Singer

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For other senses of this word, see singer (disambiguation).

Ercole de' Roberti: Concert, c. 1490

LeAnn Rimes in concert

A singer is a musician who uses his or her voice to produce music. Usually, singing refers to vocal melody only, though vocalist is a similar term which also encompasses non-melodic sounds and effectively includes anyone using their voice as part of a musical composition, including spoken word, Death grunt, Hardcore screaming, and rapping.

According to Alfred Alexander (formally a ENT consultant to the home office), "a singer is a person of adequate musicality, who is gifted with a voice of such power and beauty that competent judges can recommend singing as a career". Alexander believes that 1 in 50,000 in the UK possess such gifts, which means in England (800,000 births a year average) 16 people are born with such a voice a year, making 500 "first class voices" active in any particular generation (taken as 30 years) at any one time.^[1]

A lead singer (in barbershop music simply called a lead) is one who sings the primary vocals of a song, as opposed to a backing singer who sings backup vocal(s) to a song or harmonies to the lead singer. An exception is in five-part gospel a cappella music, where the lead is the highest of the five voices and sings a descant, never the melody which may be in any of the other four parts.

In European classical music and opera, voices are treated just like musical instruments. Composers write music for these instruments, understanding the skills and vocal properties of the singers. Singers build careers by specializing in certain musical styles.

To help both composers and singers, voice classification systems evolved, of which there are now many systems. How loud or how fast a singer can sing can be taken into account, while some systems include non-musical characteristics like what a singer looks like, how well a singer acts (crucial in opera), or how funny a singer can be. In Germany, opera houses use a complex sorting procedure, called the fach system, that considers all these elements.

Classifying singers by range and sex is the most common method. But even using these guidelines, there are still many categories. Some common classifications are:

Female voices:
- soprano, the highest female voice
- mezzo-soprano, the middle female voice
- contralto, the lowest female voice, called alto in chorus music
Male voices:
- treble/boy soprano, the highest male voice (unbroken, boy)
- countertenor, the highest broken male voice (falsetto)
- tenor, the highest broken male voice (not falsetto)
- baritone, the middle male voice
- bass, the lowest male voice

There are many other designations, including soubrette, heldentenor, bass-baritone, coloratura, baritenor and basso buffo. There are even categories for men capable of singing in the female range. This type of voice is rare, but still used in opera. In Baroque music, many roles were written for castratos, male singers who were castrated as boys to prevent their voices from changing. Today, with training, men can still sing these roles. The sort of singers are called Countertenors for Castrato Alto roles and Sopranists (or "Sopranistas") for Castrato Soprano roles.

Singers may also be classified according to the style of music they sing, such as soul singers or carnatic vocalists.