Voice types › Baritone

Baritone vocal range

The baritone is the most common adult male voice. It sits between bass and tenor, with a typical range from A2 to A4.

Tap a key to hear it.

Typical rangeFirst passaggioSecond passaggioC4 = middle C

A warm middle from about C3 to C4. Untrained baritones often sing comfortably to D4 or E4 and strain above it.

Where the baritone voice shifts

The passaggio is the stretch of notes where the voice changes how it works, from the heavier, speech-like setting of the low notes to the lighter setting of the high ones. For a baritone, the first passaggio is around B♭3–B3 and the second passaggio around E♭4–E4. The notes between them are where most cracks, strain and out-of-tune notes happen, so that is where practice pays off the most.

These are averages from voice-teaching references. Your own passaggio can sit one to three semitones higher or lower.

Baritone or tenor?

The clearest clue is where your voice wants to shift. A baritone's upper passaggio is around E♭4–E4; a tenor's is around F♯4–A4, two or three semitones higher. If your voice feels heavy and wants to break around E4, you are probably a baritone. If E4 and F4 still feel like speaking range, you may be a tenor.

Voice type is a description, not a limit. What matters for singing songs is the notes you can sing in tune and without strain, which is what the test measures.

Four exercises for a baritone voice

About ten minutes in total. Notes are actual pitch, one octave below how tenor and bass parts are usually written.

1. 1. Lip trill warm-upTrill your lips on a five-note scale up and back down (1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1). Start on E♭3 and move up one semitone each time, to A♭3. Keep it easy; the trill should not stop. Hear it
2. 2. Bridge scale through the passaggioSing a five-note scale on "oo" or "ng", starting on A♭3. Move up a semitone each repetition until the top note is F♯4. As you pass E♭4–E4, let the sound get lighter instead of louder. If your voice cracks, go back two steps. Hear it
3. 3. Messa di voceHold B3 for 6 seconds: start soft, swell, return to soft without the pitch moving. Repeat on E♭4. This trains steady pitch exactly where your voice shifts. Hear it
4. 4. "Ng" sirenOn "ng" (as in "sing"), slide from D3 up to G4 and back, slowly, with no break in the sound. Three slides are enough. Hear it

The Rangely app builds this kind of session from your own measured range and passaggio, and shows each note against the target as you sing, accurate to the cent.

Common questions

All voice types

• BassE2–E4
• BaritoneA2–A4
• TenorC3–C5
• AltoF3–F5
• Mezzo-sopranoA3–A5
• SopranoC4–C6