A thread about Kim Taehyung’s voice type, color and intro to agility

Many of us know that Taehyung is a lyric baritone in classical/operatic voice typing, but what does this entail to his musicality and skill? Does that have any bearing at all as a singer in pop music?

Lyric baritones have higher tessitura (comfortable range) compared to the other baritone types. Tessitura in the context of vocal pedagogy may refer to his comfortable range, but this also refers to the average pitch of a song. In a group where songs are keyed for+

tenor tessitura, Taehyung is able to access plenty of these notes at ease partially because of his voice type. The lyric baritone is between the second G below middle C and the G above middle C (G2-G4).

Here’s a plotted visual of Taehyung’s range (purple), supported range (orange)
Range: Eb2-Eb6/Eb2 - D6 (3 octaves, 5 notes, and 1 semitone)
Supported: C3-C4/C#4

A lyric baritone’s passaggi are B3 and E4.

The dark blue keys on the 2nd keyboard is the common lyric baritone range.

An exhaustive compilation of his range can be found here:

But the range isn’t just what makes one a lyric baritone. They tend to have a timbre that is darker than the tenor voice, but lighter and sweet-sounding than the other baritones. Given proper knowledge on resonators, the lyric baritone’s vocal weight makes him very versatile;

being able to offer both bright and dark tones, sometimes interchanging or simultaneously, depending on the song.

I like to imagine a grayscale to represent the brightness and darkness of a voice. If we plot the way Tae sounds, considering he sings with tenors (who definitely have brighter color than baritone) and for tenor songs +

but is a baritone (and a lyric one at that) and not bass (darker color than baritone), his tones should be somewhere in the middle, just enough reach on both bright and dark, perhaps with a few more shades of dark.

Singing on his tessitura (his vocal sweet spot), each shade is never going to reach “pure” dark or bright, and that makes the tones he produces to be extra unique. So, there’s always that quality of “darker/brighter, but not really”.

The word unique is exhausted but it truly is the word that encapsulates his color. Many have already mentioned this and expressed their surprise when they hear him oh-so-much diverge from what he’s known for, usually chesty low-middle. Let’s have a mini scale to sample on:

Do notice that I did not plot any of his tones on the edges. There’s no exact measure of vocal color and is subjective; we need to remember that each person is unique. Taehyung’s mixed voice also needs to come into consideration; the intervals between bright and dark get wider.+

However, there’s a vague agreement about Taehyung’s special vocal color but that fittingly sorts him into the lyric baritone subtype:

What it means to be “lyric”: “lyric” is a vocal weight descriptor and is supposed to pertain to “light/agile” in contrast to “dramatic” types, but usually the lyric b. is at ease with switching and sliding between notes, provided they have a great sense of pitch.

To contextualize this in the lyric baritone subtype:
https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2011/12/14/143706798/talk-like-an-opera-geek-breaking-down-baritones

To be agile is to be able to sing fast-moving notes and be on the pitch. Though I believe vocal agility is more of a skill than a voice type trait, let’s try to contextualize this description on Taehyung’s voice. Frankly, one could argue that he’s more non-melismatic of a singer+

as he appears more conservative with it. We must also consider other BTS’ vocal line member roles, so it can’t be said for sure since he doesn’t seem to shy decorating his singing with some runs in his personal/solo oeuvre, all of which he produced +

(e.g. Scenery, Winter Bear, Sweet Night). Recent recorded examples of Taehyung doing runs in BTS repertoire is in A Brand New Day and Friends:

His iconic ending run in Friends: https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1232708744296853504

And my personal favourite https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1232709779987910656?s=21 https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1232709779987910656

Here is a compilation of Taehyung’s more recent, live (non-record) trills/riffs/runs:

He also does the runs for “Home”. This one during one of the fanmeetings last year:

By the way: The words “riffs” and “runs” are used interchangeably but do mind there’s actually a difference:

I noticed that many times he does trills and riffs when singing his parts BTS songs but do mind these are subtler than runs, and only occasionally do adlibs. When given the chance to adlib and put his own embellishments though, he proves he capable and hits full notes of+

melodic lines in quick succession, as with the case in the latter performances of The Truth Untold in Love Yourself concerts. Personal favourite of his TTU embellishments would have to be the one from LY: Fukuoka.

Another time where he did embellishments was in Love Myself (Bangkok, 2019).

To summarize this portion, Taehyung only occasionally puts on embellishments. He only does them as accents to complement the musical piece; perhaps to avoid “over singing”, a case in which vocal embellishments overpower the song.

However, this only a loose opinion on our side and to reiterate, Taehyung’s lines and vocal parts in BTS are historically limited.

More notes on vocal weight, color! Given that Taehyung seems acquainted with artsongs, we thought this is something interesting for fans of his vocals and the potential of his voice in the context of classical. How does this man achieve this phonation?

Of course, we must acknowledge that pop music singing is different from operatic singing. Obviously, Taehyung is simply having a good time in those clips while also warming up his voice, but he’s also able to mimic the operatic/musical-theatrical phonation by lowering his larynx+

(which also adds deepness to his voice; lifting makes the sound brighter) for fuller, rounder, open singing voice. The song he often sings, “Nessun dorma”, is a popular tenor aria. While there is the case of “baritenors”, baritones who sing in the tenor range, if Tae is to +

truly take full advantage of his voice type, he will benefit more from singing arias written for his voice type. Anyhow, it is still impressive. This is one of the few things as to why I think Taehyung prioritizes mastering vocal tones and dynamics.

There’s always room for potential in case Taehyung may want to explore this in the future. Some texts from academia about the classical lyric baritone:

Richard Miller on lyric b. roles from “Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices”:

Lois Alba on pieces that fit the lyric b. the best, from “Vocal Rescue: Rediscover the Beauty, Power, and Freedom in Your Singing”:

And that is all for now! Hopefully we can also get on with the other characteristics of Taehyung’s vocals such as his range, stability, flexibility and more soon. Thank you for reading!