SATB stands for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, the four voice parts of a standard mixed choir. Soprano is the highest female voice, alto the lower female, tenor the higher male, bass the lowest male. SATB is the default texture for hymn harmonisation in Western and African church music.

What are the typical SATB voice ranges?

Soprano: C4 to A5. Alto: G3 to E5. Tenor: C3 to A4 (sounding an octave lower than written). Bass: E2 to E4. These are 'comfortable' ranges for a community choir; trained voices stretch further.

What's the difference between SATB and a chorale?

A chorale IS an SATB texture, specifically a hymn-tune harmonisation in four parts, usually homophonic (all four voices moving together rhythmically). Bach's 371 chorales are the canonical example. Modern SATB hymnody works the same way.

Can DomiSol harmonize a melody to SATB automatically?

Yes. DomiSol's AI harmonization takes a melody and generates the three additional voices (Alto, Tenor, Bass) with voice-leading appropriate for choir singing. Tweak any voice manually after generation.

7 min read · Updated 2026-05-26

Choral foundations

SATB, the four voices of choral music.

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. Voice ranges, harmony rules, voice-leading basics, and a worked example in tonic solfa. The foundation under every hymn arrangement you'll write.

What SATB is

SATB is shorthand for the four-voice arrangement used in Western (and African church) choral music: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass.

Voice ranges

Voice	Range	Notes
Soprano	C4–A5	Highest female; usually carries the melody
Alto	G3–E5	Lower female; fills inner harmony
Tenor	C3–A4	Higher male; writes one octave above sounding pitch
Bass	E2–E4	Lowest male; anchors the chord root

TODO: add a visual range chart (could be SVG or styled HTML) showing the overlap.

The basic harmony rules

TODO: foundational rules, soprano = melody, bass = chord root (usually), alto + tenor fill the chord tones. Avoid parallel 5ths and octaves. Cross-voicing is OK but discouraged in hymnody.

Voice leading in plain terms

TODO: explain "smooth voice-leading", each voice moves the smallest interval possible to the next chord tone. Practical examples in solfa.

Worked example: a 4-bar phrase in SATB solfa

TODO: take a 4-bar melody (e.g., a fragment of "Amazing Grace"), show the SATB harmonization in solfa with all four voices stacked, annotate each chord and the voice-leading choice.

Where to go from here

Once you can read SATB, the practical next step is SATB hymn arranging in solfa, voice ranges, voice-leading, cadences, worked examples in the African choral tradition.

Arrange your own in DomiSol

DomiSol's one-click harmonization gives you a starting SATB version of any melody; you tweak from there.

Open the free tonic solfa editor →