[Vocal Profile] Aaliyah

Aaliyah

Vocal Type: Light Lyric Soprano
Vocal Range:G2-E6 (3 Octaves 5 Note ) ( E3-G5)
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: This Diva possessed a remarkably smooth and seductive tone that carried through much of the range. Never considered a "powerhouse" vocalist, the strength in this voice lay in the texture, phrasing and canny use of the different registers to impress. [Listen as she creates drama in I Refuse without falling back on the cliches of power or increased dynamics to do so.]

Aaliyah possessed a solid lower range that was dark and warm. Slightly smokey, the voice was always well supported here, resulting in a sound that was clear, strong and free from the fogginess many Diva's suffer at the bottom of their voice [Death of A Playa].



The smokey, hazy character followed through into Aaliyah's easy mid-range. Here the voice was equally weighty, though less so the higher the voice climbed, and was sweeter and more gentle than the lower range [Try Again]. As with its lower and higher counterparts, notes produced here had an intrinsic character that made a vocal immediately attributable to the Aaliyah.

Though not known for her belting range, Aaliyah did have the ability to hit notes in the the fifth octave in a belting style. However this came at the expense of the voice's buttery and moist tone, sounding pulled and more colourless as the placement shifted to the nasal cavity [The One I Gave My Heart To].

The head voice was accessed easily by the singer [Let Me Know (At Your Best)] and it had a beautifully lush ring to it. She often used it, flipping quickly and dextrously to it mid-phrase and from other parts of the range, for artistic effect [I Care For You]. Here the voice shared the sweet and slight airiness of the mid-range, with the tone produced being somewhat akin to that of a cross between a falsetto and a head tone- having the timbre of a falsetto but with the increased dynamic control found in the head voice. Her ability to sing melisma in this part of the range only served to highlight the freedom and ease she had here.

Due to the airy and gentle quality found throughout the voice it lent itself to being layered, creating luxurious and humid harmonies. Not only did it stack beautifully with itself, creating a sound that didn't become heavy or cumbersome [Rock The Boat], but it worked well with other voices too [Are You That Somebody ].

A soft voice that possessed unique and usual power, it has yet to be replicated.

Vocal Negatives: Her belting range was at odds with the rest of the voice, though improvements could be heard when comparing the change in sound, strength and placement that occurred in the rerecording of The One I gave My Heart To [Original/ Rerecord].