Vocal Range

C#3 ~ Eb7 (4 octaves and 1 note)

Supported Range

F#3/G3 -C#5/D5 (without head voice)

F#3/G3-C#5/D5-A5/Bb5(with head voice)

Voice Type

Soprano

Strengths/Achievements

• Supported head voice up to A5/Bb5
• Can easily vocalize in the C6 and above range
• Head voice up to G#6
• Supported lower register down to F#3/G3
• Strong connection to support
• Supported mix voice up to C#5/D5
• Occasional resonance up to C5/C#5
• Strong sense of pitch
• Capable of doing complex runs with good flow and pitch accuracy

Points for Improvement

• Inconsistent with resonance
• Above Bb5 head voice becomes shrill
• Above C#5/D5 mix becomes very strained
• Runs can sometimes be sloppy
• Head voices seems to have decline since debut
• Slight nasality

Registers

• Lower register: Wendy’s lower register is fairly well trained and connected to the rest of her voice. Wendy is capable of supporting her voice as low as F#3 and is able to maintain a considerate amount of tone down to Eb3/E3.

• Mixed register: Her mixed register has a very well supported sound up to C#5/D5. Despite the very solid support in her mixed register, Wendy however does not resonate often.  Wendy’s mixed register above D5 becomes very strained a tense due to a more chesty style of mixing.

• Upper register: Wendy’s head voice has proven to be her most developed register. Wendy is capable of supporting her head voice up to A5/Bb5 with resonance and is capable of bringing her head voice up to G#6/A6. Wendy has also shown she is able to carry a whistle register up to Eb7.

Agility

Wendy has a style of singing that is heavily based in the R&B/Soul genre which is very much known for its complex and extravagant melismas, therefore, naturally, Wendy developed her ability to do runs. Wendy has shown she is capable of doing complex runs for example her runs in “Halo” by Beyonce as well as the Red Velvet song ”Red Dress” from The Red album. Despite being able to pull off fairly consistently she does have some off moments for example her runs in “Shake That Brass.”

Overall analysis

Before becoming a trainee under SM Entertainment, Wendy was a finalist at Koreaboo X Cube Entertainment Global Auditions in 2010. Prior to her debut in 2014 with Red Velvet, Wendy was very active vocally showcasing her vocal talent on youtube by uploading covers of songs as well as being apart of what seemed to be her school’s vocal ensemble. Now, as the main vocalist of Red Velvet Wendy is known for her rich, soulful voice and R&B style.

In her chest voice Wendy has a very strong connection to her support system this allows her legato to be very smooth and connected throughout phrases. She also has a very solid and full sound in the chest voice with very minimal airiness. Because of the fullness and solidity her chest voice has she can freely switch to a more airy sound without it being too airy and therefore lacking tone providing freedom with stylistic choices.

The full extent of Wendy’s lower register reaches Eb3 and the extent of her ability to support is F#3/G3 which fairly decent develop in the lower register for a Soprano. Because Wendy is able to support her voice moderately low she is fairly comfortable with phrasing in her lower register and is still able to maintain tonality most notably in “Be Natural.” Wendy easily phrases her way  down to an Eb3 without any major lack of tonality just a slight fry quality for style.  Wendy also shows off her ease in her lower register with Red Velvet’s performance “Wish Tree.” During this performance Wendy phrases many notes in the middle to higher part of her lower register with good support and tonality with ease. Wendy’s lower register is definitely a great assest to her and uses it =efficiently and with style.

Wendy’s mix extends to a high extreme of G5, however she only supports and resonates in the C5/C#5 range and occasionally up to D5. Although Wendy has very strong support and great connection to her support,  she doesn’t resonate often and is normally just supported with an open throat. This is most likely due to that she is not always completely opening the back of her throat consistently when singing in her mix for example in her performance of “Happy Me” with Huh Gak she transitions from a mixed B4 to a C5. The C5 is significantly more open and resonant than the B4 despite it being higher. Another example of Wendy’s inconsistency with her resonance within her supported range would be her C5 in her performance of “Dear Mom” with Tiffany. Although her C5 is considerably more open and supported than Tiffany’s it is still lacking in resonance due to the placement not being optimal. Wendy has also shown she is able to support herself up to Eb5 for instance in her performance “The Only Thing I Can Do” on Duet Song Festival. Wendy mix leans more on the chestier side of the spectrum and because of this when she goes outside of her supported range she ends up carrying too much weight. This is very apparent when she performs “Happiness” because after intense dancing she has to mix many Eb5s and because of the weight she is pulling up with they come out very squeezed and pushed.

Wendy has a very extensive head voice being able to take the register all the way up to G6 and also is able to use a whistle register up to Eb7.  Although Wendy’s head voice extends up to a G6 she is only able to support up to Bb5 which by pop standards is very good, definitely above the average. Wendy has shown she is very confident in this register because she will sing well into the 6th octave without shying away for example “Dumb Dumb Opera ver.” as well as Red Velvet’s high note battle. In many Red Velvet songs  Wendy’s head voice is at times a very staple feature for example “Red Dress,” “Something Kind Of Crazy,” “Candy” and many more. Wendy has very good control in her head voice as she is able to phrase head voice notes in the mid 5th octave with clear diction and support for example Red Velvet’s acapella version of “Sitckwitu.”  One of the main issues with Wendy’s head voice, similar to her mix, is openness. There many times in which she could suffer to be more open to create a larger more resonant sound for example her F#5 in “Shake That Brass.” She’s producing head voice, but the projection small and a little bit shrill due to her just not opening the back of the throat so the sound can resonant properly.  Also it seems as if Wendy’s head voice has declined since debut because before her debut she seemed to be able to support up to C6, however this could have been an inconsistent thing because she has not done it since. Overall Wendy’s head voice is fairly well developed really only have issues with maintain an open sound and supporting above Bb5, however in pop music Bb5 is more than enough.

Simply put, Wendy is a very well rounded vocalist with all of her register having a considerable amount of development balancing each other out fairly evenly. Her main issues lie in her inconsistency with her resonance and not always maintaining a very forward and open sound in her mix and head voice. However, this is all balanced by the sheer overall development of her register making those issues almost minor. Her greatest strengths are that she has a very strong sense of support, ease in her lower register as well as her head register and her ability to do fairly accurate runs.

Musicianship

Wendy’s style is heavily set in R&B, before her debut Wendy released many covers of her covering songs with a more R&B flare. She also seems to enjoy to do runs as she tends to sing songs in which she can show off her agility such as “Who You Are” by Jessie J and “Halo” by Beyonce.

Label (Type of Vocalist)

HV Vocalists: High Head Voice Vocalists

LR Vocalists: Low Range Vocalists

MB vocalists: Mid-Range Belters

WR vocalists: Well Rounded Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Best Vocal Performance(s)

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Analyzed by Pandayeu