Freddie Mercury is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in rock history. Known for his flamboyant style and huge range, there are many theories going around about what made Freddie Mercury so good. Did Freddie’s extra incisor teeth aid his singing? Was his vibrato better than Pavorittis? What made Freddie Mercury great?
Technique
Range
Freddie Mercury had an incredible 4-octave range that he maintained throughout his career. It is pretty hard to label Freddie as a baritone or tenor because of this wide range but for the sake of perspective, let's look at an average male voice. An average male has a range of 1.4 to 2 octaves, so let's say around a G2 to an E4. A trained singer has an average range of 1.7 to 2.4 octaves, so around a G2 to G4. Freddie’s range was F2 to F6 with a powerful mix up to an F#5, which, to be quite frank, I would struggle with as a soprano.
You can hear that low F2 in the backing vocals on the word ‘gone’ in ‘All Dead, All Dead’ and an F#2 in ‘Don’t Try Suicide’
And here are that great whistle high notes, he used as more of a vocal texture or an exclamation rather than a sung note. You’ll hear the first buried under the instruments in “It’s Late’ and more prominently in this live version of “Get Down, Make Love”
And always my favourite, that powerful mix in “One Year Of Love” CLIP
But where did that range come from? Is it true? Did his range come from his extra incisors? Our range is mainly defined by genetics, the size and flexibility of our vocal cords. Longer vocal cords mean you have a lower range than someone with smaller vocal cords, and the tighter you can stretch them, the higher you can go. Our mouth is part of the resonant chambers that help us shape our tone. Creating different shapes with our vocal tract (the tube above the vocal cords and the mouth) is part of what helps us hit high notes with more ease but it isn’t what determines the pitch. So Freddie’s mouth size may have helped him reach those high notes with ease, but it wouldn't have given him his range.
Tone & Registers
It wasn’t just his range that has been attributed to his teeth but his distinctive tone. It is big and powerful yet warm and comforting. The size of your mouth almost certainly affects your tone as it is part of the resonance system that gives it its unique colour. If your voice were a guitar, the vocal cords would be the strings, the source of the sound, and the mouth and vocal tract would be the body of the guitar. The part that amplifies. However, unlike a guitar, we can all adapt the size and shape of our mouth and vocal tract to a certain extent. That's part of how we can mimic other people's voices. But what is natural for someone with a bigger mouth may not be for someone with a more petite mouth. So it might be easier for someone with a bigger mouth to get to a shape that makes a bigger warmer tone, than someone with a smaller mouth.
But did Freddie’s teeth mean he had more space? Dentist Fred Levine had something to say about it
“In most people, I have seen with supernumerary teeth, the jaw size doesn’t correspond to the space needed for the extra teeth, and the extra teeth are malpositioned, protruding either towards the palate or the cheeks. Freddie Mercury’s jaw size had to be larger than normal to begin with, to allow his extra teeth to fit into a normal arch form”.
So it seems Freddie Mercury just had a big mouth.
Another tonal myth that I often hear around Freddie is that his voice didn’t change through the years. And although he did have his distinctive warmth and power throughout his career, his approach to vocal registers altered dramatically. You can hear the difference in approach in performances of Killer Queen. In both, he still has a lot of power and drive. However, in the first clip from 1974, Freddie uses a lot more head voice. He moves to a lighter placement at the top of his range. In the later clip from 1981, you can hear the sound is heavier and mixed in tone.
1974
1981
Why would this be? Of course, he could have just changed his style and was perhaps enjoying that heavier tone. But I think it is likely that this change came about because he developed vocal nodules or nodes. Nodules are the vocal cords way of protecting themselves. They are hardened calluses on the vocal cords. They often develop because of overuse and harsh vocal technique. Freddie's schedule would have been gruelling and wouldn’t have allowed much rest between shows. But remember how I said Freddie had a lot of power and drive? One of the primary causes of nodules is a high subglottal pressure, which means slamming your vocal cords together tightly and pushing a lot of air through them, so you end up with a lot of pressure under the vocal cords. To add to his strength of sound, Freddie also often used very hard glottal stops, slamming the vocal cords together tightly just before the sound is made, letting the pressure build up and releasing it suddenly. Both high subglottal pressure and hard glottal stops are very wearing and if used a lot cause the vocal cords to swell. If this repeatedly happens, especially without proper rest, the vocal cords start to bruise and then develop a hard callus on each cord, nodules. Here are healthy vocal cords, don’t worry about the mucus. That is meant to be there and keeps our vocal cords supple. And here are vocal cords with nodules. You can see here that they are on each side, and this is common as the abrasive activity that caused the nodules happens on both sides. You can also see it stops them from coming together fully.
But how would have it affected Freddy's tone? Because it becomes much more challenging for sufferers to put their vocal cords together fully, for most people, air leaks through, resulting in a loss of resonance, a breathy tone and loss of control. In your head voice, your vocal cords are stretched relatively thin. It would be unlikely that he would get his full tone in this position anymore as that air would leak through. The only way he would have been able to get full the tone is by pressing his vocal cords even tighter, increasing the subglottal pressure and keeping them in a thicker position, giving him a more heavy mixed style. This is a quick fix, it is not a good long term solution as it locks singers into a cycle of harsh vocal technique and makes the nodules worse. Nowadays, there is a lot more vocal science around this. If Freddy wanted to, he would have been able to see an ENT specialist and treat and adjust his technique to get his iconic sound in a healthy way, allowing him to get back to using all the facets of his voice, including his light head voice.
But, although it is not ideal from my vocal coach perspective, I have to say that it is this quality of pressure and push that is part of Freddie’s iconic sound, and it does sound amazing. In some ways, it shows his genius more. As he works with the limitations his voice began to place on him, he adapted and used those limitations to make us feel. I need to point out that not everyone's voice can take that pressure, even Freddie couldn’t really, and perhaps if we had seen his voice develop further, we might have seen more of a change. For most of us, we have to adjust our technique early or eventually, our voice will make us, and not many of us are as genius at adapting around our health and vocal damage as Freddie was.
Vowels & Consonants
Like any world-class singer, Freddie uses his vowels and consonants to help him produce the tone and attack he wishes on each note. His vowels are generally open, with what sounds like a neutral larynx for the main part, a relaxed tongue and raised soft palate. He spends significantly more time singing on the vowel than on the consonant, except in a few areas for stylistic effect. So, for example, on Somebody To Love, he sings “somebody to luhve” rather than “somebody to lovvvvve”. He stays on the vowel for as long as possible, then closes to the ‘v’. However, he might sing something like”bbbbbaby” when combining it with a slide to emphasise the slide and the feeling of longing. In other words, he shapes his vowels to aid him to reach high notes, maintain tone and keep stable but understands his voice well enough to know when he can break those rules as well. Also, I have to say, as a vocal coach, he has a beautiful ‘e’ vowel, where he doesn’t over arch his tongue and keeps his mouth open and his jaw relaxed. I always say to my students when you sing an ‘e’, you need enough space to stick your thumb in your mouth. Check out the space Freddie creates.
He uses consonants well. Sometimes smoothing them out but generally making them crisp, like little drum beats. It means you can hear each word, but it is more than that. He is using consonants as a musical effect as if they are percussion. This adds to the feeling of energy, precision and attack.
Breath Support
Freddie uses his breath support well when he wants to use it. It means that he can use all of his remarkable range and helps him move seamlessly through the registers. However, in live performances, when he is going for it, he does tend to push and blast his voice with excessive air pressure. We’ve already talked about how that air pressure would have affected his voice. The voice is very resilient. I think Freddy's voice was particularly resilient, and for some people, if your voice has time to recover, this can be okay. Singing extreme styles like Queen’s music is as harsh on your vocal anatomy as boxing is to the rest of your body. I want to reiterate that Freddie was built to be a natural vocal boxer. Not everyone can take those punches and come out still able to sing.
Emotional Expression
The way that Freddie used his voice and technique is interesting, but what is it about his voice that is so exciting? I do believe some people have something beyond what can be explained, and Freddie was, of course, one of those people. As much as there are things beyond explanation, there are also some elements that can be. Freddie Mercury was an incredibly skilful and versatile singer, capable of a wide range of artistic vocal expressions. But what are some of the tools that helped him connect so well and stand above other singers?
Vibrato
Vibrato, which comes from the Italian "vibrare", to vibrate, It’s a musical effect consisting of a rapid pulsating change of pitch. It’s a controlled wobble. Freddie Mercury's vibrato is often talked about, with many people claiming it is better than Pavorittis. Well, that's all a matter of opinion, but it certainly was faster. Typically, a vibrato changes pitch at a rate of 5.4 Hz to 6.9 Hz, CLIP While Freddies moved at 7.04 Hz. It also had a distinctive irregular pattern, especially on those higher belted notes, giving him a unique vocal fingerprint.
What would have caused this faster irregular vibrato? First of all, everyone's vibrato is different. Some are fast. Some are slow. Some cover a wider pitch range than others. However, technique does make a difference. Faster irregular vibratos tend to come from, you got it, excessive air force. Generally, the more people train their breath support, the more regular it becomes. Rather than hiding an inconsistency, Freddie made more of it, turning something that many would consider a vocal flaw into one of his greatest assets. He had great control of this vibrato. He could sing with a straight tone and take the vibrato on and off a note whenever it suited him and the song.
His vibrato also wasn’t always vibrato. When he wanted to make the most of a moment, he didn’t just vary the pitch but added rapid shifts in volume as well, in an effect called tremolo. You can hear him use that sound in this isolated vocal from Somebody to Love. This is a muscular action for singers and is also wearing on the voice but adds another texture and, in this case, a feeling of desperation.
Subharmonics & Distortion
Often people talk about Freddie Mercury's amazing subharmonics and distortion. But what does that actually mean? When we make a clean sound, our vocal cords are vibrating in regular waves. When distortion happens, something, whether at the vocal cord level or above, disrupts those regular waves and makes them irregular. We hear that as noise or distortion. Many people have done studies on Freddie's voice, and there seems to be a general consensus that Freddie distortion comes from his false vocal folds or vestibular folds. These are folds of ligament and mucus membrane that lie above the vocal cords and whose main job is to protect the vocal cords. When they get in the way of the airflow and vibrations from the vocal cords, you get distortion. This is a common technique. You hear it in everything from metal to jazz.
But something different is happening with his distortion. First of all, he is using a voiced distortion so you can hear the underlying fundamental pitch. But if you listen to the distortion in this clip, you might notice it has a kind of musical quality. It isn't just noise. So, when we hear a note, we don't just hear one pitch, but a series of pitches layered on top of each other. The lowest and strongest pitch is the fundamental pitch, the one we define as the note we hear. We then have a series of harmonics that we hear at different strengths, defining the tone we hear. It is why we can tell the difference between peoples' voices. These harmonics act in a particular way, occurring at exactly the same multiples of the fundamental frequency each time. So the first harmonic would be vibrating twice as fast as the fundamental frequency, the second three times as quickly, etc. This harmonic series can but don’t always extend under the note - making lower notes as well called sub harmonics or undertones. Like harmonics, these follow a particular pattern.
I have seen many videos that talk about Freddie’s subharmonics. But after a bit of research, I realised this is not what Freddie is doing. He is not creating undertones in the subharmonic series but something else is happening. When Freddie false cords come over and disrupt the airflow and the even vibrations from the true vocal cords, they aren’t becoming irregular, But the false cords are vibrating in a primarily even fashion as well. Unlike metal growl where they vibrate irregularly. Here in this spectrogram analysis of Freddie’s voice, you can see the harmonics that come from the vocal cords - these dark lines. Then the grey areas are the uneven vibrations caused by the disruption of the false cords, which gives it its distorted tone, and then you get these lighter lines. Because of the even vibration of the false cords, you are getting these in-between harmonics that people are calling subharmonics. They don’t correspond to the harmonic series but exist in their own series of multiples. Some are lower than the fundamental frequency like our earlier definition of subharmonic which means lower than the fundamental frequency, but they stay in their own pattern rather than correspond to the subharmonic series. Because of the regularity of these vibrations at false cords, you get less noise and a more musical, fuller warmth to the tone. Why is this special? False cord distortion is used a lot in Western rock music. This is very true, but generally, the false cord vibrations are not as even. You usually see this level of even vibrations from the false cords in Tuvan throat singing. If you have ever been to see Tuvan throat singing live, you will know what I mean, the sound is simultaneously huge yet warm and engulfing. You feel surrounded by the sound because you are getting all these little in-between notes in the harmonics. I doubt Freddie tried to do this, but it gave his distortion a distinct quality and added an emotional yet melodic and unique tone to his voice.
Staccato and Legato
Freddie's general musicality was phenomenal. He plays the voice like an instrument, creating and expressing emotion through play with phrasing. He quickly moves between short staccato notes, hard onsets and accents to long legato phrases and soft onsets. Picking whatever the song needs to express a particular emotion. He often changes up his expression when singing live, depending on the audience's energy and perhaps his own mood.
Piano
Freddie Mercury was a strong pianist who composed many of Queen’s number one hits, including “Bohemian Rhapsody “, “Killer Queen “, “Somebody to Love “, “We Are the Champions “, “Don’t Stop Me Now “, and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love “ using a piano or keyboard. Despite his success, it is said that he was not impressed with his own musical talent and didn’t consider himself a great pianist. However, although I agree there are better pianists in the world, his piano and understanding of music beyond vocals allowed him to create some of Queen’s incredible repertoire and informed many of his vocal choices.
Social Context
Freddie had a voice that could uplift an audience beyond any other artist I have ever seen. He was a musical genius, and a bright light who gave everything he had on every performance and his music has transcended to a place where it is so woven into our culture that I can’t imagine a world without it. On a personal note, I grew up on a musical diet of Queen, Meatloaf, Holst and Les Mis. Freddie’s voice and music provided an energetic soundtrack to my childhood and formed a massive part of inspiring me to pursue a career in music. But Freddie was also much more than that. He was able to exist solely as Freddie Mercury. Shunning (at least publicly) the social constraints of gender and sexuality in a genre that has traditionally displayed an aggressive and traditional form of masculinity. Allowing many to see that our ideas of sexuality and gender need not be so fixed. As someone who does happen to fit into many of the social standards around these areas, his music allowed me to see that I could be both whoever I wanted to be and truly myself - despite the social constructs around me. But, I can only imagine what his music must have meant to people who did not fit so neatly into the boxes that society provides us, especially when sexuality was unfortunately seen as a legal issue. And what’s more, Freddie did all these things by just being unashamedly and unshakably him. If that's not a sign of greatness I don’t know what is.
