Saturday, March 23, 2013

Vocal Range and Profile: Christina Aguilera


Vocal Range: Bb2 - G#5 - C#7 (D7)
Longest Note: 20 Seconds
Vocal Type: Lyric Mezzo-Soprano (4 octaves, 2 notes)
Vocal Rating: B-
Recommended Listenings: Your Body, Beautiful, Hurt, You Lost Me


Vocal Positives:
A nimble voice that is capable of singing complex melisma. She has the ability to hold notes for extended periods of time, live and in studio. Her voice can transcend through multiple genres, such as Jazz, Blues, Rock, R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop, and Gospel. The lower register is smooth and velvety down to C#3, and is reached with ease. The mid-range can be soft or weighty, and is where the voice is it's sturdiest. Notes sung with a more open throat (mainly those in a studio setting) are more powerful and resonant. The head voice can be bright and piercing or thick and airy.

Vocal Negatives:
Criticisms have been leveled at Christina's technique, thus giving her name "The Noise." Notes as "low" as A4, and consistently around C5, become very forced, throaty, and coarse; which indicates bad placement of the larynx (though some fans find this edge to be a positive feature). Her unsteady movement of the larynx also causes her to have a deeper tone that what she would naturally have if she held a neutral larynx. Her whistle notes are actually rarely whistles, and are most often a bright falsetto. This could be an artistic decision, though it might also be one of poor technique.

Her longer notes are usually warbled; the notes are re-articulated dozens of times, which shows that she is not comfortable holding the note. Higher notes are not hit head on when they're not mixed, rather they are glissed until the note is reached. Her vocal runs occasionally sound labored, and have been criticized for lacking musicality. The lowest notes occasionally lose clarity.

Bb2 - C#7