Sunday 19 December 2010

Fergie - Vocal Profile/ Range



Vocal Type: Contralto
Vocal Range:2 octaves and 4 notes. C#3- G#5
Vocal Pluses: A distinctive character that is present throughout the registers. Her midrange can be punchy, and full of attitude or soft and breathy. Versatile chest voice that can have a heavier rocky rasp to it when sung through the throat or a thinner, lighter more elastic tone when mixed with the head voice.
Vocal Negatives:Voice becomes harder to control the higher she belts, and the tone can become unstable.
Longest note:19 Seconds



This video demonstrates Fergie's sustained, held notes but the quoted highest and lowest notes are incorrect. The low B2 is actually a G3 and the high note at the end is an E5 not a C6.



Fergie Profile suggested by "Shopaholic". Thanking you!

25 comments:

  1. that was not a B2, was a G2.

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  2.  I just checked it out, I think its actually a G3

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  3. its really a G2 . im a singing student.

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  4. just verified the note with Musebook tuner. Its a G3. It  just didn't sound dark enough to be a G2, but I feel more confident in my opinion after using the program to check it. Of course, you are welcome to your opinion about it being  a G2 but I don't agree.

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  5. well we are both right, 'cause here it's diferent, a G2 here is a G3 there. I dont know why but it is.  i just checked out so. :)

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  6. can you (or somebody else) please elaborate a bit on that please? I am trying to determine my vocal range and learn notes on the piano in the same process with musebook tuner, but am kinda confused now.
    G3 in musebook tuner is G2 where? music science?
    according to musebook tuner I can atm (by trying as hard as I can) go down to C2. that would mean C1 in music science?

    does wikipedia (see link below) use the musebook labeling or the other to describe vocal ranges?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_range

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  7. The scientific model I use is that C4 is middle C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_c. If you want to check what note you are really producing, just note down the frequency [ in Hz] and compare that with this http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

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  8. thanks, I've checked the frequencies and there are different name/frequency mappings. the germans for example use c'' for 523.5 Hz and in spoken language they would say 'C 2' or maybe 'C 2 strokes' (can't remember because it's been more than a decade since I had this in school). In the english mapping that would be C5 though.
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_%28Musik%29

    Don't know which mapping 'Guest' used, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are several more.

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  9. Can her range be clarified? The youtube videos are in direct conflict with the range provided above.

    Also, I'd like to have a source to her 19 second note. I'm not sure that Fergie could pull off such a note but I'm not completely shut off from the idea. I'm just curious. 

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  10. The 19 seconds note was in a freestyle in a concert in chile

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  11. I was at that concert. The crowd went wild! She has a great set of lungs

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  12. Also she did during "shut up"  a cartwheel with only one hand while singing
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC4g3jdnloQ 

    Just like this one in Moscowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5WHTSydtXQ 

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  13. I wouldn't call Fergie a contralto. Her voice doesn't have the dark color that is noted in a contralto. But maybe that just how my ear is trained, but I would call her a lower end Mezzo

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  14. She's not a Contralto. She is some kind of Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano

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  15. I see her as a mezzo-soprano. The voice is not as dark or thick as most contraltos.

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  16. She is a Mezzo, I know is one of those artist that hard to evaluate due to her undertones. She is versatrile, at times she will showcase a heavy vibrato on the lower end. To a richer thicker sound on the higher end. Then she show a softer light sound. She knows how to play with her voice, but her colors not dark enough to be contralto. I can hear inflections here and there wear someone might think so but overall her tone is to light.

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  17. she looks like a man sometimes...

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  18. Well in brazil is 1 octave lower... anyway, as i said, we were both right. so.. i didnt check with musebook tuner.

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  19. I have never heard her live, but I have heard her sing Be Italian, and must I say, she sounded amazing. Her voice was quite dark in the song. It's too bad she wastes her voice on really dumb songs.

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  20. Im a musical trainer and she's not a contralto, she is a mezzo soprano.

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  21. She is contralto, so a contralto shouldn't have good high notes too like mezzos?.. the girl has a tomboy voice. it's not a low contralto voice but high enough to be perceived as a female voice. so people love to say mezzo. In opera mezzo and altos can sing the sometimes sing the same Arias because the voices are almost alike in quality. only a true experienced listener can really know the voices. Ewa Podles is an Operatic coloratura contralto with a high range to soprano D6. her range touches the same range as Renee Flemming who's soprano high note limit is a D6. so contralto have have a high range as mezzos and sopranos

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  22. An alto and contralto are 2 different things... In chorus, the term alto can be a lower lyric soprano to a higher lyric baritone. That is a very vague term. And her belts as a whole are extremely bright, typical of a thicker mezzo-soprano. Her lower register isn't even full enough to be a true contralto. She also has a high tessitura by mezzo standards. It is G#3-E5.


    Another thing, you are looking at range wrongly. Range is a one trick story. A tenor can have a range of E2-B5. So can a baritone, however their tessitura and timbre will be two different stories. One thing I hate about vocal range videos is that they never show the first passagio. It is the falsetto break and is crucial for discerning between voice types. Lets just say, a soprano's flasetto break will be around A#4-C5. A mezzo sopranos, will be around E4-A4. A contraltos will be a A#3-Eb4, much like a tenor.

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  23. Cannot agree more with you, BR.

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  24. Def. a mezzo.

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  25. she is clear mezzo :D

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