Nick Cave
Baritone · Alternative · Rock · Singer-Songwriter · Australia · prominent since 1980
How Nick Cave uses that range
Speech is the root register: a dry, chesty baritone that starts as intoned talking and escalates by widening the pharynx into bellowed, preacher-cadence peaks. Onsets are glottal and deliberate; vibrato is scarce, replaced by pitch bends that sag for menace. Agility is limited and irrelevant; the instrument works through dynamics, diction, and dramatic pacing, from murmured D2 territory to strangled falsetto cries. Imitators sing too prettily; the delivery depends on treating each line as rhetoric, letting intensity, not melody, carry the build across a song.
What is Nick Cave’s vocal range?
Nick Cave's vocal range is commonly cited as D2 to G5 — about 3.4 octaves, or 41 semitones, and is usually classified as baritone.
Craggy, preacher-like baritone that sways between menacing murmur and unhinged howl.
- Signature song
- Red Right Hand
Reading the numbers
- The ceiling clears the conventional baritone top of A4 by 10 semitones.
- The span runs 8.5 semitones past the median voice in this library (32.5 semitones).
- 2 other voices here carry the identical cited range — at the resolution these figures are quoted in, those voices are indistinguishable on the chart.
- No separate full-voice ceiling is cited, so the figures describe a range worked largely in full voice across its 41 semitones.
- Ranked by bottom note, it is the 33rd lowest voice in this library; by top note, the 328th highest.
Commonly cited figures, not lab measurements — extreme notes are one-off recorded moments, not the singer’s everyday range.
More about Nick Cave’s voice
How high can Nick Cave sing?
Nick Cave is commonly cited singing as high as G5, the top of a cited range that starts down at D2.
What is Nick Cave’s highest note?
Nick Cave’s highest note is commonly cited as G5.
What is Nick Cave’s lowest note?
Nick Cave’s lowest note is commonly cited as D2, heard in Tower of Song.
How many octaves can Nick Cave sing?
Nick Cave’s commonly cited range spans about 3.4 octaves (41 semitones), from D2 up to G5. That span is wider than 79% of the 636 voices in this library.
Take the free 2-minute range test — your mic finds your lowest and highest notes, then this page shows exactly how your voice lines up with Nick Cave’s.
Also bottoming out on D2
24 other voices here are cited to the same floor.
Also topping out on G5
25 other voices here reach the same ceiling.