The Vocal Range of Happy Rhodes

[@coolhive2941]

Love this. Whenever people ask who the most underrated singer is, I always say Happy Rhodes. She should have been huge. I have all her albums and hope she releases another one. One suggestion to video maker - show what song is playing when you show the notes. Cheers.

[@MisterGolightly]

What a cute voice! Kinda reminds me of Karen Carpenter with her lows. Very strong too! I'm gonna share this

[@strandedtraveller1038]

The most fascinating quality she posseses vocally is not the range (albeit hers is pretty impressive), but the effortless ability to flip between different textures and colours. It's surreal how her haunting and robust lower range perfectly complements her delicate and otherworldly head voice.

[@xenussister]

This is AMAZING! What an incredible amount of research you did (though listening closely to Happy singing can't be too much of a hardship). The editing job is fantastic! I don't know anything about musical notes, but as a fan, that was great fun to listen to. Thank you for choosing Happy and making this happen. I sent this link to Happy, and included what you said on the message board post about pitch-shifting, and she wanted me to pass along this answer. "Wow.....for the record, I've never pitch-shifted a single note. I don't think Jeff Oster ( with Will Ackerman) ever did either, but you'd have to ask them." - Happy Rhodes

[@Alex-qm1ku]

Hello, thanks for your compliments! In regards to the pitch-shifting, I really don't want it to seem like I'm accusing Happy of anything (I'm a huge fan of hers) so I really do apologise if that's how it seemed! It's just some of the notes I found when looking through her discography seemed REALLY low (there are more obvious examples than the ones I've listed at 1:26 in "Roy (Back from the Underworld" and 0:58 in "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight") and they just didn't really sound like Happy. I'll happily take Happy's word for it if those notes aren't pitch-shifted, but they just sounded so different to her other low notes that I assumed some kind of effects (which I named as pitch-shifting) were on them. If you're able to contact Happy to find out what her actual lowest note is (and to apologise for the mix-up on my part - again, I really don't want it to seem like I'm accusing her of anything!) then I'd be extremely grateful, since I may be able to add whatever you respond with to my post on her (an audio link would be really cool too though I understand that will be less obtainable). Please let her know than I'm a huge fan of her music and her immensely versatile voice too, if you can! Many thanks!

[@xenussister]

Hi Alex, I'll pass along what you said. I'm she could tell you're a big fan. I sure can! You used some very obscure songs in your video. I love it! Happy can't read or write music so if she answered it would be with a song title I'd imagine, where she remembers doing a low note. She might say we fans know/remember her music better than she does. :) I've known her for almost 30 years and I can say that if she says she's never pitch-shifted, she never has.

[@xenussister]

Alex61 (I forgot to tag you before) Alex61 Alex, I sent Happy what you said and here's her answer. "Hi V, Alex is absolutely right. We both are. He's referring to instances where I wanted an alien or otherworldly sound to my voice and used an effect with pitch-shifting within the parameters. It makes my voice inhuman sounding (which is always the goal.) It never occurred to me that he would include those examples in his findings. I think of pitch shifting (alone) as a tool people use with full intent to either correct or alter their pitch to create a realistically-performed note. That is what I DON'T do. I do however, use FX on my voice to make me sound like (not me.) A good example is the one Alex cited in Many Worlds. In that song, I'm a sentient robot. 'nuff sed. Hope that clears it up. If he or you or anyone needs to know specifically where I've affected my voice, go ahead and ask. Happy to share if I can remember. H" (Happy Rhodes) (It's "100 Years" that's about a sentient computer, not Many Worlds. I'm so confused.)

[@Alex-qm1ku]

xenussister ah okay -- thank so much for clarifying lol! :)

[@MidWestConcertVideo2]

The most amusing example of Happy's range was the clip I put up where she sang the descending chorus of the David Bowie song "Fame" - _a capella._ kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWqwnWqEjJJ-erM It was doing using varying tape speeds on the Bowie original, but Happy just tossed it off live as a goof.

[@dearsaintnobody3702]

Her voice is very reminiscent of Cher, Annie Lennox, Minnie Riperton, and Olivia Newton-John all in one. She’s something special with a very unique tonality quality and cinematic songstress and lyricist.

[@kenlee1416]

Don't hear any Minnie Ripperton. Kate Bush yes.

[@swooningtree]

@@kenlee1416 I never thought about it before, but I actually do think there's a bit of a similarity in the purity of timbre

[@nellies]

I just found her music a while ago and she's the most underrated singer ever. I wish more people knew about her, she's so incredibly talented. She reminds me so much of my favorite artist, Kate Bush, but her lower notes are like nothing I've ever heard before. Her range is insane, her voice is so pleasant to listen to and so versatile and otherwordly. I wish I could sing like that.

[@etruscan6718]

I was curious as to which song had the widest pitch range. Using the lists above, I calculated the pitch ranges of songs that appear in both the low and high lists. Here's the list, sorted into ascending order of pitch range. For each song the range is first shown in octaves and semitones (i.e. 1:8 means 1 octave plus 8 semitones), followed by the range in notes, then the song title. 1:3 G3-B♭4 Suicide Song 1:5 E3-A4 Asylum Master 1:5 F3-B♭4 Til the Dawn Breaks 1:7 E3-B4 Out Like a Lamb 1:8 C♯3-A4 Warpaint 1:9 C3-A4 Looking Over Cliffs 1:9 F♯3-E♭5 Summer 2:0 C3-C5 Temporary and Eternal (live) 2:0 D3-D5 Oh the Drears 2:0 G3-G5 100 Years 2:2 B2-C♯5 Life on Mars 2:7 A2-E5 Charlie 2:7 G♯2-E♭5 Virus 2:8 C3-G♯5 Queen

[@marksusskind1260]

Thanks, from rec.music.gaffa on UseNet in the early 1990s to KZbin on WWWeb in the late 2010s. I date myself👵🏽.

[@nadinerogers5653]

Whoah. It's hard to believe all those sounds are coming out of the same person!

[@bafbaas1210]

If madonna could really sing