I hear that in general young men are underrepresented in the VP world, but which is less common: a male baritone or a tenor? Just curious.
I believe baritone is the most common men’s voice type.
At my son’s first voice lesson at a top MT school, his teacher said “A lot of guys think they’re baritones, but they’re not.” My so was indeed a baritone, but several of her other students got reclassified!
@prodesse , yes my son appears to be in that transition. Was placed as a baritone initially but as new evaluators hear him he is told he is either a tenor or will be as his voice matures.
I don’t know for sure but I would guess that Tenors are the rarer…but I’m not sure it matters too much at this stage! Lots of vocal changes are going to happen in the next few years, so if a fellow can really sing, I don’t think programs are going to worry overly much about putting him into a voice-type box (and this goes for young ladies too, at good schools and with the best teachers). I do think auditors will be imagining what roles/arias he might sing eventually when he auditions, though!
My 17 year old was a low baritone after his voice change, but his voice is coming up in range the last 6 months. Though I’m not sure we will end up a tenor, but it’s definitely changed. His male teacher in his late 20’s said his voice was still shifting until age 25+. I’ve noticed a lot of high school age guys singing tenor are not singing with good technique and really have voices that are still settling yet. It’s hard to know where things will fall out for guys still in their teens.