r/StevieWonder

Talking Book Vocal Range
A2-C#5-D6 (3 Octaves, 5 Semitones)
Lowest Note: A2 (You’ve Got it Bad Girl)
Highest Belt: C#5 (Big Brother)
Highest HV: D6 (Maybe Your Baby)

This is one of his best albums vocally. He really shows off his agility and goes for some big belting moments in songs like Big Brother and You and I. Every aspect about his voice in this era is gold and this might be his best album!

SITKOL Vocal Range
G#2-E5-C6 (3 Octaves, 4 Semitones)
Lowest Note: G#2 (Village Ghetto Land)
Highest Belt: E5 (Joy Inside My Tears)
Highest HV: C6 (All Day Sucker)

Stevie’s legendary album surprisingly is a bit tame compared to some of other his albums in terms of vocal range and performance. I would say an album like Talking Book had more vocally challenging songs than SITKOL, but SITKOL is incredible in the way he navigates his lower register!

Bass part originally played by James Jamerson. This is a great example of him using open strings for a change of position of his fretting hand and using them as practically ghost notes while raking across the strings with his plucking hand to get to a lower note.

Find the complete song on YouTube. The sheet music is available through my website.

Spotted this Stevie album on vinyl in the Presidential Reading Room at the Chicago Public Library branch of the Obama Presidential Center.

It took me a while to find an example for each note because many artists will have a gap in their range, thankfully Stevie did not!

I love how his voice really starts to open up around E4-A4 region. Then at Bb4 he starts his upper belts which go way up to F#5, but are most consistent at C#5 (semi consistent on D5 and Eb5).

He’s a High Tenor (Lyric Tenor) who possesses an impressive 4 octave range and is best known for his incredible agility, belting, and consistency singing the songs in the original key even today!

Consistent Range: B2-C#5/D5-F#5/G5