Kacey Musgraves: Voice Profile and Vocal Range (2022)

Vocal Range: D3 – D5 – F#5

Vocal Fach: Soubrette (2 octaves and a major third)

Vocal Rating: Singer-Songwriter

Analysis: Texan Singer-Songwriter Kacey Musgraves has become a leading name in Country music for nearly a decade, and a recent pop one following 2018’s Golden Hour. Kacey’s voice is a soft and gentle instrument; light and bright from top to bottom. While her voice is somewhat limited technically, as a songwriter, Musgraves is able to create music tailored specifically for her. And as an accomplished and talented musician, Musgraves knows how to show her voice in its best light.

Musgraves is undoubtedly a subtype of soprano known as a soubrette, as demonstrated by her bright, warm timbre, small vocal weight, and lower tessitura. From top to bottom her voice is youthful and clear, only obscured by airiness around the edges. As a soprano, her lower register is expectedly small, although she maintains good tonality down to E3. While she generally has minor intonation issues live – particularly in this register and around her bridge – she makes quick adjustments to rectify them.

One of her greatest strengths as a vocalist (and soprano) is her head voice and the seamless transitions between her chest and head registers (“Love Is A Wild Thing”). Her head voice is sung with a consistently warm tone, and seems to have the most ease and control of her voice here. Given her fach and demonstrated ease, she could likely sing past F#5 but seemingly has made the choice not to. A perhaps underrated vocal quality of Musgraves is her sharp diction: as a songwriter, ensuring that the audience understands her lyrics is vital to her artistry. This is something that her vocal coach worked with her on heavily.^[1]CBS 19, Full interview with Kacey Musgraves’ vocal coach

While Musgraves generally navigates her passagio well, the transitions between the two registers are clean breaks and a not truly connected sound;^[2]Sam Johnson, Voice Teacher Analyzes Kacey Musgraves – Somewhere Only We Know (Live) and given that her highest “belt” is D5, it seems that Musgraves has not found her mixed voice. It’s also unclear if her voice could handle more dynamic passages, or if she’s simply too shy to attempt them. She generally sings with a clenched jaw, but as she avoids belting it likely poses little risk to her vocal health. However, if she learned to better connect and blend these two registers and release that tension, she would almost assuredly unlock a new facet to her vocals.

Overall Musgraves seems to be a vocalist with untapped potential. While she has room for improvement and development, she knows how to work with her vocal skillset to move her audiences and connect with her songs.

What do you think of Kacey Musgraves’ voice? Would you add anything to our analysis? Let us know by commenting below!

This article was originally posted on January 26th, 2022. It was last updated on February 1st, 2022.