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Author Topic: Beach Boys Vocal Ranges  (Read 18394 times)
Slow In Brain
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« on: December 05, 2013, 03:29:00 PM »

All you guys with better musical knowledge than myself can you assist with each of the BB vocal ranges ?

To my ears I think Dennis had the best in his prime. Apologies if this has been covered in an earlier thread.
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« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2013, 05:09:35 PM »

That's an interesting question. Obviously ranges change with the years, but let's see what we can say from the recordings:

I remember a quote from Brian, stating he could hit high D, Mike goes from bass to E, Dennis, Carl and Al go up to G, A and B.

Mike and Dennis seem to have the lowest registers. I heard low E's from both, not sure about any lower notes.
In terms of high notes, both have high A's on record (All I want to do for Mike, In the back of my mind for Dennis)

Al and Bruce both seem to go to Bb, with Bruce you can hear him sing Bb in full voice on "Going on", after the key changes he goes to falsetto for the B. Bruce has the weakest lower range though, I guess.

Carl's voice changed the most I would say, although his range stayed pretty much intact ever after his voice got rougher. "Wild honey" seems to be a good example of his early range, going to high C regularly. "Darlin" is another killer one, peaking at Bb. Same goes for "What you do to me", "Wishing you were here" and so on. From memory the highest full voice note I heard from Carl was a C# at the end of "Of the times"(around 3:01)

That's from memory, someone probably can come up with more accurate examples.
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zachrwolfe
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« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2013, 05:30:23 PM »

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« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2013, 01:17:00 AM »

I would have to agree with you on Dennis. I've heard him reach, IIRC, from around D2 (on Steamboat) to about an E5 (Got To Know The Woman). To give some perspective, the D2 is a whole tone below the lowest note a bass singer will commonly be asked to sing, or three semitones below Mike's low note of the intro of Soulful Old Man Sunshine (F2). The high note is only a semitone below Brian's high Surf's Up note (F5). That makes for just over three octaves in total.

Carl is actually around the same, reaching a G2 in low extremes (Smiley Wonderful), and, assuming the harmony above Brian in Surf's Up is him, an A5 in high extremes (only a semitone below the high "me" in Bohemian Rhapsody). This makes for the same three octaves and a whole tone.

Brian has probably gone down to around an F2, and his highest is probably around G5 (Monkey's Uncle), or slightly higher. That makes him even with Carl and Dennis for size of range.

Bruce, as Cristoph said, had probably the weakest low range, reaching about Bb2, but also probably had the strongest high voice, reaching notes in the fifth octave quite comfortably, even now in his old age. His high extreme is probably around an Ab5 (Mission Pak from Smile). This gives him a range of almost three octaves (minus a major second).

The lowest note Mike has reached is probably around D2 (Hot Fun in the Summertime) to about an A4 (All I Want To Do, All I Wanna Do). That gives him 2 octaves and a diminished fifth (at least I think that's the term for six semitones...).

I can't think of an instance of Al going below a Bb2... and his highest is probably the Eb5 on Don't Go Near The Water. This gives him the smallest range, with only two octaves and a perfect fourth.

Awesome post, I'm stunned. Shocked Really good.
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« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2013, 03:56:21 AM »

I would have to agree with you on Dennis. I've heard him reach, IIRC, from around D2 (on Steamboat) to about an E5 (Got To Know The Woman). To give some perspective, the D2 is a whole tone below the lowest note a bass singer will commonly be asked to sing, or three semitones below Mike's low note of the intro of Soulful Old Man Sunshine (F2). The high note is only a semitone below Brian's high Surf's Up note (F5). That makes for just over three octaves in total.

Carl is actually around the same, reaching a G2 in low extremes (Smiley Wonderful), and, assuming the harmony above Brian in Surf's Up is him, an A5 in high extremes (only a semitone below the high "me" in Bohemian Rhapsody). This makes for the same three octaves and a whole tone.

Brian has probably gone down to around an F2, and his highest is probably around G5 (Monkey's Uncle), or slightly higher. That makes him even with Carl and Dennis for size of range.

Bruce, as Cristoph said, had probably the weakest low range, reaching about Bb2, but also probably had the strongest high voice, reaching notes in the fifth octave quite comfortably, even now in his old age. His high extreme is probably around an Ab5 (Mission Pak from Smile). This gives him a range of almost three octaves (minus a major second).

The lowest note Mike has reached is probably around D2 (Hot Fun in the Summertime) to about an A4 (All I Want To Do, All I Wanna Do). That gives him 2 octaves and a diminished fifth (at least I think that's the term for six semitones...).

I can't think of an instance of Al going below a Bb2... and his highest is probably the Eb5 on Don't Go Near The Water. This gives him the smallest range, with only two octaves and a perfect fourth.

Brian goes as far as Bb5 on the unedited coda of Forever. That's the highest he's sung on record.
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« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2013, 04:07:33 AM »

Correct about the Bb5. But even the live performances required some damn high stuff, like G5 in Good Vibes and Little GTO. They didn't change too many keys for their concerts (I can hear music is one example I can think of a song they lowered). Many bands at least tune down a semitone.

One thing that amazed me about their ranges is that Brian has quite a strong bass register, even in the old days (Don't talk demo). Al had a lower speaking voice than Carl, but didn't use the lower singing range often.

Another great rangy singer was Blondie, Wild honey live is quite a challenge that not many can live up to.
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« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2013, 06:13:54 AM »

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« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2013, 10:19:01 AM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?

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« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2013, 12:57:44 PM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5
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« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2013, 01:00:35 PM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?
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« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2013, 02:06:55 PM »

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« Reply #11 on: December 06, 2013, 10:43:25 PM »

What about Brian's vocal range now?
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zachrwolfe
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« Reply #12 on: December 06, 2013, 11:02:47 PM »

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« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2013, 11:35:33 PM »

Reading this thread makes me realize how little I know about music.
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« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2013, 06:01:25 AM »

Zach, your knowledge of notes & stuff is really amazing! If you're a music geek now, at 15, what will you be next? Whatever, keep it up like that!
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« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2013, 08:42:04 AM »

Thanks a lot for all the information  Smiley much appreciated.
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« Reply #16 on: June 07, 2014, 08:18:54 AM »

http://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

"Compare the vocal ranges of today’s top artists with the greatest of all time.
This chart shows the highest and lowest notes each artist hit in the recording studio. Hover over the bars to see the songs on which they reached those notes."


BTW that list is total crap. Whoever did that has no idea about vocal ranges
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« Reply #17 on: June 07, 2014, 08:45:46 AM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?

I'm not sure as I've heard at least one live version with Carl singing that note.
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« Reply #18 on: June 07, 2014, 11:50:01 AM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?

I'm not sure as I've heard at least one live version with Carl singing that note.
Wasn't it the A5 in the background harmonies that was studio trickery'd?
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« Reply #19 on: June 07, 2014, 12:49:28 PM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?

I'm not sure as I've heard at least one live version with Carl singing that note.
Wasn't it the A5 in the background harmonies that was studio trickery'd?

Maybe. I was referring to the F5 though.
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« Reply #20 on: June 07, 2014, 01:01:45 PM »

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?



F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?

I'm not sure as I've heard at least one live version with Carl singing that note.
Wasn't it the A5 in the background harmonies that was studio trickery'd?

Maybe. I was referring to the F5 though.

F5 reloads the page.
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« Reply #21 on: June 07, 2014, 02:31:36 PM »

I'm gearing up to do a Beach Boys tribute gig today as Brian, bass and all, so this is very much on my mind as I'm doing vocal warmups now.

To do a good Brian, you have to be able to at least touch an F5 - the ending of "Fun Fun Fun", some of the backups in "Sloop", a few other places.  For Carl or Al, you can get away with topping out a few semitones lower.  Which isn't to say they couldn't sing higher, but they didn't do it as often.
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« Reply #22 on: June 07, 2014, 03:33:56 PM »

IIRC Brian momentarily dives to a C#2 on the Rock With Me Henry version of Wonderful. EDIT: Maybe I recalled incorrectly, can't be 100% sure that's a C#2. Any second opinions on the note Brian hits ~3:00? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxvJwO1FCas
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« Reply #23 on: June 07, 2014, 07:58:11 PM »

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« Reply #24 on: June 07, 2014, 09:19:00 PM »

Does Brian hit a note lower than Good Vibrations in "Desert Drive" ? 
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