#fach

favorite characters 5/?

Voice Type: Lyric Coloratura Soprano

Range: F2-A5-D6-Bb7

It’s everyone’s favourite diva! Highly regarded as one of the best vocalists ever, Mariah possesses a seemingly never ending range, ever resonant belts, a superhuman whistle register and insane agility. Mariah has really developed every part of her voice to a very high standard. Mariah’s voice is almost always classified incorrectly. 

This is most certainly due to her range which covers most every voice type.  Mariah provides a great example of how it’s not about one’s range, but where within that range the voice sits.

Alto

Yes, Mariah has proclaimed that she is an alto. Being one of the biggest vocalists of all time, people trust Mariah in her judgement of her voice. Despite her great technical skill, her knowledge of vocal terms is limited. 

She can hit incredible lows, but she cannot be an alto as it’s merely a choral part, not a voice type. Although they seem similar, choral parts and fach are different. 

Contralto

Contralto is a part of the fach system, but it does not share the same qualities of a choral alto. Yes, contraltos have the lowest female voices, but a contralto will also have a dark and androgynous tone. Mariah’s voice is one of the lightest, brightest and feminine. Comparing Mariah to a contralto reveals no resemblance.

Mezzo-Soprano

As Mariah can go really low and high, sometimes people land on a mezzo-soprano. However, the real difference between a mezzo-soprano and soprano is their tessitura. Mariah’s tessitura is one of the highest pop music has seen, easily living in the 5th octave (Fantasy). A mezzo would not have natural comfort where Mariah does.

Moreover, while a mezzo and soprano may be able to hit the same notes, their voice would blossom in different places. Higher 4th and lower 5th octave belts are mezzo’s sweet spots, while a soprano would shine in the upper 5th octave. Mariah’s voice clearly comes alive (Hero) in a soprano’s range. 

Dramatic Coloratura

Anyone with a bit of power and agility seems to be called a dramatic coloratura. Mariah sounds nothing like a dramatic. Mariah is known for her sweet, light and girly voice. Her timbre is not dark, cold or harsh at all. Meaning she cannot be a dramatic coloratura, no matter how resonant or agile she is.

Lyric Coloratura

A lyric coloratura will have a very light voice, high tessitura and remarkable agility. Mariah easily ticks all these boxes and makes the best case for a coloratura in pop music. Her agility and dynamics are second-to-none, jumping around all registers with ease. Her runs and riffs are legendary (Lead The Way, Vision of Love, Oh Santa!, Vanishing). I believe her fach is clear and very comfortably sits in the lyric coloratura box. 

any and all Ryan Haywood characters and portrayals are big fuckin’ loser shit

If you disagree, please regard the following:

Like, on one hand, I am very obviously not a tenor. Some days, E4 is pushing it for my non-falsetto high notes, and I can carry my falsetto from like A3 to E5. I don't have enough falsetto range to be a countertenor, but that's also more of a role one plays than it is a vocal type, and my lack of range is partly due to lack of training and a tendency to try to hold back.

On the OTHER hand, I don't know if I technically have enough resonance to be a bass? It's hard to tell from your own perspective, but I feel like recordings of me on phone microphones always miss some weight (though, admittedly, I don't feel similarly about stage mics or ribbok mics or the condenser mics I've used, so that could just be the recording equipment) compared to other basses I hear. Granted, "other basses" is usually people who are at least a decade older than I am, like Markiplier or Geoff Castellucci or Avriel Kaplan or Tim Foust or Mikhail Zlatopolsky or Glenn Miller or Kurt Moll — the list doth go on. Vocal resonance changes with age, and more lyric voices tend to become more dramatic as the vocal folds thicken.

I think I have a pretty average resonance? When I speak I can feel it reverberating in my chest cavity and in the soles of my feet, but I think that'd be true of anybody who practiced a bit and had some increased sensory sensitivity because of autism or something of the sort.

I've specifically not addressed range here because my range varies too much, especially out on the bottom end. Depending on how loud I can be and what state my voice is in (right now I'm on vocal rest because that state is "minorly fucked up") I can sometimes sing up to A5 or even C6 in falsetto, but for fear of hurting my voice due to improper technique, I usually cap out around E5 for that, and about E4 for mixed voice (thank you to my former choir teacher Mrs. Neel for letting me do "Deep River" for my All-State Choir audition, it really pushed that high end. I still love singing it, as well as Purcell's "Next, Winter Comes Slowly").

If I've remembered to take care of myself properly, I usually bottom out around Ab1 or Bb1, with occasional lower M1 extensions due to a very complex factor I like to call WFKY, or "who fucking knows why." Low extensions vary, but I usually count them if they let me go down to F1 or lower, and I've gotten down to Bb0 three times (in the presence of my delightful girlfriend, whom I think does not have tumblr) and C1 about thirty times so far this year, excluding the Bb0 days.

In any case, I still like my voice. It's dark and rich and warm and I think it fills rooms nicely, though it's sometimes hard to tell where exactly it's coming from because of how it resonates in rooms and I can become unintelligible pretty fast between my tendency to mumble and the fact that high frequencies die out relatively fast in a resonant space.

HOWEVER, having those notes does not equate to being a bass. Plenty of baritones can sing bonkers low, even if it's less comfortable. And sure, I'm most comfortable from C2 to Bb3, but maybe it's just underdevelopment of my upper register and I'm secretly a baritone? Too many possible factors.