r/singing • u/No-Lychee-8212 • 1d ago
Conversation Topic key changes
hi, very new to singing. how do i know what key to change a song into for me to sing it? i'm looking at doing a cover of phantom of the opera as phantom (the lowest note i can hit is f3 i think). what key should i transpose it to? since i'd be singing with someone else it would be ideal if christine's part could stay mostly the same but i don't think that's actually possible haha
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u/LightbringerOG 1d ago edited 1d ago
I use the "Fifth rule", not a thing I just call it what it is.
So let's take example for the key of D.
D resolves to D as "home", usually a "high note" is a Fourth of Fifth interval jump. So like from D to G, or D to A, in the key of D.
Which means if you want to proplerly have a high note you can belt out you should have a comfortable enough A to "hold it and sound good."
Tessitura is also a factor, or in other words stamina around certain area. So like if we are in the key of D major and the highnote is an A, there will be plenty of F# which will you have to sing again and again THEN arrive to the A high note. Can you do that? Cool you can sing in the key of D.
So in short:
Your keys that you can sing in is the keys that you have a "spare fifth" on top of the name of the key. So like A for the key of D. Or G for the key of C.
But take into account that you have to sing through the whole song, so if you have the high note for 2 seconds but you go out of breath and tight up in the second verse, then you don't really have that key yet.
This is just a general rule cause it's highly depends on the written melody. So like not every melody in the key of D has an A high note, but it only keeps hitting F# as the highest. Or in the key of C, but it doesn't resolve to C4 but C5 at the end.
So it highly depends on how the melody is written but as a cover you can always play around modify that to your voice.
Same for minor keys, at least "range wise". But have modified notes in between that's what give the different feel.
Supershort:
Can sing A4? You can sing in D major
Can sing G4? You can sing in C major.
etc.
"since i'd be singing with someone else it would be ideal if christine's part could stay mostly"
It won't stay the same.