ.

I suppose I could sit at the piano, listen to his voice in all his songs and find the high and low notes, but I'm lazy. If someone has already done it, it would save me the trouble.

This is partly because a discussion has been sparked on if MJ were to do an aria, which one(s) would be best suited to his voice. And for that, we'd need to know what kind of tenor he is.

The characteristics of a tenor's voice determine which kind he is. (One kind is in no way better than the other, just different.)

Here are some different kinds of tenors with a very short description of each.

Leggiero - Light and agile; good for coloratura (basically fast vocal gymnastics)
Lyric - Warm and bright
Spinto - Bright but with more weight
Dramatic - Rich and powerful
Heldentenor - Heroic and dark
Countertenor - Adult male who sings in a higher range than that of a tenor, usually using falsetto
Tenor buffo - rather like a character singer, requires good acting

Each kind has a set of repertoire, although there are many tenors who cross over from one set of repertoire to another. It's quite confusing, really, and not everyone agrees about which kind of a tenor a singer actually is...

Which kind do you think he is?

I'm leaning towards MJ being a countertenor, with perhaps some leggiero or lyric repertoire being possible. If I knew his exact range that would help. I think we can rule out heldentenor; can't see MJ singing Wagner. :lol:


Of course all this aria business is purely speculative and for fun; the likelihood that MJ would ever sing an aria is highly improbable.
 
This is a vocal profile for Michael I've found on the internet a long while ago. I can't remember the exact source.

Vocal Profile

Vocal timbre: Spinto, Countertenor, Baritone (in the song 2000 Watts of Invinvible album, for exmaple)
 
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2000 Watts shouldnt be used as a reference as MJs vocals were altered in post production. MJs vocals were lowered as was the rest of the track however an example of how low MJ can sing is YOU CANT WIN (Movie Version).

This highest Ive heard MJ sing is 30th Ann concert during I'll Be There.
 
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He's on record singing lower then in "You Can't Win". I always post the clip. It's him singing Low-F. It's lower then anything on "2000 Watts" as well. And he actually is controling it, not just hitting the note. I'll post it here if you haven't heard it. On "Butterflies" he hits an F# above high C in falsetto. But he hits that same note in full voice on "Enjoy Yourself". He can sing well above High C in full voice, which is impressive.
 
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You mean when he goes "haaaaHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" DI? :lol: I LOVE that part!



Startin' at 5:04... yeaaaaa BOIIIIIIII :dance:
 
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wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
He's on record singing lower then in "You Can't Win". I always post the clip. It's him singing Low-F. It's lower then anything on "2000 Watts" as well. And he actually is controling it, not just hitting the note. I'll post it here if you haven't heard it. On "Butterflies" he hits an F# above high C in falsetto. But he hits that same note in full voice on "Enjoy Yourself". He can sing well above High C in full voice, which is impressive.
Click to expand...
Yes, please post the clip. :yes:

Thanks for all that wbss21. :) I wish more info was available about MJ's vocal abilities. Perhaps it's been published in a book? Haven't checked.

Spinto. Hmm. Yeah, I could see that. All in all, quite a lot of repertoire options are available to MJ. Maybe the arias I posted in the other thread would be reasonable suggestions. :)

Plus, I don't think it's unheard of for singers to transpose arias if they are just going to sing the one, and are not actually performing the entire opera. Not 100% sure about that though; it may be frowned upon in some cases.
 
Thank you very much for the info wannabe!! I've never known his full vocal range and have always wanted to figure that out, but never had the slightest clue as to where to look.

I have heard that little snippet you are thinking of posting. Pretty crazy, to say the least!
 
I always thought that "You can't win" end was dubbed! So it's him singing that!?! Wow, that's lower than I can go.

I love that "heavy singer" aaa-aaaah he's doing in MSG concert!
 
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It was no problem eight and Ivory. I like talking about this stuff, as I'm sure most here know by now, lol. Obviously, to know every detail of Michael's vocal range, we would have to talk to Seth. But clearly, it is very expansive and though his most comfortable range is in head voice, he is able to quite easily sing as low as bass. What's interesting is, while some singers range cuts off in the middle and they aren't able to sing many of the notes between their lowest and highest, as Seth said, all of Michael's range is connected, he's able to hit every note from lowest to highest and actually, comfortably and with control, sing in that register, from chest, to head to superhead, or falsetto without having to skip over anything. So he could concieveably sing in any of those ranges and do very well. So there are no tricks or manipulations when you say he's got this or that many octaves, etc... where as that often is the case with other singers.

Here he is singing in bass eight: http://www.yousendit.com/download/Q01FUGhhUENCSWRjR0E9PQ
 
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Erm, what kind of file is that, wbss21? I can't seem to open it. Don't s'pose you've got a YT link, or something I can play in windows media player...
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
It was no problem eight and Ivory. I like talking about this stuff, as I'm sure most here know by now, lol. Obviously, to know every detail of Michael's vocal range, we would have to talk to Seth. But clearly, it is very expansive and though his most comfortable range is in head voice, he is able to quite easily sing as low as bass. What's interesting is, while some singers range cuts off in the middle and they aren't able to sing many of the notes between their lowest and highest, as Seth said, all of Michael's range is connected, he's able to hit every note from lowest to highest and actually, comfortably and with control, sing in that register, from chest, to head to superhead, or falsetto without having to skip over anything. So he could concieveably sing in any of those ranges and do very well. So there are no tricks or manipulations when you say he's got this or that many octaves, etc... where as that often is the case with other singers.

Here he is singing in bass eight: http://www.yousendit.com/download/Q01FUGhhUENCSWRjR0E9PQ
Click to expand...
OMG.. I played that file, and right when he sang I fell off my chair! :bugeyed


I DIDN'T KNOW HE CAN SING THAT LOW, THAT IS AMAAAZING!! :bugeyed:wild:
(Oh and it's a M4A file, you can play with Quicktime. :))

BUT OMG... WOWWWWW. :bugeyed *stunned* his voice. I couldn't stop laughing :lmao: omg, that is just too cool man. WOAH. again. :bugeyed
 
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Hmm, shoot. I'm bad with this technology stuff, lol. Maybe someone else could download it and then upload it in a different format for you. I've been trying to figure out how to make it work, but I'm totally dense with this kind of stuff.
 
Makes me wonder, what if one day Michael sang with that kinna note, like a whole song. :lmao::eek:
That's just so cool.
 
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Thanks a lot for the link and infos! It finally worked.
If he is able to speak so deep that people can not recognize him, no doubt he can sing like that also. I love love his versatility.
 
If you can't play the file as an .m4a you can convert it on online conversion websites, then you can play it using programs your computer (or you!) is more comfortable with! :happy:

That note in 30th A. is...:bugeyed
Still waiting for my conversion so I can hear the low-ness
 
No. :boohoo

Well not for me anyway; maybe it works for others?

Hopefully I can find a solution at my end; I must be doing something wrong. Doh. :doh:
 
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