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Do you struggle with pitch when you sing songs? Are you worried you might be tone–deaf?
Struggling with matching pitch is an almost certainty if you are not using the correct technique. John, a leading vocal coach, gives you the understanding to fix these issues and to get your voice on the path to in-tune singing.
Key Takeaways:
- Struggling with pitch is common, and there are ways to get it right.
- Getting strong thoughts about pitch is essential to singing in tune.
- Breathing properly is also important for hitting the right pitch.
Main Causes of Singing Out-Of-Tune And How To Correct Them
1. Difficulty getting strong thoughts about pitch
The key to a great performance lies in mastering the correct pitch and staying in tune throughout. However, it is not always easy to confidently hit the right notes.
When you do not get strong thoughts about pitch, it is difficult to adjust your vocal cords before you hit the pitch. To fix this, consider prephonatory tuning.
What is Prephonatory Tuning?
Pre means before, while phonation means making a sound. When you phonate, you are making sounds and tuning or adjusting. Thus, prephonatory tuning means adjusting before producing a sound. And that’s what most singers aren’t doing.
Prefonatory tuning is a vocal technique that improves intonation or pitch accuracy when singing. It involves experimenting with different tonal qualities and vowel shapes before singing a phrase.
This vocal technique allows the singer to explore their vocal range before actually starting to sing a phrase. Rather than rushing into a song and attempting to hit all the right notes without any preparation, prephonatory tuning helps you gain better control over your singing voice so you can produce better tones and stay in tune throughout your performance.
Here is an exercise to work on this vocal technique:
Go to a keyboard or look up online piano and play a note that is within your comfortable range. Listen to it, create it in your mind, hear yourself singing it and then sing it. Doing so will help adjust the vocal cords before you sing. It may take you a little bit, but soon you will be able to get those notes.
Important Note: Play notes within your comfortable range and master singing them in tune first before you work your pitch singing exercises on the chest voice and head voice range.
2. Overblowing your breath
Singing on the technical side involves these three main components:
- How much air you use
- How your vocal cords are set up to resist the air and create or match pitch
- Resonance
Overblowing your breath when singing can cause you to run out of air quickly and make it harder to sustain longer notes. It also leads to fatigue in the vocal cords and poor projection.
So even if you have the correct sheet music and sing in tune, the sound won’t reach its full potential if you’re not blowing enough or too much air while singing. You’ll end up singing sharp or flat.
How to Improve Breath Control
Fortunately, there are simple exercises you can use to improve your breath control and prevent you from overblowing your breath when singing.
- Deep breathing techniques such as belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing can help you become more aware of how much air you are using when singing.
- Practicing scales and intervals can help strengthen your diaphragm muscles so that they work more efficiently when singing.
- Vibrato exercises will improve your overall breath control since they require a steady flow of air throughout each note while sustaining an even vibrato rate.
Final Thoughts
Singing involves more than just producing great sounds with your own voice. It also requires focus, precision, and refining your musical ear if you want to master it and become a singing voice specialist.
If you do prephonatory tuning and proper breath control, you can stay in tune whenever you are singing. Make sure also to do vocal warm-up exercises before singing to produce clear tones without strain or stress.
But most importantly, get a good singing course or work with a good voice teacher!