Mean Ranges and Tessituras for the Voice Change Series
Identifying the vocal registers simultaneously points out a workable range and tessitura while enabling vocal professionals to proceed with proper voice categorization for pubescent singers. Cooksey’s Eclectic Model identifies six stages of development; he assigns the following ranges and tessitura to each:
Although these ranges and tessitura are generally similar to those of the vocal professionals surveyed, prepubescent boys with proper training can easily sing to c2 and above. The abundance of both sacred and secular repertoire bears out this fact. In settings where singers are not rehearsed frequently, or one in which boys singing above the staff is novel, a teacher may encounter some initial resistance to the idea that boys can reach and sustain high pitches; indeed, they can do so quite comfortably—much more so than adult female singers.
Identifying the vocal registers simultaneously points out a workable range and tessitura while enabling vocal professionals to proceed with proper voice categorization for pubescent singers. Cooksey’s Eclectic Model identifies six stages of development; he assigns the following ranges and tessitura to each:
Although these ranges and tessitura are generally similar to those of the vocal professionals surveyed, prepubescent boys with proper training can easily sing to c2 and above. The abundance of both sacred and secular repertoire bears out this fact. In settings where singers are not rehearsed frequently, or one in which boys singing above the staff is novel, a teacher may encounter some initial resistance to the idea that boys can reach and sustain high pitches; indeed, they can do so quite comfortably—much more so than adult female singers.
A. Unchanged
Whole notes = range; quarter notes = tessitura
B. Midvoice I
C. Midvoice II
D. Midvoice IIA
E. New Voice
F. Emerging Adult