Span · where yours lands
Find your vocal range, then see where the span sits.
Two notes give you a span. A span on its own is a number without a scale, so the table below is the scale: how wide a range has to be before it is wider than most.
The table crosses halfway at 19 semitones, which is 1 octave and 7 semitones; the widest anchor on it is 33 semitones at 99%. A range wider than the middle is not a better voice — plenty of working singers sit under two octaves.
These anchors are published untrained-adult singing ranges from the pedagogy literature, not sessions of this test. Nobody who has taken this test is in the table, and the page says so rather than inventing a crowd.
How wide is wide
Read the row nearest your own span. Between two rows the percentile is read straight across, so the number never looks more precise than the table is.
| Held span | In octaves and semitones | Share at or below |
|---|---|---|
| 12 semitones | 1 octave | 10% |
| 15 semitones | 1 octave and 3 semitones | 25% |
| 18 semitones | 1 octave and 6 semitones | 45% |
| 21 semitones | 1 octave and 9 semitones | 65% |
| 24 semitones | 2 octaves | 80% |
| 27 semitones | 2 octaves and 3 semitones | 90% |
| 30 semitones | 2 octaves and 6 semitones | 96% |
| 33 semitones | 2 octaves and 9 semitones | 99% |
Two things people ask about the number
Is my vocal range good?
Width is not quality. It tells you which songs sit inside your voice without moving the key, and nothing at all about tone, control or whether a note is supported. A wide range badly used is worse than a narrow one used well.
Why did I get a different span last time?
Warm-up, time of day, illness and how hard you were willing to push all move both ends. Two tests a week apart usually agree within a semitone or two if you warm up the same way. If they do not, the warm-up is the variable.