How can you tell what register a song is written in?
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- KVRer
- 2 posts since 21 May, 2011
How are you able to tell what register a song is written in? (bass, tenor, alto or soprano) Does it depend on the frequency of the pitch? If so, what are the frequency requirements for every particular registers?
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- KVRian
- 1084 posts since 12 Sep, 2008 from Your basement
It does have to do with pitch ranges. Here is the general idea...avwb wrote:How are you able to tell what register a song is written in? (bass, tenor, alto or soprano) Does it depend on the frequency of the pitch? If so, what are the frequency requirements for every particular registers?
http://www.library.yale.edu/cataloging/ ... ocalrg.htm
[mod edit: fixed url tag so link works]
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 2 posts since 21 May, 2011
All I know about the song I have to analyse is that its pitch range is 845Hz - 4.819Hz (that's melody plus vocals all together). Is there any way you can tell the register just by knowing the pitch range?
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- Skunk Mod
- 21249 posts since 10 Jun, 2004 from Pony Pasture
Those are frequencies, not pitches. Pitches are note values. A note sung or played at a specific pitch produces a signal with one fundamental frequency and usually many other frequencies, integer multiples of the fundamental frequency, added to the fundamental; which frequencies and how loud they are relative to the fundamental determine the sound's timbre (sonic quality). [edit: This explanation is very simplified so it's not completely accurate, but it gives a rough idea how frequencies and pitches work.]
To determine the register you must analyze the notes being sung. No software shortcuts will do it, you have to learn the ranges and work through the particulars of each song.
Long and thorough familiarity with music can substitute for the technical approach. An experienced musicologist can generally tell by listening what registers are in use in a piece of music. I can't -- I have to do the analysis and think it all through.
To determine the register you must analyze the notes being sung. No software shortcuts will do it, you have to learn the ranges and work through the particulars of each song.
Long and thorough familiarity with music can substitute for the technical approach. An experienced musicologist can generally tell by listening what registers are in use in a piece of music. I can't -- I have to do the analysis and think it all through.
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- KVRian
- 1084 posts since 12 Sep, 2008 from Your basement
So I am confused...PARTS have ranges (sop, alto, ten. bass) not "songs." And frequency is simply the quantitative equivelent of what musicians call pitch.
Is this a clash of cultures here all using terminology differently? (technical, musical, etc.)?
Is this a clash of cultures here all using terminology differently? (technical, musical, etc.)?
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- Skunk Mod
- 21249 posts since 10 Jun, 2004 from Pony Pasture
Terminology is being used very loosely, yes. Too loose to track, as that Parisian artist used to say. I'm figuring the OP means a song containing a prominent vocal part -- as in "an aria for alto" -- but that's a guess; might not be so.
Without the OP posting some clarification it's pretty much impossible to say what his or her aim / goal might be, what the piece of music is, just what voice's or instrument's range is involved...
Without the OP posting some clarification it's pretty much impossible to say what his or her aim / goal might be, what the piece of music is, just what voice's or instrument's range is involved...