Five-octave vocal range

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The label "five-octave vocal range" is a slight misnomer.

When a female singer is described as having a five-octave vocal range, it is usually understood to mean she is capable of singing notes in the seventh octave. She has to have the flexibility to execute the C7 as easily as a normal soprano would execute the C6 an octave below. Because classical purists deem the seventh octave unmusical, range was not counted much beyond C7.^{[citation needed]}

Since notes in the seventh octave are usually ad libbed rather than written, (although sheet music for Mariah Carey's Emotions used 8va notation), the label is applied regardless of whether the singer's highest note is a E7 or a G7. While the term is synonymous with abilities in the seventh octave, it does not require a range that literally spans five octaves (e.g., F2-G7 is five octaves, plus one note, but a singer with a range of G2-F7 would still be labeled five-octave).

When Rachelle Ferrell first gained popularity, some people attributed her "six and change"-octave voice incorrectly to her being able to sing through the sixth octave (C6-C7) and some "change," or a few notes in the seventh octave, instead of her being able to sing off the top of a grand piano.^{[citation needed]}

Vocal extremists like Tim Storms, Georgia Brown and Adam Lopez have helped redefine the concept of range.

Note that this applies only to the label of a five-octave voice, not four and one-half octaves, four octaves, six octaves and the like. Those are calculated on the usual linear basis.