The Vocal Range of Scott Weiland: C♯2-F5(-G6)

Weiland is a true vocal chameleon, fronting different bands and constantly changing his appearance and vocal style a bit like his idol David Bowie. Weiland's versatility is pretty staggering: he has made some fantastic baritone impressions, yet his voice is almost nearing a lower tenor voice. His tessitura is pretty low, his lows are strong and he can deepen his timbre really well which definitely makes him a formidable baritone singer. Yet, once in a while he hits notes VERY light and easy for a baritone voice. Because of this, Weiland's voice can be described as an EXTREMELY high baritone voice with rare tenorish qualities in it.

Scott's intense drug usage definitely made his voice much thinner, this can be heard on post-Tiny Music-albums. It seems like Weiland started with a really baritonish style, then progressively got more tenorish. If you truly want to hear how versatile Weiland is, check out more of his music!


1. 0:00 - First three clips are for demonstrating Weiland's stylistic mid-range singing: the first clip has vocals from "Creep", Weiland sounds just like Kurt Cobain here!
2. 0:37 - Fantastic baritone-style singing from "Plush" (with music and no music), Weiland's tone used to be really good back in the early days: here he kind of converts a hybrid of Elvis and Eddie Vedder.
3. 1:57 - Great crooning from "The Christmas Song" bottoming around short B2, Weiland making Christmas music is one of the weirdest things ever.
4. 2:07 - Sung B2 from "The Last Fight".
5. 2:14 - Strong B♭2 from the live intro of "Sex Type Thing".
6. 2:26 - Extremely baritonish crooning from "Winter Wonderland",bottoming at solid A2.
7. 2:43 - Strong A2 from "I'll Be Home for Christmas".
8. 2:50 - Layered vocals from "Adhesive" with the lower voice singing down to G♯2.
9. 3:03 - Solid B2 sliding down to G♯2 from another live intro of "Sex Type Thing".
10. 3:15 - G♯2 from yet another live intro of the same song, this note sounds awkwardly nasal.
11. 3:25 - Strong and deep A2s and G2s from "Set Me Free".
12. 3:37 - Great crooned G2s from the hilarious hidden track of "Kitchenware & Candybars" (called "My Second Album").
13. 3:58 - Quick G2 from the hidden track of "Gravedancer" (called "Don't Drop That Dime").
14. 4:06 - G2 from the live performance of "Lazy Divey".
15. 4:16 - Calm F♯2 from "On a Cold Winter's Night" (one of the pre-Contraband leak tracks).
16. 4:24 - Creepy "Wet My Bed" with Weiland's psychotic speaking bottoming around F♯2.
17. 4:43 - Strong backing vocal F2s from "Love Machine".
18. 4:49 - E2s from a live improvisation.
19. 4:54 - Sung E2s from "Dirty Dog".
20. 5:04 - Eerie effect-filled background F♯2s and E2s from "Art School Girl".
21. 5:26 - Spoken E♭2s from the hilarious pre-Contraband track "If I Were a Woman I'd Be a Jezebel Junkie".
22. 5:40 - Strong D2 from "Used to Love Her".
23. 5:44 - Spoken but strong C♯2 (lowest note Weiland has shown) from "You Push My Buttons" (another pre-Contraband track).
24. 6:00 - Yet another pre-Contraband track, this time "You Give Me Mixed Messages" with C♯2.
25. 6:08 - Solid C♯2 from the live performance of "The Last Fight"!
26. 6:14 - And high notes: Cobain-like mid-range singing and powerful sustained G4 from "Sin".
27. 6:32 - Great G4 from "Plush".
28. 6:45 - Fantastic G4 from "Maver".
29. 6:58 - Really good G4s from the music video version of "Creep".
30. 7:21 - Easy G4 from "And So I Know".
31. 7:33 - Strong F4s and G4 from "Dead & Bloated".
32. 7:54 - Emotional G♯4 from "Fall to Pieces".
33. 8:03 - Powerful F♯4s and A4s from the classic "Sex Type Thing".
34. 8:27 - Ascending passage up to A4 from "Slither".
35. 8:44 - Clean A4 from "Bagman".
36. 8:52 - Effortless A4s from "Art School Girl", notes like this reveal that Weiland is definitely one of the highest baritones out there.
37. 9:0 - Really powerful A4s from "Piece of Pie", Weiland channels Layne Staley here.
38. 9:38 - Streak of powerful A4s from "Where the River Goes".
39. 9:56 - Great high passage from "Take a Load Off" with clean G♯4s and short B♭4s.
40. 10:14 - B4s from the fantastic live cover of "Roadhouse Blues" by The Doors.
41. 10:28 - B4 from "Scary Area".
42. 10:39 - Soft B4 from "Seven Caged Tigers".
43. 10:47 - Strong B4s from "Gas & a Dollar Laugh".
44. 11:11 - Strong A4s and C5 from "Come on, Come in".
45. 11:40 - C♯5s from "Transmissions From a Lonely Room".
46. 11:54 - Clean C♯5s from "Time of the Season".
47. 12:11 - B4s and D5s from "Spay".
48. 12:25 - Awkward head voice highs first topping at E♭5, then E5; the song is "Full Blown John".
49. 12:53 - Weiland's highest full note, screamed F5 out from nowhere(after falsetto F5s) from the live version of "Slither".
50. 13:10 - Easy full A4s and falsetto E♭5 from "Ole Dixie", Weiland yodels here (and also in "Don't Drop That Dime")!
51. 13:29 - Screamed falsetto B5 from the live performance of "Slither".
52. 13:38 - Really raw whistle going up to G6 from the live performance of "Sex Type Thing".

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[Kwwwyjibo]

What made you decide he was a really high baritone and not a low tenor?

[GoodGuitarSolos]

@Kwwwyjibo Me and few of my notewatching friends went through some of his singing performances again and agreed that he was a high baritone after all. Anyway, he is definitely one of the lightest and most tenorish baritones out there. His voice is placed pretty close to somebody like John Lennon!

[JamPilot]

Great video! Just so you know, that's not Scott singing "My Second Album" at 3:37

[GoodGuitarSolos]

@JamPilot Oh, thanks for informing me. I was never sure about if it was him singing, knowing that he had done some succesful crooning before made me believe that it was him!

[PeachSurebet]

I've always thought of Weiland as a weird vocalist. He's changed his voice so much throughout the years. Nowadays, he uses his natural tenor tone more than he did back in the early-mid 90s.

[GoodGuitarSolos]

@PeachSurebet Yes, he sounds like a completely different singer nowadays. When I first heard "Plush", I would have NEVER thought that this guy was even close to a lower tenor. He really nails the whole baritone sound in it, I've heard lots of comparisons to Vedder and Morrison about his vocals there.

[Kwwwyjibo]

Great job, that was awesome!

[Lawldudz]

never really got into any of Scott's bands, but I do think he has quite a versatile voice! "Weiland is a true vocal chameleon" is very true imo, from what I heard in this video :P

[Kwwwyjibo]

That's cool man Scott Weiland is definitely a unique talent.

[HCSAMANTHA420]

definately one of the reasons stp has always been my fav band! [1of'em] nirvana is my other top fav.

[Vhaldemar90]

Best voice range ever of Scott on "Piece of Pie". Are more bands (or STP songs) with that vocal range? Not to mention Layne Staley of course.

[Isle0fRed]

could you do a video demonstrating the voice range of Roger Waters and David Gilmore

[VIDEOHEREBOB]

Another great post. I love singers with a palette of vocal nuances and tonal diversity. if you closed your eyes you'd never know it was the same singer. I had no idea Weiland was so versatile. Thanks for the education my friend, Bob.

[Spydrfish]

"Plush" must have been really bad for him cause he cleared his throat every other line.