Do you know what the real definition of a lazy tenor is?
A very rich baritone!
–Thomas Hampson

Note: I have edited this article slightly since it was first published, and I’ve changed one of the original five questions. I sing baritone now, and am very happy singing baritone. As I write this, I’m 30 years old, and my voice has grown into itself. My experiences singing as a tenor probably slowed down my career as a baritone somewhat, but those experiences also made me a much smarter singer. I feel a responsibility to keep this article current with what I believe about singing because it is – by far – the most read article on this site, and I don’t want to steer anybody wrong. Enjoy. – Ian, Aug. 30, 2013

In Spring 2009, I switched from baritone to tenor (and since then, I’ve happily switched back). Since I’ve written about this struggle often, a lot of people have found this blog by asking the question via Google: Am I a tenor or a baritone?

The answer: it depends.

Fach Identities as a Tenor or a Baritone

There is a lot of identity that goes with singing within a certain fach (voice type). One person’s personality may be attracted to one kind of character over another, but their voice may point them in a different direction.

Baritones play more villains (Scarpia, Jago, Jud Fry, Javert, Klingsor) or men of questionable integrity (Count Almaviva, Oppenheimer, Escamillo, Don Giovanni, Wotan) than tenors. Baritones are often cast in comic roles (Figaro, Papageno). When they’re heroic, in opera, they can often have a fatal flaw (Valentin, Amfortas, Wolfram, Flying Dutchman, Athanaël).

Tenors tend to be lovers (Nemorino, Fenton, Rinuccio, Rodolfo, Alfredo, Faust) and heroes (Siegfried, Jean Valjean, Parsifal), and, at their worst, they can be jerks (Pinkerton) or creeps (Hermann), but they are rarely murderers (Don José). Tenor roles can be less dramatically complex and meaty than baritone roles, but musically – in my opinion – they tend to get the soaring tunes that folks tend to whistle afterwards.

If you are a baritone who wants to play primary protagonists all the time, your options may be limited in opera and more plentiful in musical theater (Curly, Lancelot, Marius) or operetta.

In my early struggles with being a baritone, I was hoping that I could be the next Thomas Hampson and get some of the rarely performed baritone versions of popular tenor roles tenor roles transposed (Werther ), but that was and remains unlikely.

Questions to Ask Yourself

None of these questions are fool-proof. Some baritones have high passaggi and some tenors have a hard time with high C’s, but these can get you thinking more clearly about who you are:

1. Are you uncomfortable or in pain?

   If you feel sore when you sing, whether it’s high or low, then you may want to try something else. If A2 on the bass clef feels bad to you, then you may be a higher voice. But if E4 feels bad to you even after regular practice, then you may have a low voice.

2. Where is your passaggio?

   Where is the most unstable area of your voice? That’s likely to be your passaggio. Usually, it is a good guide to help you decide whether you are a high or low voiced person.

   Normally, we speak of having two passaggio breaks: the first break (primo passaggio) and the second break (secondo passaggio) with a zone in between (zona di passaggio).

   For me, the zona di passaggio feels similar to singing on a tight rope where one wrong move will cause me voice to flip in and out of falsetto in a fluttery kind of way. It is also difficult to hear my own voice properly there.

   Here is the chart from Richard Miler’s The Structure of Singing laying out men’s passaggio points (with those in parentheses being alternates):

   Voice Type	primo passaggio	secondo passaggio
   tenorino	F4	Bb4
   tenore leggiero	E4 (Eb4)	A4 (Ab4)
   tenore lirico	D4	G4
   tenore spinto	D4 (C#4)	G (F#4)
   tenore robusto (tenore drammatico)	C4 (C#4)	F4 (F#4)
   baritono lirico	B3	E4
   baritono drammatico	Bb3	Eb4
   basso cantante	A3	D4
   basso profondo	Ab3 (G3)	Db4 (C4)

   Test out your voice by singing a truly pure “Ah” vowel beginning in your speaking voice area. As you ascend, you will reach a point where you have to tilt your jaw up if you continue to sing in the exact same manner as you began. That’s your primo passaggio. A fourth above is your secondo passaggio. This doesn’t work in 100% of cases, but it usually is helpful.

3. What is your most comfortable tessitura?

   The best guide to your range is your tessitura. That’s where you’re happiest singing with good technique for an extended amount of time. Even if you can manage to sing all the notes in a given tessitura, it must sound pretty easy for you, or the audience will have a kind of cognitive dissonance with your performance. You might be able to honk out a killer high note, but if you cannot actually sing in the tessitura required by a piece, then you aren’t actually that voice type.

   For example, the aria “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” from The Magic Flute is full of notes that a baritone can sing. The highest note is a Ab4. The tessitura, however, sits too high for a baritone, and it will sound difficult for the baritone to sing. He will also most likely tire himself out before the end of the aria.

   For me: I’m happiest singing in the baritone range. When I sang Nemorino, I did it, but it felt so incredibly difficult and stressful, while singing Almaviva – a baritone role – in Le nozze di Figaro felt great.

   This takes experience and lots of trial and error, but if singing stops being fun due to an incorrect choice, then it’s best to make a different choice.

4. What is your reaction to other singers?

   If you listen to a singer and think “Yes, we can!”, then give it a shot and see. Try what they do. Don’t get attached because it might be wrong for you right now, but there’s nothing wrong in trying something out once. Your gut may be telling you something.

   If you feel inadequate after listening to a singer or a sense that it is totally beyond you, then maybe that repertoire is not right for you.

5. Are you faking it?

   You may not feel any discomfort or pain when you sing, but you may be faking it.

   Faking Baritone?

   Faking baritones will make choices that appear to make their voices lower and darker than they naturally would be. The voice might be quite dark, but something won’t ring true about it.

   Examples of baritone fakery include a tongue shoved into your throat or an overly lengthened vocal tract by shoving your lips outward. You may be pulling your top lip down to darken your sound. You may be modifying your vowels too early to create an artificially low passaggio. You may sound incredibly loud to your own ears but small voiced to everyone else.

   Baritones are able to have a clear phonation lower than most tenors. Baritones aren’t basses, and they don’t need to sound like basses, but at G3 and lower (down to Bb2 or lower depending on the baritone) they must be able to phonate without breathiness. It doesn’t matter how dark the timbre is if the singer doesn’t have this fundamental clarity.  Naturally, beginning singers may have a hard time phonating clearly in any part of the voice, so some flexibility is required there.

   Faking Tenor?

   Faking tenors will make choices that make their voices appear higher and lighter than they naturally are. They might be able to sing very high notes, but something will feel false.

   Faking tenors may have a larynx that is pulled up into the backs of their throats. To give the appearance of a high passaggio, they may keep their voices spread instead of modifying their vowels appropriately. This sound may not sound like singing at all and may be highly unpleasant to listen to (though even the prettiest voice can sound unpleasant if it’s loud and in a small room).

   True tenor high notes must be connected to the body. A faking tenor can use a well rounded hard rock wail to sing very high notes, but it won’t have the same rooting that true tenors have, and they won’t have a smooth transition to the rest of the voice. A true tenor should be able to briefly grunt most of their high notes with full abdominal support, while a baritone will hit an early uppermost limit.  Try it through lazily rounded lips using the word “buddy” with a Texas drawl for help (Thank you, Julian). The “u” will sound more like the vowel sound from “book”.

   As a general bit of advice: try singing as simply as you can for awhile and forget all of your technique and Fach identity. Just intone some “Ah”s and try to avoid creating any tension in your throat. Record yourself. What do you hear?

Do I have a choice?

For most people, the answer is ‘no’. For most people, they are clearly in one camp or the other, and there is very little they can do to alter that. The question becomes “What kind of (bass,baritone,tenor,alto,mezzo,soprano) am I?” That takes time to learn as well.

But for some others, they may have a choice. Lauritz Melchior sang as professional baritone before he switched up, and he must have been credible to audiences at the time. Thomas Hampson could probably have made a credible tenor, but he’s done ok for himself.

The choice to remain or change is a highly personal one. If you are toying with the idea then talk to your teacher (and maybe several; I got a second opinion with my teacher’s blessing) and take some time to play with it. There’s no harm in play.

[Have you made a change in your fach? What was the experience like? Was it easy, hard, in between?]

————————–

{“Si se puede” frog by artfulblogger.}