Do I Secretly Want To Be a Tenor?

For those of you who have never heard me sing, let me tell you that I am a bass--a low bass. Let me also tell you to go listen to any cover on my YouTube channel so you can hear me sing (shameless plug). When I first started singing I was a soprano, but those days are long over. Since 8th grade, my voice has been low and getting lower. 

I do love being a bass. There's nothing quite like the low rumble of the bass voices in a harmony-filled choral work or the soft intensity of a walking bass line sung in a vocal jazz ensemble. The bass voice can ground an a cappella ensemble, have a country twang like no other, and give an air of wisdom and importance to a character in an opera.

But, if you're not also a bass singer, you might miss or fail to fully appreciate many of these things. I would also wager a bet that your favorite artist is not a bass (unless, of course, you are a bass).

The reason for this is that most famous male singers are tenors, or even baritones, but not usually basses. I Googled "famous bass singers" and clicked on an article entitled "11 Of The Greatest And Most Famous Bass Singers Of All Time." Singers listed include the legendary Johnny Cash, the opera star Boris Christoff, and former Pentatonix member Avi Kaplan. 

This is all well and good, but the same site also wrote a piece on famous tenors. Instead of just 11, they list "28 Of The Greatest And Most Famous Tenors Of All Time." A few singers not included in this list are Billy Joel, Bono (U2), and Adam Levine (Maroon 5).

There are likely many reasons why popular culture has chosen tenors. Tenors are even infiltrating country music more, a genre that used to be more dominated by basses and baritones. One interesting reason why we as a culture prefer tenors is that it is easier for the untrained human ear to determine the difference from pitch to pitch in the tenor range than between pitches in the bass range due to the slower frequency of the lower notes.

So, do I wish I were a tenor? Sometimes. I love the sound of an impressive tenor run and I would love to sing right along with some of my favorite artists. One more practical reason I sometimes wish I were a tenor is because of the doors it can open for roles in musical theatre. Many of the bass roles in musical theatre are the fathers or the bad guys, and while my voice fits the bill for some of these roles, my height and age do not. 

But, to become a tenor is to lose notes I would hate to lose. That's the thing--a tenor can sing as high as an alto, but so can a bass (albeit in falsetto, but we can). There are very few real tenors who can sing as low as a bass. It is a physical impossibility. The bass range is often unmatched.

Tenors have a lot going for them. It seems as if basses only have those notes to relish as their own, but they are our own and they serve to make our voices, like every voice, wonderfully unique.

If I were a tenor, my life might look different. I might be a musical theatre major. I might have recorded more music in the original key. But, in the end, I love my wonderfully unique voice and I wouldn't trade the low life for anything.