There have been a lot of people praising Prince's freakishly extensive vocal range, and his seemingly endless versatility, but I haven't seen anyone actually demonstrate the tenacity to go through his discography and document his vocal range note by note.

So, I decided I'd do it myself, with help from fellow Prince fans I went through Prince's officially released 40 albums and released the document on a site called The Range Place. I got permission from a moderator of this board to link the page for reference, as the document would have been too big to fit on this forum.

http://therangeplace.com/...876/prince

A quick explanation about the formatting; pitches are listed on the left, and inside the brackets are the songs in which the pitch was hit. Below all the notes you will also find an explanation of the colours.

What this document shows, is that Prince had the technique to reach G1, as his lowest note, and C7, as his highest note. If you click on "Questionable Notes", it will show you other notes Prince has hit, but aren't necessarily a part of his vocal range, as they weren't reached with reliable technique. That makes Prince's vocal range a total of 5 octaves and 5 semitones. If we count questionable notes, it would be 6 octaves and 4 semitones. That is insane, most people never reach 3! Most men don't have whistle register either.

He really poured everything he got into his songs and albums, since every album spanned at least 3 octaves of his voice. This man had an unbelievable falsetto register, and immaculate low notes. His signature screams wouldn't make you think he was a baritone either. He was my absolute favourite voice of all time, and is an influence on my own artistic endeavours as well.

With this, I wanted to finally give the potential of his voice the recognition it deserves. I hope all fellow Prince enthusiasts find this an enriching addition to their knowledge about him. <3

[Edited 10/5/19 7:46am]

[Edited 10/5/19 9:13am]

Wow, amazing work. The thread is vast and beautifully done.

Thank you so much!! I've often wondered about his octave range. I was surprised to learn from listening to an interview recently that the falsetto was his natural singing voice. He said that singing the low tones was painful.

[Edited 12/15/16 20:34pm]

WOW...Thanks..

thats pretty entensive documenation...

according this this link

https://www.concerthotels...cal-ranges

Prince has the Third Widest Vocal Range in the world...

Behind Axl ROSE (suprising)

and Mariah Carey ( not so suprising considering that near Glass shattering F2 of hers..)

Lovejunky said:

WOW...Thanks..

thats pretty entensive documenation...

according this this link

https://www.concerthotels...cal-ranges

Prince has the Third Widest Vocal Range in the world...

Behind Axl ROSE (suprising)

and Mariah Carey ( not so suprising considering that near Glass shattering F2 of hers..)

Wow and he even had more than Whitney and beat Freddie Mercury (who I thought always had an amazing range) - was suprising.

This is astounding work. Expertly documented.

[Edited 12/16/16 9:19am]

Wow! Nice work, Baronessa - cheers

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EG

coldasice said:

Actually it's documented that his highest released recorded vocal is during "God" his lowest is in "Daddy Pop". This was from the Rolling stone greatest vocalists issue.

Rolling Stone gathered this claim from existing information, which was from an old thread on The Range Place. His lowest chest note is actually C2 from "Welcome 2 The Dawn", highest falsetto D6 from "Everyday Is A Winding Road", and his highest whistle C7 from "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic".

Say what you will about his '90s output, his best vocal chops are showcased in that material!

Didn't Mike Patton end up as the pop/rock singer having the largest vocal range? I seem to remember it was declared Axl until people remembered Mike.

edit: oh here we go - http://www.vintagevinylne...inger.html

[Edited 12/17/16 0:02am]

Mike Patton does indeed have a vocal range of 6 octaves, he reached this by utilizing extreme whistle techniques and throat singing.

In my opinion, though, Prince is a much more musical and tasteful singer. He always knew when to whip out the high notes to make it fit into the song!

Lovejunky said:

That site has been under quite a bit of controversy for dubious note inclusion, and outdated information.

Besides, range itself doesn't matter, good singing and music does!

Baronessa said:

Mike Patton does indeed have a vocal range of 6 octaves, he reached this by utilizing extreme whistle techniques and throat singing.

In my opinion, though, Prince is a much more musical and tasteful singer. He always knew when to whip out the high notes to make it fit into the song!

Ah Mike can do tasteful when he wants to, just people don't find it when they're looking for the extremes!

Baronessa said:

Mike Patton does indeed have a vocal range of 6 octaves, he reached this by utilizing extreme whistle techniques and throat singing.

In my opinion, though, Prince is a much more musical and tasteful singer. He always knew when to whip out the high notes to make it fit into the song!

First - this is an astonishing piece of work. Absolutely incredible research and dedication in recording the information. Thank you.

Second - "Prince is a much more musical and tasteful singer" - glad you state it's an opinion. I very nearly choked.

Without wishing to derail this thread - Mike Patton, Josh Homme, Jack White, Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp, Marco Perroni and Flea are a smattering of the musicians I would have loved to see Prince work with...in another life...as Living Colour once sang - now that would have been a marriage too.

This was done throughout the month of October, back when Tidal still had all officially released Prince albums available for streaming, so I just sat down and listed the notes Prince hit in all the songs.

The notes were pitched with a virtual piano.

Sometimes I would go through up to 5 albums a day! Let me tell you, it wasn't as easy as you'd think, since Prince's albums are vast and he's a wildly unpredictable singer!

Baronessa said:

I loved when Prince would hit those high notes and that scream!! No one can scream like Prince! I loved when he just sang in his natural voice and his funky, soulful voice, also!

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[Edited 12/19/16 16:30pm]

Such a labor of love project Baronessa, thank you. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore? from Atlanta 2016 listed as a best live performance chokes me up.

That's amazing, thank you!