A vocal range test that finds your key.
Sing your lowest note, then your highest. You get your range, the voice type it sits closest to, and the keys a song will sit best in. It listens in your browser and records nothing.
Lowest note first, then your highest
Listening
. Closest voice type: .
Keys that fit your voice
Free for one song in your browser. No credit card required.
How the vocal range test works
Like any singing range test, it listens for two notes: the lowest you can hold clearly, then the highest you can hold without straining. Sing on “ah” and hold each one for about half a second. Sliding slowly down or up is fine. The test keeps the lowest or highest note you held steadily, not one you passed through on the way.
Warm up first, and stop where the note gets thin or forced. A quiet room helps more than an expensive microphone, and very low voices read best through headphones that have one. Song Cage is a songwriting app for chords, lyrics and melody, and this free vocal range finder uses the same note detection it uses when you sing a note into a song. Each slice of audio becomes a note and is thrown away, so nothing is recorded, and the microphone switches off when you finish.
Vocal ranges by voice type
These are the conventional choral ranges, as collected on Wikipedia’s voice type page from James McKinney’s The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults and Richard Boldrey’s Guide to Operatic Roles and Arias. Books differ by a note or two at the edges, and plenty of good singers sit between two of them.
| Voice type | Range | Chart |
|---|---|---|
| Your range | ||
| Bass | E2 to E4 | |
| Baritone | A2 to A4 | |
| Tenor | C3 to C5 | |
| Alto | F3 to F5 | |
| Mezzo-soprano | A3 to A5 | |
| Soprano | C4 to C6 |
Range is only one clue to voice type. A teacher also listens for where your voice sits most easily, which singers call tessitura, and where it changes register. For writing songs, the comfortable part of your range matters more than the label.
How wide is a normal vocal range?
There is no agreed average. The usual rule of thumb is that an untrained adult sings across about one and a half to two octaves. Training does widen a voice: in a Journal of Voice study of 224 adults (Sulter, Schutte and Miller, 1995), trained singers had the bigger voice overall, mostly because they could sing more softly, and trained women also reached a wider span of notes. A wider range is not a better voice: for a song, what counts is the octave or so you can sing comfortably at full voice. Bass, baritone and tenor are the usual adult male voice types; alto, mezzo-soprano and soprano the usual female ones, and many voices sit between them.
What key should I sing in?
Put the song’s home note where your voice is comfortable, and keep the top of the chorus a little under your ceiling. Most melodies spend their time between the home note and the octave above it, so that octave is what has to fit. The test takes your lowest note as the floor, keeps the top two semitones of your range spare for the chorus peak, and ranks the twelve keys by how centrally their home octave sits in what is left.
That margin matters more on stage than at home. A key that works when you sing quietly, sitting down, once through, can fall apart standing up at full voice on the third chorus. Your Song Is in the Wrong Key for Your Voice goes through how to test a key properly and how far to move it.
For example, a range of A2 to E4 reads as bass or baritone, and its three best keys are B (A shapes, capo 2), C (open C shapes) and B♭ (A shapes, capo 1). For guitarists, each suggested key comes with the open chord shapes and capo fret that get you there. A song you wrote with G shapes moves to A with a capo on the second fret and keeps its ringing open strings.
Common questions
What is my vocal range?
Your vocal range is the span from the lowest note you can sing clearly to the highest, written as two notes such as A2 to E4. The number after the letter is the octave, and middle C is C4. The Song Cage vocal range test measures it from notes you actually hold, then shows it on a keyboard with the voice type it sits closest to.
What voice type am I?
Range is the first clue. Choirs use six conventional ranges: bass E2 to E4, baritone A2 to A4, tenor C3 to C5, alto F3 to F5, mezzo-soprano A3 to A5 and soprano C4 to C6. The test names the one whose middle sits closest to the middle of yours. Range alone cannot tell a high tenor from a low alto, so when yours sits between two types it names both. A voice teacher also listens for where your voice sits most comfortably and where it changes register.
What key should I sing in?
Pick the key whose home note puts the octave above it in the middle of your voice, with the top of the chorus a couple of semitones under your highest note. Most melodies spend their time between the home note and that octave, so that is the part that has to fit. The test ranks all twelve keys this way and shows the three that fit best, each with the open guitar shapes and capo fret.
How accurate is an online vocal range test?
It is as good as the note it can hear. Held notes read reliably. The weak spots are the very bottom of a low voice on a laptop microphone, which barely picks up the lowest frequencies, and breathy or very quiet notes. This test reads notes from about D2 up to E6, only keeps a note you held steadily for half a second, and checks the octave above before it believes a low reading. If a result looks wrong, press Hear and compare it with what you sang.
Does the vocal range test record my voice?
No. The page reads the microphone a fraction of a second at a time, works out the note and throws the audio away. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere, and the microphone is released as soon as you finish the test or leave the tab.
Can you increase your vocal range?
Somewhat. Regular practice with a warm-up usually adds a few notes at each end over months, not days, and a tired voice loses notes at the top first. Retest at the same time of day and in the same state to compare fairly. For a song that sits badly today, changing the key is the faster fix.
Should I count falsetto or head voice?
Count a note if you would sing it in the song. The test reads any steady pitch, so a falsetto note counts as your highest if you hold it. If you only use falsetto for effect, run the test twice, with and without it, and compare the keys it suggests.
Is the vocal range test free?
Yes. There is no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser and needs a microphone; a headset microphone helps with very low voices.
Why did it read my note an octave off?
Low notes are the usual culprit. A small microphone hears the overtones of a low note better than the note itself, and a detector can land an octave out from that. Sing a little louder and closer to the microphone, or use headphones with a microphone. Every result has a Hear button, so you can play the note back and check it against your voice.
Once you know your key
- Your Song Is in the Wrong Key for Your Voice Why a song that felt fine at home falls apart at soundcheck, and how far to move it.
- How to Change Key in a Song Moving up for the last chorus without the lurch, with real songs that do it.
- Sing a melody into a song Hum the tune and Song Cage writes the notes onto the timeline, under your lyrics.
Write the song in your key
Pick your key, place a chord, and Song Cage shows what fits next, ranked by the chords around it and the melody above it. Free for one song in your browser. No credit card required.
Start writing for free →Or buy the licence: Song Cage for Mac and Windows, AU/VST3 plugin included.