Warren and I have been puzzling over the actual vocal ranges of people. Mostly, I suppose, due to my problem of pitching songs at Princess campouts so that both Dads and their Daughters can sing along. As always, the web tells all, of course. I found the standard choir vocal ranges, according to Rice University.
They did the staff notation, I drew it on a keyboard 'cuz I'm a visual kinda guy.
According to this then, C to C is the only shared range -- although, as theorized, that's with the guys (low-C to Middle-C) an octave below the girls (Middle-C to high-C). I guess there's only three notes (well, 5, if you count black keys) that are shared by everybody in absolute pitch, but that would make a pretty boring song.
I get the feeling that the shared part of the guys' two ranges is approximately the "inexperienced" guys' range, and similarly for the girls. Basically you cut off the low part of the basses, and the high part of the tenors, and you have a guy who's essentially neither. But, by experience, getting above Middle-C is tough for non-singers, so I'd say the low-C to Middle-C is pretty safe for, say, Indian Princess dads.
It's strange to me, though, that they expect basses and sopranos to span two octaves, but they go so much easier on the tenors and altos.
Anyway, the lowest note I (try to) sing at the coffee shop is in "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground": a low-low-E, same as the lowest string on the guitar. I used to could sing it, back when I was a stock E-to-E bass, but only early in the morning, and before I got too warmed up. Since I've been singing so much, again, ('course, not as much as two hours a day, back in school), my range has been moving up (or, at least, the bottom end has), so I can't really hit it anymore. Fortunately, the guitar's bass note is kind of fortifying me when I aim at it, so I think it gets implied, if not enumerated.
