Can Baritones Sing High Notes?

If you’re a baritone, you have probably been told by your teachers that you’ll never be able to sing high notes like many of the great tenors out there.

The good thing is,

It’s not true at all.

Hitting high notes is a skill that can be developed by any singer as long as that singer has the proper training. Of course, expanding your range takes a fair amount of work, though, with enough diligent practice, you’ll be able to slay those high notes like Bruno Mars or Freddie Mercury.

The Struggle of the Baritone

Most boys or men who sang in choirs in church or school get labeled a tenor, baritone, or bass. This vocal perspective is what is known as the German Fach System.

In choral settings, it is necessary to have sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones, and basses, as we need to have separation to sing most arrangements. We can think of these boundaries as guidelines, which ultimately help arrangements to come together nicely.

Singers are usually cast into one category based on the timbre or tone of their voice. Boys or men who are cast into the tenor category tend to speak and sing with higher and more forward tones, while boys or men who are cast into the baritone and bass categories have deeper and more resonant speaking and singing voices. This means that even if a baritone and tenor were to sing a middle C, the note would likely sound different based on the tone.

Bringing This Idea To Contemporary Singing

Unfortunately, most singers who step out of these situations and into the world of contemporary singing continue to hold on to the boundaries that they have been given. The fact is, you should never feel that you’re original vocal designation is stopping you from continuing to grow as a vocalist.

The point of our training program is to help singers push their own voices so that they can grow in strength, range, control, and more. Over and over again we have found that baritones have the ability to sing high, as long as they follow the proper steps to get there.

Check out Robert Lunte’s video below covering this topic:

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Of course, having the right warmups and exercises in your singing regimen is very important, though, beyond that, it is important to have the right attitude about high notes.

Here at The Vocalist Studio, we like to tell singers to “sing horizontally, not vertically”. This is because a lot of what holds people back from hitting high notes is their own fears or lack of confidence. When you stop reaching for high notes, you’ll notice that your voice has the ability to let go and hit high notes with ease if you allow it to.

Check out Robert Lunte’s video on embouchure below to get a better idea of what we’re talking about here:

Conclusion

So can baritones sing high notes?

Of course, they can!

The big takeaway here is that anyone can sing high notes if they work up to it. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that you can come out of the gates singing high notes in a matter of minutes. It will take practice and dedication to get there, though if you remember that it’s not impossible just because you were labeled a baritone at one point or another, your journey will feel that much better.

Once you’re ready to take the next step, head on over to our Four Pillars of Singing course to start training your voice the right way!