How to Sing Like Mariah Carey in Extreme High Vocal Range
Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Under the perfect guidance of Columbia Records’ Tommy Mottola. At what age did Mariah Carey start singing? As I know, she made her recording debut in 1990 to become the first recording artist to have her initial five singles hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart making the vocal range of Mariah Carey is one of the most popular style of singing. Every budding singer wants to learn how to sing like Mariah Carey.
Carey has honors of getting selected the best-selling female pop artist of the millennium in 2000 World Music Awards. She has the record of the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States (eighteen; second artist overall behind The Beatles).
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, she is the third best-selling female recording artist in the U.S. Apart from her commercial achievements, Carey has also won five Grammy Awards, and is best known for her vocal range, power, style, and use of the whistle register.
Mariah Carey is also known for her ability to cover every note—right from the alto vocal range to the notes of a coloratura soprano. However, her trademark quality is her extraordinary ability of singing in the whistle tone.
Once she said that the Minnie Riperton has greatly influenced her singing style and she tried to follow Riperton’s high notes from a very early age. As a result the she succeeded in producing such a high vocal range.
According to the most of sources available, her vocal range is of five-octave long, however, others acknowledgment her with having seven to eight-octaves vocal range.
It’s the popularity of her voice that in 2003, Carey’s voice was rated number one in MTV – Blender countdown contest of the Greatest 22 Voices in the Music. It was done through direct voting of audiences in an online poll. Carey’s response on the poll was, “What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it’s an enormous compliment, but I don’t feel that way about myself.”
Because of such popularity, Carey’s voice has been the matter of extensive scrutiny from all kinds of music critics who think that she doesn’t and can’t convey the expected message of the songs quite effectively. The Rolling Stone magazine said “Carey has a remarkable vocal gift, but unfortunately her singing has been far more impressive rather than expressive.”
On the other hand The New York Daily News once wrote, “Carey’s singing is ultimately what does her in.”
But for Mariah Carey, vocalizing means performance and not the sentiments those inspired it. But the question is: does having the great voice only can make you such a great singing artist like Carey automatically?
Though some critics said that Maria’s decision to employ what she called “breathy” vocals in some of her last decade’s songs and that her voice was weakening, but for Mariah Carey “it has been here all along”. Finally regardless of the critics’ opinions, it’s the matter of further study on how to sing like Mariah Carey.
As the VIBE magazine once said on Mariah’s vocal style, “The impressiveness of her voice—as well as her tendency to over sing—make the blandness of her material all the more flagrant.” That’s the uniqueness of vocal range of Mariah Carey.
Related posts:
- How to Sing in Extremely High Notes Via Vocal Range Training One of the best methods to train your vocal range...
- 2 Major Reasons Why You Are Losing High Notes in Vocal Range You will not losing high notes in vocal range in...
- Vitas – The Russian’s World Highest Vocal Range Singer What is the world highest vocal range and pitches a...
- How to Increase Your Vocal Range through Proper Vocal Exercises Learn the proper vocal exercises and sing as much as...
- Vocal Range Chart Vocal range chart is the chart showing the range of...
Tags: five-octave long, how to sing like Mariah Carey, singing style, vocal range of Mariah CareyPosted in
It perpetuates inaccurate, unprofessional, and irresponsible myths about range which cause immature singers to hurt themselves and unscrupulous vocal coaches to rip them off with highly exaggerated promises. I am a certified voice coach with over a decade in the business. Here are the FACTS: On her signature piece, “Vision of Love,” Mariah spans three octaves and a fourth (G below middle C, on “love” to C three octaves above middle C, her highest whistle note. Unlike some “celebrity” coaches, I will not sacrifice my integrity by making ridiculous promises about range increases. Yes, I’ve had clients double their ranges, but each larynx has its own built-in limits, which can only be discovered through serious practice. Mariah and Patti Labelle both have ranges of approximately 3-1/2 octaves, and they’ve worked hard for every bit of it. Neither is at their physical peak at this stage of their careers, but both remain truly Olympian in their abilities, a good deal of which is purely genetic.
I don’t go out of my way to enter silly debates about Mariah Carey’s vocal range. I have great respect for her and think people make far too much about it. Nevertheless, in the interest of quadruple fact-checking my earlier statement about her range being about 3-1/2 octaves, I went to gawk.com which has a collection of live Mariah videos. While they actually mislabel about half of the notes, their overall report of 4 octaves, C3 to C7 is correct based on the videos. Keep in mind, her lowest notes are barely audible and the highest aren’t always available. So let’s say 4 octaves on a perfect day, 3-1/2 for all practical purposes. Anything more than that, like 5 or 7 is absolute nonesense!
As a pro coach I just want aspiring singers to know the FACTS. With proper training, any singer will expand his/her range. It’s not the great “miracle” that certain “celebrity” coaches want you to think it is, giving the impression that they have some “secret” you should pay a lot of money for. Increasing a client’s range is actually a fairly routine part of any decent coach’s work, but it’s only a fraction of what vocal training is all about. The reason it’s so overused in advertising comes down to $$$. Inexprienced singers seeking help most often believe they have a range problem, because they have uncontrolled register “breaks.” They’re right, but they don’t understand the many factors which contribute to breaks, so they simply call it a “range” problem. Fair enough. And coaches, who need to pay studio leases and eat, say they’ll do amazing things with range to attract clients. Also, fair enough, but both the prospect and the coach (at least in ad copy)oversimplify the problem. I do get irritated when coaches resort to promising they’ll increase your range by a certain number of octaves. Yes, most beginning students routinely add about an octave to their ranges by overcoming the many limitations their inadequate technique puts on their voices. But, promising the exact increase is irresponsible, as it will vary from client to client. What no one wants to tell prospects is that all larynxes have their own built-in limitations, based on the length and thickness of the vocal chords. Proper training gets you to your full potential, but that potential is genetically predetermined. No coach can turn a bass into a soprano or vice versa. Those ultimate decisions are made by a higher power.
The goal is to work with what you have and get the most out of it. The reason there’s so much fuss over Mariah is because her range is truly astronomical by any standard. Yes, she has surely worked hard for it, but,like just like a world-class athlete, she has built-in potential which is simply uncommon in the gene pool. If it were common we wouldn’t be talking about it. She’s not alone, Patti Labelle and Anita Baker are in the same league. Nevertheless, a range of even 3 usable octaves is truly rare even with the best training. Again the larynx sets the ultimate limits.
Hope this sheds some light on the issue.
Tony the Voice Coach