[Vocal Profile] Patrick Stump

 
Patrick Stump

Vocal Type: High Lyric Tenor
Vocal Range:E2-C6 3 octaves and a minor sixth.
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: Lead singer and songwriter of Fall Out Boy, Patrick Stump is an experienced vocalist. He has sung almost entirely in the pop punk idiom, but has also made the transition to RnB without difficulty on solo album Soul Punk. Though he has a light voice, due to his technique, his voice carries a piercing, ringing quality, most noticeable in the upper fourth and lower fifth octaves. He has also shown an interesting knack for melisma – unusual given his chosen genre.

Stump’s low range is the least-used area of his voice, and has a dark, distended quality [Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet]. He very infrequently descends lower than C3, but when he does, approaches the notes with solid support, and doesn’t have the breathy quality that so many tenors do when singing low.

The middle voice, starting around E3 ascending to E4-F4, is impressively malleable, being able to morph to whichever style he chooses to sing in [Compare Dance, Dance to This City], and he generally uses a strong, easy-sounding approach when he sings. Patrick Stump also has great capability for fast-moving, melismatic lines in the middle voice, best seen on the Fall Out Boy album Folie a Deux.

His belting range carries a lot of sound and surprising ease, given the genre he sings in usually calls for more strain and tension than traditional pop music. Generally speaking, his earlier singing until around 2006 had more heavily chest-dominant mixing, but has since steadily improved to become a more even mix, though still chesty. The highest belts (B4-D5) are interesting for the fact that his tone does not become heady, indicating an unusually controlled mix, as well as a rather high voice type [I Don’t Care, Centuries].

The falsetto range, though usually used to contrast and punctuate sustained belting [Dance Miserable], is generally capable, and has typical breathiness, though this can be controlled to some degree [Novocaine]. His falsetto has recently become considerably brighter and more piercing, indicating improved control over this range.

Vocal Negatives:His low range in live settings is almost non-existent, indicating a lack of confidence or ability to use his range below C3 consistently.

In his early career, Stump would almost always use too much chest voice when belting high, often causing his singing to become tired and raspy when touring. In addition to that, he would try to keep all of his vowels as tall as possible when belting high. Though this did give his high belts a rounded, deeper timbre, it also made most of Fall Out Boy’s music before their hiatus in 2009 nearly impossible to understand from a lyrical standpoint, especially when Stump would try to enunciate in his belting range.

Due to his light voice type and age, Stump’s voice can be quite nasal and grating, though this has improved over time, and will likely continue improving as his voice fully matures.

Thanks to Marty for this Profile!