Vocal Ranges

[Sebastian]

Well ... that's self-explanatory, a thread to discuss how high and how low each of the seven Eagles could/can sing.

Edit: I'll post some of the impressive high or low notes I've found so far.

One of These Nights: Don peaks on a 783.991-Hz g", Randy peaks on a 987.767-Hz b". Live (NZ, '95), Don peaked on a 659.255-Hz e" and Tim peaked on a 587.330-Hz d" (he sang a fourth lower than Randy had on the record), which makes it one of the few occasions of Don actually singing higher than Tim on the same song.

Take It to the Limit: Randy peaks on 830.609-Hz g#" in the album version. Live (Houston '77) he reproduced it and did it even better than on the record. Glenn's version from Vegas (19th November 2011) changes the key to G, which makes it far easier to sing, and even then Glenn doesn't get to the high notes, he peaks on a 391.995-Hz g'.

[Freypower]

To be fair to Glenn he has never tried those high notes in TITTL.

I am impressed with your technical knowledge but I'm afraid I can't comment further on this basis.

[MaryCalifornia]

Here is my super non-technical analysis of how high they can sing, from someone who has no musical education: they are all tenors. Randy can sing the highest. Timothy is next. Don can sing in falsetto, but I would not consider this his normal "range". Timothy's highest notes are actually in his range - not falsetto. I'm not sure if Randy's highest notes would be considered falsetto. Joe is next, then Bernie and Glenn and Felder are all sort of the same. Experts, feel free to correct me!

As far as how many octaves they can cover - no idea. I would guess in their prime, Randy and Tim could go very high and somewhat low. They all seem to sing in a pretty narrow range...

I would certainly enjoy hearing some expert, technical analysis of their voices, though! In HOTE Glenn says regarding Joe potentially replacing Bernie, "Might lose something in the vocals..." but I think Joe has a really interesting voice that is very strong. But, who knows, maybe an opera instructor would think it sucks.

[Freypower]

I should point out that Glenn can sing falsetto too but he only does it in solo songs. I would say that his range is still quite wide having heard After Hours, but when he does harmonies with the Eagles he seems to do the lower parts.

[MaryCalifornia]

Sebastian - How can you identify Timothy's vocals on OOTN - I just watched the NZ video, every time he sings, Joe and Glenn sing, too. How do you have his feed?

*tries...to...end...post...without...noting...how. ..fine...TBS...looks...in...this... show...but...can't...*

[Sebastian]

They're harmonising. Not having a piano or the song handy right now, I'll just rely on memory: I think Tim's singing a d", Glenn's singing a b' and Joe's singing an e', so together they form the E5-7 chord.

When they did it with Randy (at least in the studio version), Randy sang a g", Glenn sang the same b' and Bernie sang the e' that Joe would do decades later. They spelt an Em chord (the seventh would be given by the guitars instead of the vocals, IIRC).

I'll double check when I've got the recordings and an instrument near me (I don't have perfect pitch, so I need some device to help me find out the exact note each person's singing).

[GlennLover]

Sebastian - How can you identify Timothy's vocals on OOTN - I just watched the NZ video, every time he sings, Joe and Glenn sing, too. How do you have his feed?

*tries...to...end...post...without...noting...how. ..fine...TBS...looks...in...this... show...but...can't...*

LOL, MC! I'm watching the NZ video as I am reading this.

[MaryCalifornia]

C'mon GL, tell me I'm right!:heart:

Sebastian, what I meant was, not how to identify their voices - most of us on here can do that - but on the more technical side, how does your magic hZ machine measure just the one voice during the harmonies??? Does it have to do with DTS surround sound 5 speakers that is a much-discussed topic around here? Thanks!

[StephUK]

Here is my super non-technical analysis of how high they can sing, from someone who has no musical education: they are all tenors. Randy can sing the highest. Timothy is next. Don can sing in falsetto, but I would not consider this his normal "range". Timothy's highest notes are actually in his range - not falsetto. I'm not sure if Randy's highest notes would be considered falsetto. Joe is next, then Bernie and Glenn and Felder are all sort of the same. Experts, feel free to correct me!

As far as how many octaves they can cover - no idea. I would guess in their prime, Randy and Tim could go very high and somewhat low. They all seem to sing in a pretty narrow range...

I would certainly enjoy hearing some expert, technical analysis of their voices, though! In HOTE Glenn says regarding Joe potentially replacing Bernie, "Might lose something in the vocals..." but I think Joe has a really interesting voice that is very strong. But, who knows, maybe an opera instructor would think it sucks.

I would have guessed Timothy to be an Alto rather than a tenor - but I stress, it's only a guess.

[Sebastian]

how does your magic hZ machine measure just the one voice during the harmonies?

No, I just identify the pitch, and each pitch has a unique frequency (assuming they're playing in standard 440, which they are), so middle C's always 261.626-Hz, and the C above it (tenor C) is twice as much, i.e., 523.251-Hz, and then soprano C is 1,046.50. A above middle C is 440, and if you lower an octave then it's 220, then 110, then 55, etc.

I use the notation of c' as middle C, then if we go higher it'd be c#', d', d#', e', f', f#', g', g#', a', bb', b' and then the next octave would be c", c#", d", etc. If we start on middle C or c' and go down then you get b, bb, a... until you get to c, then B and then Bb and so on.

That's one of the few things in music which can be mathematically measured.

[Freypower]

I would have guessed Timothy to be an Alto rather than a tenor - but I stress, it's only a guess.

That would be calling him a countertenor, and his voice is high, but not that high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto

[travlnman2]

I want to officially revive this thread. So lately I have been working on my vocals but am nowhere near to be comfortable recording it. My vocal range so far is mainly with Glenn's. Like the lowest I can sing right now is most likely the harmonies on Hote Califronia. But I usually pick out Glenn's vocals on Seven Bridges road.

I can also sing the verses to Take It To The Limit with very difficulty and I can not sing I can't tell you why. But most likely straining on the High Notes for New Kid.

It is amazing how these guys could hit the key with consistency.

I think Timmothy has a higher range then Randy

[UndertheWire]

A good song for hearing Randy's range is "Take the Devil". For most of the song, he's singing fairly low (for Randy) but from about 2:20 to 2:35 he goes up the scale. He may sing higher in other songs but this shows how he could get up there without a break, pther than a slight shift in the middle.

[NightMistBlue]

There's a guy on YouTube who goes real technical with this stuff - I'll post an example he did of Carl Wilson (angel-voiced Beach Boy guitarist) with song samples from Carl's low range to highest. It's pretty cool if you're into that sort of thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQHBBn8PJyw

He's done a few people so far - Sinatra, McCartney. I imagine it's a considerable amount of work. It would be fun to do Randy! To calculate his vocal range I mean. What did you think I meant?

[LuvTim]

:blush: :rofl: NMB....

[travlnman2]

We seriously need some more guys on this board lol. :) :twisted:

On topic. I always love hearing the base part on 7BR. Felder sounds like James Earl Jones

[Delilah]

The very first post on this thread shows someone went through the trouble of measuring vocal pitch frequencies (my emphasis added):


Well ... that's self-explanatory, a thread to discuss how high and how low each of the seven Eagles could/can sing.

Edit: I'll post some of the impressive high or low notes I've found so far.

One of These Nights: Don peaks on a 783.991-Hz g", Randy peaks on a 987.767-Hz b." Live (NZ, '95), Don peaked on a 659.255-Hz e" and Tim peaked on a 587.330- Hz d" (he sang a fourth lower than Randy had on the record), which makes it one of the few occasions of Don actually singing higher than Tim on the same song.

Take It to the Limit: Randy peaks on 830.609-Hz g#" in the album
version. Live (Houston '77) he reproduced it and did it even better than on the record.

I added the bold about Don b/c he also has a high vocal range, which explains those great falsettos. Randy and Timothy's high notes are not falsetto, however, at least not to my ears.

[NightMistBlue]

Delilah, do you have a frequency analyzer?

Here is Randy's high note in Take It to the Limit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_8BpbdCZ4

Oh shoot, my garage door just went up.

[Delilah]

:rofl:No, I wouldn't know how to work one if I did! I guess I could dig up my old physics textbooks.


Wow, that's amazing--to think Randy hit that note live, not just for a single beat, but held it! Thanks for the link.

[Eagles7]

This is so cool. Can u break down 7 Bridges Road? Somebody had separated the voices on You Tibe but Irving ( I guess) blocked it. It wasn't even a live video!! Grrrr!!

[LovinGlennGirl]

:roll::confused::headscratch:

[DrRyan454]

So normally (from lowest to highest), the order was Joe, Felder, Glenn, Don, Randy/Timothy, but in Hotel California, only Glenn sang lower than Don. Joe sang higher than Don, Felder sang higher than Joe, and Timothy sang higher than Felder. As for guitar ranges, obviously Tim played lowest, so then Glenn, Joe was lower than Felder and Felder's guitar played the highest notes.

[Scarlet Sun]

So normally (from lowest to highest), the order was Joe, Felder, Glenn, Don, Randy/Timothy
Well, on Seven Bridges Road, Felder sang bass. There wasn't a lot of 5-part harmony with each guy singing a different note.