I was noodling around the Range Place (link and being a visual person with limited knowledge of music theory, I busted out the Photoshop and drew the vocal ranges of Freddie, Roger, Brian, Paul Rodgers, Adam Lambert and Marc Martel over the scientific pitch notation chart on Wiki. (See attached .jpg)
Some caveats:
* I used sung vocal ranges, not including spoken
* I don't differentiate between modal, falsetto, etc.
* The ranges might be misleading for singers with long careers like Roger, Brian and Paul Rodgers since at any one point in their career, their actual vocal range may be a subset of what is depicted
* Marc Martel is in the "work in progress" section of the Range Place, which I assume means that the person who posted hasn't heard everything Marc has done?
But anyway, my observations:
* Not unexpectedly, Freddie has the widest vocal range
* Roger is a solid second place
* Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert have similar vocal ranges
* Adam Lambert's highest documented note almost a full octave below Freddie's and only two semitones higher than Paul Rodgers and Marc Martel, so claims that he can hit crazy high notes that no one else but Freddie can are greatly exaggerated. ;-)
Again, please keep in mind that I have limited knowledge of musical theory before you tear me apart. ;-)
Freddie Mercury link
Roger Taylor link
Brian May link
Paul Rodgers link
Adam Lambert link
Marc Martel link
Vocal range isn't the whole story though. It's very much about how that singer uses the range and power of their voice.
There are many singers who don't possess great range but have huge ability to sing a song and put across what it's about.
Absolutely, vocal range isn't everything. I agree 100%. However, this post is comparing VOCAL RANGE of Queen-ish singers and does not compare anything else. Hence, my post. Marc Martel's range is way vaster than it is stated here.
I always thought David Bowie had an amazing deep voice deepest i ever heard and then he has that lovely melodic high voice he uses sometimes.
Here is a compete breakdown of his range for those who understand what it says link
I really like the beginning on this new song of his
It sounds familiar as though he did it on another song
It goes quite high link
I think QZ needs a filter that just sends 'vocal range' related topics straight to the bin. A lot of singers can make noises in (and beyond) Freddie's range. I can coax similar from my throat, but does it sound any good?? Nope.