Song books for women?

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Can anyone recommend a song book with selections written in keys conducive to women's singing voices? Any genre would be considered.

[Bill McCall]

Hal Leonard ‘the real book’, comes in high and low voices, multiple volumes. The site has a tune list for each volume.

[pops1]

It is easy to transpose songs to the key that you want to sing it in. You can make a chart to make it easy if you want.

C F G
D G A
E A B
F Bb C

Etc, etc, etc.

[bigskygirl]

When I was starting out singing I would play the tune and modulate to a key that was more comfortable for my voice. I also took a few singing lessons with a voice coach and learned - among other things - that one does not GENERALLY sing in one key. Some tunes I can do in C, others are more comfortable in E - it depends on where the melody is in the scale. Get your mando and play scales, arpeggios, etc and see which are a good match for your range. Tons of youtube videos on singing out there too.

[Sherry Cadenhead]

I should have mentioned I'm interested in notation as well as chords for my range (G below middle C to C2). I'll check out Hal Leonard's book.

[David L]

There is no such thing as "keys conducive to women's voices". Women's voices come in "high" and "low" varieties, just like men's. From your later comment, I would say that you are a women's "low" voice.

By the way, middle C is C4, so I think that you mean that your range is from the G below middle C (G3) to the C above middle C (C5). If you actually can sing C2, then you are a bass singer.

[DHopkins]

What a let down. I thought this was gonna be a list of "You done me wrong" songs or something like that.

[sblock]

No, you don't really need to find a song book with entries in "women's keys." Besides, there ain't no such thing! A contralto will tend to sing in a completely different vocal range from a soprano, for example. These are both perfectly normal female voice ranges. And even when you stick within a given vocal range (say, alto), you'll tend to sing different songs in different keys, since their melodies will tend to use different parts of the range. Just get a songbook that has some songs you'd like to sing! These books are for both men and women.

Also, if you aren't comfortable with the key on the page, then transposition is really quite easy, especially if you already have the notation and the chords in front of you. It's a great skill to learn! And if you can't quite manage that, then practically all music software, like Sibelius, MuseScore, Notion 6, and even TablEdit can transpose it for you. Easy peasy.