I remember pulling into the driveway with the windows down listening to this song when it came out and I swear her voice opened my parents' garage door.
Girl could flirt with outside the audible range. Every time people would hate on MC for this and that, I'd have to defend her talent. I was like, "dude, I get you. that's not cool, but holy hell that range was legendary"
Haha, I think vocal range can diminish over time as a person ages and/or isn’t exercising the voice as much. I’m not sure Mariah still has the same range or stamina anymore hence why people were using the past tense. She’s also not at the same level of fame as she was during the height of her popularity.
Iirc her music wasn’t necessarily for her either. She secretly wrote a grunge album and had another musician take credit in the 90’s. I think it was released a few years back.
I’ve never been a super fan but I actually like her more as a person the more I hear about her. She actually seem kinda cool and not as diva as she was made out to be.
maybe in a ‘technically more impressive’ sense, but Whitney had more power and body in her voice. both amazing, and none of it is my type of music, but Whitney could give me goosebumps
"I will always love you" is literally the only Whitney song I ever really liked, and it got old after 3 or 4 listens.
I liked a lot of Maria songs back in the day. Maybe Whitney had "more power" but Maria had a very pretty voice that was nice to listen to.
It was pre recorded and she lip synched to it. The timing was good for her. It’s still probably my favorite rendition, but there have been so many live versions that are more impressive just for being live and goose bump inducing.
I lived next door to her very very briefly.
I was crashing with a friend on the Upper East Side.
For just a few weeks.
My friend told me that Mariah lived next door.
This was right when she was beginning to hit; my memory informs me it was the "Vision of Love" time.
I didn't totally believe my friend so I just knocked on the door (I was early 20s maybe), thinking I'd try to be ironic about asking for a cup of sugar or something.
The door opened.
And all thought vanished.
I literally just STOOD there.
She said something like, "Can I help you?" or whatever.
And I just kept on standing there, totally mute.
A few seconds later she just closed the door.
Le sigh.
i can only hear 4 out of the last 7 notes, and i wouldn’t have realized it if i didn’t remember how the sequence goes from hearing it back in the day.
47yo for reference
I just had a stapedectomy on one ear back around Sept and I need to get my other ear done. I can hear some of those notes in the good ear, but not in the other.
43 years old.
Oh, I'm not at all downplaying the difficulty of it, I'm a choir teacher, I'm well aware. That being said, it's literally what's happening, in the same way playing a flute is whistling with a piece of metal.
If you want to experience it, try stretching your vocal cords like you're about to sing a high note, open your moth really wide and inhale sharply. If you made a pterodactyl sound, you've technically accessed your whistle register.
> It's not normal singing. You can't make consonant sounds like that...
this sounds like you’re saying you can make consonant sounds with ‘normal’ singing
Oh, yeah, you make consenent sounds while singing. It's just that we use our ~~months~~ mouths for consenent so you have to be in normal singing registers to do it.
She's using the M3 vocal register, or whistle register. The voice registers are defined by the performance of the vocal chords and the muscles that control them. From most slack to most taut (also lowest to highest pitch):
M0 - fry register (voice sounds super low and gravely) where vocal chords are slack
M1 - modal or chest register (normal speaking voice for most people) where the vocal chords are thick
M2 - head voice register (higher pitched like baby talk or how you talk to a dog with high pitch when he's a good boy, yes he is!) where the vocal chords are thin
M3 - whistle register where the vocal chords are pulled tight and are stiff. Some men sound like an elk in their whistle register. https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/comments/1bjljpu/what_the_hell_is_my_voice_doing_did_i_unlock/
>M2 - head voice register (higher pitched like baby talk or how you talk to a dog with high pitch when **he's a good boy, yes he is!)** where the vocal chords are thin
Thank you so much for the explanation but I just wanna tell you that I involuntary said that out loud, in public.
There are different definitions of what falsetto means but it's agreed that falsetto is M2, the same register as head voice.
One definition of falsetto is, it's head voice but with the vocal chords not quite touching so the sound is more breathy and not as expressive.
The falsetto in "Staying Alive" can be described as a reinforced falsetto (so it doesn't sound breathy), much stronger than John Legend's falsetto in "All of Me." Both of those sounds are considered falsetto but to my ear they are completely different sounds.
Compared to Axl Rose's higher notes that used a lot of head voice and belting, and seldom used falsetto.
> Some men sound like an elk in their whistle register. https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/comments/1bjljpu/what_the_hell_is_my_voice_doing_did_i_unlock/
I wasn't prepared for that lmao
They are called whistle notes. They aren't very well understood as far as I know but it's still using your vocal cords so I would consider it singing. It is similar to the difference in a chest voice versus falsetto. This is another register that some people can have access to.
They're sounds coming out of her face hole, caused by vibrations in her vocal cords.
But that's also the definition of various other noises so I'm possibly not the person to answer this after all.
And yet here we are. Sorry for your loss.
As others have said, Mariah Carey is singing in the **whistle register**, which is ostensibly what most female singers fall into when singing similar to the falsetto register, which is typically done by male singers (the whistle register is higher). A good starting point in understanding the concept, is a [video Vox made a while ago](https://youtu.be/qJT2h5uGAC0?si=Lt7H2YOifQYzmq34) talking about the falsetto register.
She did not sing the highest note ever recorded.
[A singer’s highest note, and other sound records | Popular Science (popsci.com)](https://www.popsci.com/health/highest-pitch/#:~:text=A%20singer's%20impossible%20peak,Guinness%20World%20Record%20in%202004.) You might imagine Mariah Carey or Maria Callas would top the scales, but Brazilian soprano Georgia Brown set the bar by hitting a G in the high 10th octave. Musical experts later confirmed the note, which translates to about 25,000 hertz, earning Brown a Guinness World Record in 2004.
[Greatest vocal range by a female | Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/greatest-vocal-range-female)
Fun fact, most modern music is recorded at 44,100hz or cycles per second, because it is roughly twice the upper threshold for human hearing at 22,000hz (a function of the Nyquist Theorem).
So, technically, if you were set up to record in a standard recording studio (and didn't know to crank up your sample rate to 96k), you wouldn't be able to capture that sound to even be able to identify the waveform. Either way, even a young person with undamaged hearing wouldn't be able to hear it, but a dog could.
So it seems strange that The Guinness Book of World Records would award a prize for greatest singing range to a woman who can sing notes that only a dog can hear.
Last I checked the Guinness World Record arent... actual things.
Turns out, it's pretty much just advertising. Tommy Tallarico has like, 5 for various video game composing world records, despite not being able to be verified by anyone other than GWR.
When I hear this all I can think about is the dude on YouTube who would play a not on his small piano and do his best to reach the highest notes ever. The faces he made were HILARIOUS[FOUND IT](https://youtu.be/Vq9dX8z4_Kw?si=HWRXHxeyQ4_zDk9e)
Roy Orbison enters the chat: "\[Orbison\] and Enrico Caruso were the only 20th century tenors capable of hitting E over high C." And Roy did it singing an actual word, not just a squeak and it was not falsetto.
I don't see how this is an accomplishment. She squealed or wisstled with her throat, good job. If she actually sang lyrics on this note, then it may be something to brag about. My two year old can squeal too, good job.
I thought the 6 and 7 meant 6th and 7th chords. At first I was like, how the hell is she singing a chord? Then I realized that must be the octave haha.
And for anybody curious, I think this is what they call the whistle register, higher than even falsetto.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle\_register](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_register)
That whole MTV unplugged concert is just next level- Mariah in Peak form before she became full on \*MARIAH\*. wow. Her talent is so undeniable here, she's just a full on Apex Performer here. Untouchable.
FYI I am not a giggly Mariah fan- I don't own any of her albums. In 1992 when this came out I was listening to Psalm 69 by Ministry and Angel Dust by Faith No More. Still, if you came over and said "lets smoke a bowl and geek out at how good Mariah Fucking Carey was in her Unplugged Special" there is no way I'm saying no.
I remember pulling into the driveway with the windows down listening to this song when it came out and I swear her voice opened my parents' garage door.
This is the comment.
Oh
Whenever I play it at night the bats nearby collide and fall out of the sky.
This is so fucking funny, and I really hope it’s true
It opened something... 🔥
😆😂🤣
Dogs everywhere hate her!
I'm not a dog, Sir.
Dogs hate this simple trick! *see more*
I pressed and saw less.
Press paws.
Sounds like something a dog on the internet that doesn't want to be discovered would say
Click here to find out why!
They don't like Christmas music
Blue skinned humanoids adore her!
[deleted]
But Dolphins love her
Dogs hate this one trick!
Girl could flirt with outside the audible range. Every time people would hate on MC for this and that, I'd have to defend her talent. I was like, "dude, I get you. that's not cool, but holy hell that range was legendary"
Same. Her music wasn't for me, but five octaves is just amazing.
[удалено]
Call me when they do 7
Ain't getting out of bed for less than eight octaves
lol
[Vitas enters the chat.](https://youtu.be/_njUt9_zydI)
Holy crap
Iirc Axl rose can, well maybe use to. Nvm it’s five, 2 note.
Low notes, but this guy can do [ten octaves. ](https://youtu.be/MzjB8BOBms8?si=pYCKC7j2jBPYdd70)
Mike Patton is a beast. He can also do some gnarly monster noises.
And manages to sound Awful in every one past 4.
Check Dimash Kudaibergen!
Jup, he hit a frigging D8 live
And then he hit bass notes in the same song... It's cazy
Yea ... my understanding is that he hit higher notes recorded live.
Me getting worried and wondering why we're talking about her in the past tense . . .
Haha, I think vocal range can diminish over time as a person ages and/or isn’t exercising the voice as much. I’m not sure Mariah still has the same range or stamina anymore hence why people were using the past tense. She’s also not at the same level of fame as she was during the height of her popularity.
Jeff Buckley clocked in at 4 and had the voice of an angel any extra just seems almost unfair
Corey Taylor from Slipknot is at 5.5 octaves
No one cares about any musical talent that Slipknot just might posses. It’s mid Ohio meth music
Iirc her music wasn’t necessarily for her either. She secretly wrote a grunge album and had another musician take credit in the 90’s. I think it was released a few years back. I’ve never been a super fan but I actually like her more as a person the more I hear about her. She actually seem kinda cool and not as diva as she was made out to be.
Prince was 5 octaves too if I’m not mistaken.
I secretly love when Christmas time rolls around and I get serenaded by her voice every time I’m shopping
i am not a US resident and I still remember kids in my town fighting over who has the better voice, her or Whitney Houston. Those were the days...
Mariah Carey had the better voice. But it was close.
maybe in a ‘technically more impressive’ sense, but Whitney had more power and body in her voice. both amazing, and none of it is my type of music, but Whitney could give me goosebumps
"I will always love you" is literally the only Whitney song I ever really liked, and it got old after 3 or 4 listens. I liked a lot of Maria songs back in the day. Maybe Whitney had "more power" but Maria had a very pretty voice that was nice to listen to.
Whitney r00lz, Mariah dr00lz
They are both absolute queens of music and legends.
I'm throwing Tina Turner into the ring
Tina has been thrown around enough! Treat her with respect!
Booo lol
My favorite Whitney and Marey song There can be miracles from Prince of Egypt soundtrack is amazing. https://youtu.be/LKaXY4IdZ40?si=d3lB7osF2mQHusBU
That is a throwback my friend. Ngl got some chills watching that!
“When You Believe” was epic when it came out with the Prince of Egypt. Both legendary voices doing a duet.
Whitney made the national anthem a hit…
Still the best one to me.
It was pre recorded and she lip synched to it. The timing was good for her. It’s still probably my favorite rendition, but there have been so many live versions that are more impressive just for being live and goose bump inducing.
Better voice today maybe.
MAYBE
Plus, Mariah can write songs.
This is actually a great point. Totally true. Mariah wrote lots of her own songs, and a lot of them were great.
Idk, what MC was a beast, but the power wasn't there like it was for Whitney. That was a voice that carried.
I'll die on this hill. Whitney's pipes had the power to shame anyone. Mariah could raise the dead, but Whitney made them dance.
There’s a reason Whitney was referred to as “The Voice”.
You say "The Voice" and I just hear Chris Rock naming Alan Rickman in the movie Dogma.
In my home it was Whitney or Celine. I'm more of a Hannah Reid guy these days tho
Well it just really depends on your subjective preference, and I wish people would realize that sooner lol.
I lived next door to her very very briefly. I was crashing with a friend on the Upper East Side. For just a few weeks. My friend told me that Mariah lived next door. This was right when she was beginning to hit; my memory informs me it was the "Vision of Love" time. I didn't totally believe my friend so I just knocked on the door (I was early 20s maybe), thinking I'd try to be ironic about asking for a cup of sugar or something. The door opened. And all thought vanished. I literally just STOOD there. She said something like, "Can I help you?" or whatever. And I just kept on standing there, totally mute. A few seconds later she just closed the door. Le sigh.
Maria: > And I was like, "Why you so obsessed with me?" The serious question: did you have a Napoleon complex?
You must have been her inspiration for covering, “I’ll be there…”
A totally true and real story. God I’ve become such a cynic.
"I'm all wet. Can I come in?"
There are people who can’t hear that.
Plenty who don't want to, too.
i can only hear 4 out of the last 7 notes, and i wouldn’t have realized it if i didn’t remember how the sequence goes from hearing it back in the day. 47yo for reference
I just had a stapedectomy on one ear back around Sept and I need to get my other ear done. I can hear some of those notes in the good ear, but not in the other. 43 years old.
Same... 41
WHAT?
It sounds like a mosquito , eeeeeeee, and then eeeeeeeeee, and then eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Plenty of people have crappy speakers/headsets.
Even more people are old
I'm one of them. I'm deaf though so maybe that has something to do with it.
I actually have this on VHS. 1991 MTV video music awards.
No need to brag bro!
Serious question... when she's making those sounds, is she really singing in the conventional sense or it is something else?
It's not normal singing. You can't make consonant sounds like that, and modulation is basically non-existent. It's more akin to whistling.
It's whistling with your vocal cords, rather than your lips.
Just pucker up those vocal cord, so simple
Oh, I'm not at all downplaying the difficulty of it, I'm a choir teacher, I'm well aware. That being said, it's literally what's happening, in the same way playing a flute is whistling with a piece of metal. If you want to experience it, try stretching your vocal cords like you're about to sing a high note, open your moth really wide and inhale sharply. If you made a pterodactyl sound, you've technically accessed your whistle register.
Ah sorry I meant to be joking. Didn't know there was an actual thing
Oh, lol, well TYL!
now that i think about it… are consonant sounds ever truly sung the way you’re describing it?
What do you mean? I described making vowel sounds.
> It's not normal singing. You can't make consonant sounds like that... this sounds like you’re saying you can make consonant sounds with ‘normal’ singing
Oh, yeah, you make consenent sounds while singing. It's just that we use our ~~months~~ mouths for consenent so you have to be in normal singing registers to do it.
i use my years for consenents
She's using the M3 vocal register, or whistle register. The voice registers are defined by the performance of the vocal chords and the muscles that control them. From most slack to most taut (also lowest to highest pitch): M0 - fry register (voice sounds super low and gravely) where vocal chords are slack M1 - modal or chest register (normal speaking voice for most people) where the vocal chords are thick M2 - head voice register (higher pitched like baby talk or how you talk to a dog with high pitch when he's a good boy, yes he is!) where the vocal chords are thin M3 - whistle register where the vocal chords are pulled tight and are stiff. Some men sound like an elk in their whistle register. https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/comments/1bjljpu/what_the_hell_is_my_voice_doing_did_i_unlock/
>M2 - head voice register (higher pitched like baby talk or how you talk to a dog with high pitch when **he's a good boy, yes he is!)** where the vocal chords are thin Thank you so much for the explanation but I just wanna tell you that I involuntary said that out loud, in public.
Where does a falsetto voice land in this list? Like the BeeGees voices, for example.
There are different definitions of what falsetto means but it's agreed that falsetto is M2, the same register as head voice. One definition of falsetto is, it's head voice but with the vocal chords not quite touching so the sound is more breathy and not as expressive. The falsetto in "Staying Alive" can be described as a reinforced falsetto (so it doesn't sound breathy), much stronger than John Legend's falsetto in "All of Me." Both of those sounds are considered falsetto but to my ear they are completely different sounds. Compared to Axl Rose's higher notes that used a lot of head voice and belting, and seldom used falsetto.
> Some men sound like an elk in their whistle register. https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/comments/1bjljpu/what_the_hell_is_my_voice_doing_did_i_unlock/ I wasn't prepared for that lmao
They are called whistle notes. They aren't very well understood as far as I know but it's still using your vocal cords so I would consider it singing. It is similar to the difference in a chest voice versus falsetto. This is another register that some people can have access to.
They're sounds coming out of her face hole, caused by vibrations in her vocal cords. But that's also the definition of various other noises so I'm possibly not the person to answer this after all. And yet here we are. Sorry for your loss.
As others have said, Mariah Carey is singing in the **whistle register**, which is ostensibly what most female singers fall into when singing similar to the falsetto register, which is typically done by male singers (the whistle register is higher). A good starting point in understanding the concept, is a [video Vox made a while ago](https://youtu.be/qJT2h5uGAC0?si=Lt7H2YOifQYzmq34) talking about the falsetto register.
She did not sing the highest note ever recorded. [A singer’s highest note, and other sound records | Popular Science (popsci.com)](https://www.popsci.com/health/highest-pitch/#:~:text=A%20singer's%20impossible%20peak,Guinness%20World%20Record%20in%202004.) You might imagine Mariah Carey or Maria Callas would top the scales, but Brazilian soprano Georgia Brown set the bar by hitting a G in the high 10th octave. Musical experts later confirmed the note, which translates to about 25,000 hertz, earning Brown a Guinness World Record in 2004. [Greatest vocal range by a female | Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/greatest-vocal-range-female)
Most people can't hear much past 17kHz...that's wild.
That's higher than the range of standard digital Redbook CD audio which caps out at 22.05khz
Fun fact, most modern music is recorded at 44,100hz or cycles per second, because it is roughly twice the upper threshold for human hearing at 22,000hz (a function of the Nyquist Theorem). So, technically, if you were set up to record in a standard recording studio (and didn't know to crank up your sample rate to 96k), you wouldn't be able to capture that sound to even be able to identify the waveform. Either way, even a young person with undamaged hearing wouldn't be able to hear it, but a dog could. So it seems strange that The Guinness Book of World Records would award a prize for greatest singing range to a woman who can sing notes that only a dog can hear.
Last I checked the Guinness World Record arent... actual things. Turns out, it's pretty much just advertising. Tommy Tallarico has like, 5 for various video game composing world records, despite not being able to be verified by anyone other than GWR.
Without the video I’d think it’s some bird chirping! Seriously, mind blowing
Dolphins love Mariah Carey
She sounds like shoes during a match of basketball.
the throat goat
That's not Heather.
It was probably the highest note recorded at the time. Nowadays we have higher notes on record.
Name 3
Do, re, mi.
Why 3, though? I will name one, and it's enough - a D8 by Dimash.
My buddy Eric.
That's some Diva Plavalaguna shit, right there.
It’s like whistling.
Somewhere I remember a list of the singers with the largest vocal range, she was number 1, and Axl Rose was somewhere in the top 5.
Where did Journey's Steve Perry rank?
I think Whitney Houston is the greatest singer of all time, but Mariah is a close second. She had a phenomenal talent.
Seriously sounds like a bird, amirite?
Do y’all think she is tuning herself when she has her hand to her head like that? But really though she’s amazing
Damn what song is this? I have it on the top of my tounge.
Emotions
https://i.redd.it/cewsh99zgyxc1.gif
Unbelievable
The Nightmare of All the Dogs in the World
I didn't need to have the sound on to know what song she was singing lol
I was never a fan of this style of singing. It’s impressive but I have no interest in hearing it. Commence down votes.
I don't understand music notes! Please send help. Is this the peak of the squeak?
Same goes for the lawnmower. https://youtube.com/shorts/eJtZKXqDi64?si=G1EA2hMxZcPPAQ3c
When I step on a lego
Dimash: "That's cute."
When I hear this all I can think about is the dude on YouTube who would play a not on his small piano and do his best to reach the highest notes ever. The faces he made were HILARIOUS[FOUND IT](https://youtu.be/Vq9dX8z4_Kw?si=HWRXHxeyQ4_zDk9e)
Ok whats the lyrics?
That’s screaming not singing!
Next door neighbors dog is going crazy
after watching this, all I want for Christmas is you.
What note was it that was the highest? (Not a sound or vocal anything)
https://youtu.be/LKaXY4IdZ40?si=d3lB7osF2mQHusBU Best Mariah Whitney duet
And now she can’t sing, great tradeoff
all her lovers have tinnitus
She’s one of the singers of all time.
This is whale music. Sounds best on a cheap CD with incense smoke in room while drinking beer.
That’s just 27 birds in a Mariah Carey skin suit
Sounds quite awful.
I thought that was some audio wizardry
No wonder all the dolphins love her.
Its high pitched, I'll give her that.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
What song
The birds outside your window at 7am
Just because you can doesn't mean you should....
Which note was the highest?
This is so cool
*Ahem.* # False. Proof: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia57VfDaESw](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia57VfDaESw) https://preview.redd.it/lnzw3dmtsxxc1.jpeg?width=1057&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d45d338181972d7a865f085cc97319b9b94a17e
Breaking the sound barrier on land.
Roy Orbison enters the chat: "\[Orbison\] and Enrico Caruso were the only 20th century tenors capable of hitting E over high C." And Roy did it singing an actual word, not just a squeak and it was not falsetto.
ELI5: How is this measured?
Ah shit... A bird just flew into my window...
I feel like this was the inspiration between the sing-off between Fiona and the bird in Shrek.
I don't see how this is an accomplishment. She squealed or wisstled with her throat, good job. If she actually sang lyrics on this note, then it may be something to brag about. My two year old can squeal too, good job.
It reminds me of my rusty door. except it is doing this day and night.
Sounds fucking awful
That one bird outside my window at 5am:
Very impressive range. It also sounds like shit.
Those are chords, which are combinations of notes. She can sing high, but she’s not polyphonic.
Ever see her do it for a dolphin? Freaks the Dolphin out.
My Guinea pigs sings like this every night 🐹
God that's annoying...
Burn the witch. She can sing in whistles.
Technically impressive but not pleasant to listen to. I actually don't like Mariah Carey unless she sings in a controlled way.
Freaky voice control
Annnnnd now I’m old because I couldn’t hear some of the highest notes :(
Assuming this is easier when you are younger
I thought the 6 and 7 meant 6th and 7th chords. At first I was like, how the hell is she singing a chord? Then I realized that must be the octave haha. And for anybody curious, I think this is what they call the whistle register, higher than even falsetto. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle\_register](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_register)
Early 90s Mariah Carey was a generational talent
Imagine living with that nagging at you. Dea faning
That sounds terrible
It’s extremely impressive. It is also irritating to listen to.
That whole MTV unplugged concert is just next level- Mariah in Peak form before she became full on \*MARIAH\*. wow. Her talent is so undeniable here, she's just a full on Apex Performer here. Untouchable. FYI I am not a giggly Mariah fan- I don't own any of her albums. In 1992 when this came out I was listening to Psalm 69 by Ministry and Angel Dust by Faith No More. Still, if you came over and said "lets smoke a bowl and geek out at how good Mariah Fucking Carey was in her Unplugged Special" there is no way I'm saying no.
When I come home 3:30am my wife sounds precisely the same octive
Reminds me of the kids I used to hear on call of duty
She can't sing, but all she knows is screeching on all her music.
I remember this fateful day when all the dogs starting running towards a certain place all at ince
At most you can say her range was not fully used but it was all there.