Method · the upper three bands
How to test your vocal range if you are female
The method is identical, because there is no separate test: sing your lowest note and hold it, sing your highest and hold it, and the two notes are the range. What differs is where the answer usually lands. The three highest of the seven classical bands are the ones most women are told about, and they are the three the table below is built from. The part people get wrong is treating the label as the result. A range on its own does not settle a voice type — where the voice sits comfortably for a whole song does — and a cold voice reads short at both ends, so a warm-up moves the answer before the test does.
Songs in the catalogue that fit each band in the original key: contralto F3–F5, 214; mezzo-soprano A3–A5, 85; soprano C4–C6, 18. Out of 430 songs in total.
Below are the 19 singers in the catalogue whose sung range sits at least half inside F3–C6. The overlap column is how much of each singer's own range that band covers — nothing on this page is a claim about anybody except what they sang.
The singers inside F3–C6
Sorted by lowest note. Overlap is measured against each singer's own range, so a singer wider than the band can never read 100%.
| Singer | Sung range | Span | Overlap with the band | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freddie Mercury | F2–A#4 | 2 octaves and 5 semitones | 60% | high |
| Robert Plant | F#2–C5 | 2 octaves and 6 semitones | 65% | medium |
| Elvis Presley | G2–B4 | 2 octaves and 4 semitones | 66% | high |
| Paul McCartney | G2–C5 | 2 octaves and 5 semitones | 67% | medium |
| Bruno Mars | G#2–D5 | 2 octaves and 6 semitones | 71% | high |
| Frank Sinatra | A2–G4 | 1 octave and 10 semitones | 65% | high |
| David Bowie | A2–C5 | 2 octaves and 3 semitones | 71% | medium |
| Whitney Houston | A2–G5 | 2 octaves and 10 semitones | 77% | high |
| Brendon Urie | A#2–G5 | 2 octaves and 9 semitones | 79% | high |
| Amy Winehouse | C3–C5 | 2 octaves | 80% | medium |
| Lana Del Rey | C3–C#5 | 2 octaves and 1 semitone | 81% | medium |
| Christina Aguilera | C3–G5 | 2 octaves and 7 semitones | 84% | high |
| Lady Gaga | C#3–G5 | 2 octaves and 6 semitones | 87% | medium |
| Tina Turner | D3–D#5 | 2 octaves and 1 semitone | 88% | high |
| Fiona Apple | D3–E5 | 2 octaves and 2 semitones | 89% | high |
| Ariana Grande | D3–G5 | 2 octaves and 5 semitones | 90% | medium |
| Janis Joplin | D3–A5 | 2 octaves and 7 semitones | 91% | high |
| Billie Eilish | D#3–G5 | 2 octaves and 4 semitones | 93% | medium |
| Cher | F3–E5 | 1 octave and 11 semitones | 100% | high |