Monday 11 March 2013

[Vocal Profile/ Range] Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine Sullivan

Vocal Type: Lyric-Mezzo Soprano
Vocal Range: 3 Octaves 2 notes and a semitone (A2-C#6)
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: A dark warm, rich, delicate and characterful voice that is best used at small to medium volumes. The voice has solid agility in all registers and is well connected between A2-G#5.
Tessitura: Eb4-Eb5

The lower register is where the voice shines most, being able to project below C3. The lower register is dark and dense -some may call it androgynous- and can carry rich support down to Bb2, live and A2 in the studio.

The lower middle register carries the same darkness, density and richness of the lower register, as can be heard on song such as If you Dare, Veins and Fear. It can be lightened significantly, hear Brand New. As we near the first passagio (Above E4), the voice brightens significantly, losing much of its density but maintaining its richness and, to an extent, some of the darkness. The lower middle also can be projected into a solid mid-belt that begins to bloom in size at E4/F4. It is evident in Stupid Girls during the second verse. The lower middle begins to pick up volume around G4 as demoed in the belts of #Hoodlove, the sustained A#4 belts in Stupid Girls, and the B4s in If You Dare. The lower middle also can be wielded at smaller volumes, in a "half-voice" as heard in Masterpiece, and Brand New.

The upper middle is bright, rich in color but fragile. The voice can carry a medium volume with effort but access the upper middle via the mask. Lately, her belts have been placed slightly higher and accessed by a more relaxed form of mixing to achieve more resonance. The sound is solid up to D5 before the voice becomes stringy around the middle passagio. The voice loses size above E5 and the belts from D#5 and above become slightly coarse. As in her lower middle, she has shown great ease singing in "Half Voice" in the upper middle as can be heard in the E5s in Brand New, the D#5s and E5 in Let It Burn.

The upper register is seldom accessed but Jazmine has reached C#6 in the studio, sustained a A#5 in the studio and sung up to G#5 live. The highest belted note was a G#5 in the song Masterpiece was was accessed by a head dominated mix. The upper register is coordinated well but does not retain the quality of the lower middle or upper middle. The true head voice of Jazmine is warm, thick and retains the delicate nature of the voice as a whole.

Vocal Negatives:At times the phrasing in the upper middle can be muddy [#Hoodlove]. The voice can sound fragile when pushed around the middle passagio (E5s, F#5s and G#5 in Masterpiece, The F5 in #Hoodlove.)








Thanks to Montrez Rambo for this update!

60 comments:

  1. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. She is not a contralto.

    She is a very low mezzo.

    Mezzos can have an androgynous timbre in the lower register, but it stops there.

    Contraltos carry that timbre throughout their range (minus the soprano heights of their voices), not exclusively in their lower register.

    Compare her voice to that of an actual lyric contralto, Cher, and you'll find Jazmine's voice doesn't quite fit the same mold.

    She's a very low set Lyric Mezzo Soprano at the moment, she could develop into a contralto seeing as the contralto voice matures around the 30s or later, but for now she is still a mezzo.

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  3. You know for a good while I thought the same thing...Her belts carry all the weight of her lower range but are bright even from her lowest belt which is E4/F4.... That is typical of al mezzos to be bright in that area....However Jazmine Mixes like crazy to get that bright sound...you can tell she does this the because even when she was 12 singing on apollo she did that.

    Cher is a contralto I adore but her belts are tad bit more bright then what I'd expect a contralto to be, the same with Toni Braxton (Who many people just label her a mezzo now which I disagree with) yet they are lyric contraltos.


    Listen to jazmine's song "if this is love", "Waistin tears" to see my points on why I stand by her being a bright lyric contralto.... My vocal instructor told me that it is always a blurry line between a lyric contralto and a dark and heavy mezzo but he taught me some key differences in their techniques and tones.

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  4. Toni is a Mezzo Soprano aswell. Once you get past her lower register she sounds exactly like a light mezzo voice, her lower register isn't even that heavy or androgynous either.

    Jazmine carries weight, but she doesn't carry that androgynous tone.

    She isn't a contralto, people underestimate just how expansive the term "Mezzo Soprano" is.

    If you listen to true operatic contraltos, such as Ewa Podles for example, you'll truly see what makes a contralto a contralto.

    You can feel free to stand by your view though, it doesn't bug me.

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  5. I understand your point though... In fact I kinda somewhat agree just a tiny incy wincy little bit (just don't tell anyone) lol. I'm still learning and I want to know every possible thing to this whole voice thing. The only thing you did was provoke tons of questions of interest. lol

    So even if a contralto mixes all her chest notes to sound brighter she won't be mistaken for a mezzo? I was wondering this because when I mix my chest notes, I sound equally as bright as Mrs. Jazmine and I can carry that brightness up to an Eb5 though my voice looses much more weight than hers lol.

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  7. The contraltos voice brightens and lightens as it goes higher, just like every other voice but it retains that androgynous timbre to quite high measures. Ewa Podles retained that sound 'til around G5.

    And in pop, Annie Lennox maintained the androgynous sound all the way through her belting range, up to Bb5.

    Some people could mistake a contralto for a mezzo in the higher areas, Ewa Podles has been called a mezzo at times throughout her career because of her top notes.But like I said, when you've really heard a contralto there is no mistaking them (for the most part).

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  8. Wait, Annie can belt Bb5....Amazing....is there vids on youtube?

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  9. Yepp, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6f593X6rv8 3:20 is, Phrasing up to Bb5 and then a sustained F5.

    She also sustains some wicked A5s in the harmonies of this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hrm5r7_RWk at ,2:45.

    She also gets down to an E2 in the background at 2:59. (Very faint).

    And there are more C3s than one can possibly count (a bit of a hyperbole lol) throughout the song.

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  10. Interesting. The A5 was amazing. The Bb5 sounded very heady to me but still sounded great.

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  11. This wrong and she is a fuckinf dramatic contralto

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  12. After analyzing her voice, over and over, and OVER again, I've come to the realization that she is most likely an extremely low tessitura mezzo-soprano. (One of the lowest in pop) with a tessitura around E3-E5 she is very low. Even watching her live stuff, I can see she doesn't have a grand volume capacity either, so she is actually a light lyric mezzo soprano. (I will admit, live, she sounds totally different. When she belts, she sounds utterly manly, though her voice lacks a sheer volume presence, she retains plenty of resonance and isn't easily drowned out).

    Lets talk about why is is a mezzo and not a contralto. For one, the mezzo-soprano branch is extremely wide, with the tessitura for contraltos and mezzo-sopranos overlapping and the tessitura for soprano and mezzos overlapping as well (Arguably more so than the former) A contralto sounds manly all the way though the modal register. A true contralto would have all these traits.

    1. cavernous lower register
    2. androgynous mid voice
    3. Powerful and androgynous belts that don't become bright until in the early or middle fifth octave.
    4. Cavernous, haunting, and bright head voice.



    As a low mezzo, Jazmine has many but the most crucial is 3 and 4 which she lacks. Her belts though androgynous are far to bright. Her lowest belt is substantially brighter than a contralto's lowest belt. Her head voice, which i recently discovered isn't a train wreck, is thick, rich, resonant, and bright but not cavernous and haunting like a true contralto.

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  13. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 02:47

    She a dramatic contralto tf
    Yell talking about

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  14. Justify your reason for believing she's a dramatic contralto....

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  15. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 02:59

    If your know music like you calm you do you would know and go and read up on different cantralto vocal type and you well see that she fits the dramatic contralto role

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  16. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 03:04

    Thin on top of that you can hit notes in the soprano range don't mean that you a soprano look at chaka chan she a contralto with a wide range and can hit Ab5's and A#5; A5 they all in the soprano range but she not she still a contralto

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  17. Lol, my suspicions confirmed. A mezzo-soprano is not s soprano. In chorus a mezzo-soprano would be anything from a lower second soprano to second alto. It is a very wide range and I'd the widest female range.

    You are right that range isn't important which we noted. What is important is that you learn this. What makes jasmine Sullivan an Mezzo and not an contralto is the fact that her belting range is extremely bright. She still sounds like a woman when she belts. All true contraltos don't have bright belts.

    Jazmine Sullivan is the lowest a mezzo-soprano can possibly be. She has one of the lowest tessitura's a mezzo can have and it does overlap with the contralto tessitura.

    Jazmine Sullivan also has a small volume capacity despite the extra trumpet like tone to her belts. That is a dead giveaway that she is a lyric voice.

    Voices never start off being dramatic...,they always start off as lyric and become more steely as time progresses. Jazmine's tone is not a steely type of metallic and more a trumpet like of

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  18. Metallic. Also Jamzine most likely won't develop into a contralto until she reaches 50.

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  19. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 03:31

    like I said you do not know what you're talking about Jasmine Sullivan is a dramatic contralto her her vocal range this fits all the requirements of a dramatic contralto raspy voice dramatic which means wide range heavy heavy toneand can reach up to a bb5 in full voice

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  20. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 03:33

    Been sing my whole life and my grandmother a dramatic contralto and cand sing soprano but she a second contralto and sing 4octaves and can hit A5's C6, & all but she a contralto

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  21. No dramatic refers to metallic color and vocal size (how loud a person can go)...rasp has nothing to so with it. I have a raspy voice but I'm no dramatic.

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  22. Dude/dudette, whatever you are...no such thing as second contralto. And the soprano tessitura is between c4-f6. What you describes is the mezzo tessitura and to most contralto's that is accessible. Not knocking your grandma but alto and contralto are two different things...

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  23. There hasn't even been a dramatic contralto in Opera for the last 70 years.


    Jazmine is no one's dramatic, and certainly not anyone's contralto.


    And range is not a requirement of a voice.


    You make it very clear that YOU don't know what you're talking about. Jazmine's voice fits none of the requirements for a dramatic voice, let alone a dramatic contralto.


    Also rasp is note a characteristic of a vocal fach, usually rasp means unhealthy vocal production, even if done for effect.

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  24. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:04

    No its clear you don't know what you talking about dumb as fuck you should probably ready up on something tyou don't know about thank p.s its classic and non classic

    ReplyDelete
  25. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:05

    And toni is a deep contralto dtfl yall dumb as fuck don't know shit about the voice

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  26. thedigblackbick5 July 2013 at 04:08

    I do see where you're coming from, I thought she was a contralto as well but you just can't back it up. You're basing all of your proof on range and although that is important, other factors such as weight, texture, power, tessitura, and others come into play.

    Listen to her song "Lions and Tigers and Bears" and you'll see what everyone is talking about. When she ascends, her tone brightens up.



    Naturally ~ she is a lower mezzo.

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  27. And you don't know anything about the English language and how to form proper words and sentences within it, I guess that makes us even ;)

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  28. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:11

    Like I said she a dramatic contralto its ok yall don't know

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  29. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:12

    Coloratura contralto

    Coloratura contraltos—who have light, agile voices ranging very high for the classification and atypically extensive coloratura and high sustaining notes—specialize in florid passages and leaps. Given its deviations from the classification's norms, this voice type is quite rare.

    Lyric contralto

    A lyric contralto voice is lighter than a dramatic contralto but not capable of the ornamentationand leaps of a coloratura contralto. This class of contralto, lighter in timbre than the others, is the most common today and usually ranges from the E below middle C (E3) to the G two octaves above middle C (G5).

    Dramatic contralto

    The dramatic contralto is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest contralto voice, usually having a heavier tone and more power than the others. Singers in this class, like the coloratura contraltos, are rare. They typically sing in a range from the C# below middle C (C#3) to the C above middle C (C#5).[5]

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  30. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:14

    English but no typos iguess that means your guh now

    ReplyDelete
  31. Coloratura Contralto - Annie Lennox


    Lyric Contralto - Tracy Chapman, Anastasia Prikhodko, Cher


    Dramatic Contralto - None, there aren't any in pop or opera currently.

    ReplyDelete
  32. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:16

    A contralto is a type of classical female singingvoice whose vocal range is the lowest femalevoice type,[1] with the lowest tessitura.[2][3] The contralto's vocal range falls between tenor andmezzo-soprano; typically between the F below middle C (F3 in scientific pitch notation) to the second F above middle C (F5), although at the extremes some voices can reach the D below middle C (D3) or the second B♭ above middle C (B♭5).[1] It covers the same range as the malecountertenor voice.

    Terminology

    "Contralto" is meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other genres lack a system of vocal categorization comparable to that generally accepted in the classical context. Even within current operatic practice, contraltos are often classed as mezzo-sopranos, because singers in each range can cover for those in the other. When appearing separately, the term "contralto" applies only to female singers; men whose voices fall in the same range or higher are known as "countertenors."[2] The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, the latter technically denoting a specific vocal rangein choral singing without regard to factors like tessitura, vocal timbre, vocal facility, and vocal weight.[4]Within the category of contraltos are three generally recognized subcategories—coloraturacontralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto—that usefully describe the voice type in general terms. Note, however, that they do not always apply with precision to individual singers; some exceptional dramatic contraltos, such asErnestine Schumann-Heink and Sigrid Onégin, were technically equipped to perform not only heavy, dramatic music by the likes of Wagner but also florid compositions by Donizetti.

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  33. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:20

    Soprano: C4 – C6Mezzo-soprano: A3 – A5Contralto: F3 – F5Tenor: C3 – C5Baritone: F2 – F4Bass: E2 – E4

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  34. This applies to opera you, not pop music, idjit.

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  35. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 04:24

    It don't tho and I think you need spell check

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  36. Oh the irony.

    ReplyDelete
  37. KING°B®I$¢O£5 July 2013 at 13:29

    But you did mispell a couple of words through

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  38. No. Literally every word is spelled correct, you however haven't posted any comments without misspelling and/or using proper grammar.

    P.S Learn how to spell misspell before you go telling other people that they have misspelled something.

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  39. And you were telling @Serendipity.- that they were misspelling. "cantralto"

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  40. KING°B®I$¢O£8 July 2013 at 23:17

    Dramatic contralto

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  41. @KING°B®I$¢O£ you are right about her being a contralto don't know about the dramatic thing but she has the capabilities of one her tone is throaty and husky the reason why she is sadly mistaking as a mezzo is because she mixes like crazy her tone is very heavy and raspy and powerful, she has a strong thick mid range and a warm higher range...

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  42. You're just going to keep quoting wikipedia and you're just going to continue being wrong... on everything.

    ReplyDelete
  43. KING°B®I$¢O£19 August 2013 at 02:26

    No I'm gonna keep quoting wiki and I'm right

    ReplyDelete
  44. KING°B®I$¢O£19 August 2013 at 02:34

    That's what I'm telling these kids and thank you a lot I see somebody else know about they vocaltypes and they so dumb saying she a lyric or light contro
    Alto and she a dramatic contralto

    ReplyDelete
  45. Man she can SING. She's such a creative vocalist. Not a Contralto, but a Mezzo actually lol I guess what you really mean is "Alto" which in Choral standards is primarily the equivalent of Mezzo Soprano. This confuses a lot of people. So when people say Alto, I go along with it. But, in actuality "Altos" are really Mezzos misclassified with the misconception that they're "Contraltos". A bit confusing lol Contraltos are extremely rare:
    Tracy Chapman, Sade, Anne Lenox, and Cher to name a few. Androgynous timbres with extremely low tessituras. That isn't Jazzy. But man, the world NEEDS her music. I can listen to "In Love With Someone Else" for 3-hours STRAIGHT, and it's not an exaggeration. I heard she quit music because her work is under appreciated. Ughhh, mainstream's the trade-off for quality & brilliant music. Such an insufficient sacrifice seeing as it will only be relevant for a matter of weeks, few months maybe. Then what? Gone in the dust, while brilliantly composed music that's seemingly timeless is left in the dark. Jazzy, we need you!

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  46. Why is she listed as contralto? Do you not hear the distinguished sounds from mezzo to contralto???


    I think if you studied the voice more you would change your opinions of what contraltos sound like, clearly Jaz is a mezzo...

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  47. A dramatic contralto is more like Toni Braxton... Jazmin fits the mold of a mezzo.

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  48. Sounds like a tenor? Even a contralto singing in tenor range would still sound lower than Jazmin, someone who sings in contralto tenor range is Cher, or Nina Simone.

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  49. Toni said she is a contralto, Tamar even said Her mom is an opera singer who trained and conditioned her and all her sisters to sing. Specially harmonizing and training them in their specific voice "category".

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  50. But a contralto doesn't just have a heavy timbre to it, they have an androgynous timbre too, which she doesn't - you can immediately tell that she is a female when she sings, whereas it could be easy to mistake the likes of Cher, Annie Lennox and Heather Small as being men because they are true contraltos. People like Jazmine Sullivan and Toni Braxton, etc are very hard to pin to one specific voice type, but I personally don't think she is a contralto.

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  51. Most operatic contraltos have extremely wide ranges that span at least 2-3 octaves, it's not uncommon.

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  52. If you really knew as much about classical music and the differences between classical voice types and pop voice types you would know that you can't always pin every singer to one specific voice type in the same way you can with classical voices, it's not all cold-hard facts.

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  53. Ok so if a singer's comfort level is in the lower range and the singer sounds the best in their lower range then they will sing low right? Just because Jazmine can hit a mezzo soprano note or a soprano not does not make her either one people she sounds better lower then she does high its not about because her voice is light she is a mezzo her tone and speaking voice makes her a contralto. Your voice is capable of singing notes that's what makes of have range but your comfort level and where your voice sounds the best is what classifies your voice if her and tammia was singing a duet you would clearly see that jasmine is a contralto and tammia was a mezzo soprano people

    ReplyDelete
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  57. Dramatic mezzo or lyric contralto... Her voice reminds me of Adele's voice

    ReplyDelete
  58. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE5flfSHZOM

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