Range (music)

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In music, the terms range, designated range, sounding range and written range have specific meanings.

The range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, this is known as vocal range. The range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. The sounding range^[1] refers to the pitches produced by an instrument, while the written range^[1] refers to the compass (span) of notes written in the sheet music. A piccolo typically has a sounding range one octave higher than its written range.^[1]

The duration range is the difference between the shortest and longest rhythm used. Dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part or piece of music.

The designated range is the set of notes the player should or can achieve while playing. All instruments have a designated range, and all pitched instruments have a playing range. Timbre, dynamics, and duration ranges are interrelated and one may achieve registral range at the expense of timbre. The designated range is thus the range in which a player is expected to have comfortable control of all aspects.

While some woodwind instruments and string instruments have no theoretical upper limit to their range (although they often have practical limits), they generally cannot go below their designated range. This is not the case for brass instruments. All brass instruments can play beyond their designated ranges. Notes lower than the brass instrument's designated range are called pedal tones. The playing range of a brass instrument depends on both the technical limitations of the instrument and the skill of the player.

While woodwind and brass instruments can play above (and in the case of brass instruments below) their designated ranges, it is not often called upon in classical arrangements. String musicians play the bottom of their ranges very frequently, but the top of a string instrument's range is rather fuzzy, and it is unusual for a string player to exceed the designated range. It is quite rare for wind musicians to play the extremes of their instruments. The most common exception is that of trombones. Bass trombones are frequently asked to play pedal tones in many 20th century works.

This chart uses standard numberings for octaves where middle C corresponds to C4. In the MIDI language middle C is simply referred to as 'Middle C'.

The lowest note that a pipe organ can sound (with a true pipe) is C-1 (or CCCCC), which is 8 Hz, not visible on this chart. However, if acoustic combination (a note and its fifth) counts, the lowest note is C-2 (CCCCCC), which is 4 Hz.

[edit] Typical ranges

*This chart only displays to a C0, though the Octocontrabass clarinet extends down the B♭ below that C. Also some pipe organs, such as the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ, extends down to C-1 (one octave below C0).

[edit] Notes

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