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Why do I sound flat when I sing?

The most common reason a vocalist can't sing on pitch and produces a flat voice tone has to do with what the vocal folds (cords) are doing, rather than the ear. If you're wondering how to sing on key consistently, know that hitting exactly the right notes is a quite complex task for the vocal cords.

ramseyvoice.com - Sing on Pitch: 8 Exercises to Make It Happen Every Time

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Sing on Pitch: 8 Exercises to Make It Happen Every Time

One of the most common problems beginning singers face is learning how to sing on pitch. Why is it important to sing in tune? Because singing in tune is what makes music sound good! The more on pitch and in tune you are, the more enjoyable your voice, and the music as a whole, will be. By the way the “sing in tune” synonym is “sing on pitch”. Both these terms mean that the singer is hitting the correct notes.

Is singing a talent or a skill?

The answer is a little bit of both.

So, can anyone learn to sing in tune? Yes, absolutely!

But learning how to sing in tune is not always easy, even when if you have an amazing musical ear. But why is that? “I know I have a good ear”, you may say, “but why can’t I sing in tune?” If you have a hard time hitting the right notes, or figuring out how to sing a note on pitch, just know that singing off key doesn’t necessarily mean you’re tone deaf. Exclusive Bonus: Download our FREE Video with 6 exercises designed to help you sing in tune. If you want a great video to walk you through these exercises step-by-step and help you learn to sing on pitch online, check this out:

Sing on Pitch: 3 Exercises to Make It Happen Every Time

Watch this video on YouTube

Here are:

8 Steps to Sing On Pitch Select the note that you’re trying to sing. Play the note on a piano, guitar, digital tuner or play the recording that contains the note you want to sing. Listen to the note carefully and try to “picture” the note in your mind. Sing the note, trying to match your voice to the pitch you played. Listen to your voice and correct the pitch as you sing. If your note is flat, you will need to bring your voice slightly higher. If your note is sharp, you will need to bring your voice slightly lower. Once you have found the correct pitch, try to remember the “sensation” of singing in tune. And, more generally, if you’re seeking advice on how to sing in tune for beginners, this is a fantastic place to start.

How Can I Tell If I’m Singing in Tune?

How do I know if I am singing right? How do you know if you sing in tune or if you go flat without even realizing it?

This can be a surprisingly tricky thing to figure out, as you can’t always tell how your own voice sounds. To learn to sing in tune, testing yourself with a recording is a great first step. Sing a simple line, record it, and listen to the recording. This is a super-easy “sing on pitch test” that anyone can do at home. You might even play the recording over a backing track to see exactly how close you got to the right pitch. For a real-time analysis, you can use a tuner app on your phone. One you detect where you’re singing is out of tune, the next step is to figure out whether you’re sharp or flat.

How to Sing On Pitch (And In Tune)

The process of singing on pitch or “intonation” can basically be broken down into 5 steps:

1. Select the note you’re trying to sing.

Which pitch should I sing in? Well, to truly sing on pitch, range is key. Make sure that the note is within your comfortable vocal range. It’s hard enough to sing in tune when you’re completely comfortable. Don’t make things harder for yourself by choosing songs with notes that are too difficult for you to sing. 2. Play the note on a piano, guitar, digital tuner or play the recording that contains the note you want to sing. To sing on pitch, tuning is essential. This means having a well-tuned instrument as a reference point. In this second step, you’re going to play the note that you want to match on another instrument of some sort. You don’t need to invest in an expensive instrument. There are plenty of free piano apps you can download that will reproduce whatever note you want to play. 3. Listen to the note carefully and try to “picture” the note in your mind. I can’t tell you how important this step is. I will often be in lessons with students that are pitch training and as the lesson continues, they will get further and further off pitch. This isn’t any fault of theirs. But unfortunately, we have a limited ability to focus our mental efforts on one thing and can get caught up in the momentum of “execution”. Instead, take your time. Pause. Then try to imagine the note in your mind. Be 100% sure of it before you sing. 4. Sing the note, trying to match your voice to the pitch you played. This is where things can easily fall apart. Many people are very confident in the notes they can play on an instrument, but lose all self-confidence when they hear your voice. It’s true that your voice may sound strange to you. But if you spent time focusing on the pitch in the 3rd step, you’ll notice that your pitch should be quite close to your target.

5. Listen to your voice and correct the pitch as you sing.

This is the really fun part! As I mentioned, once you have focused on the note and have begun to sing, you should already be quite close to the pitch. However, no singer is 100% accurate the moment they begin singing. There is almost always a period of time where a singer is correcting the note. 6. If your note is flat, you will need to bring your voice slightly higher. Easy does it here. Most likely, you’re already quite close to the pitch you need to sing. However, if you notice that your note is a bit “under pitch” or flat, then gently sing higher until you feel your voice match the note. 7. If your note is sharp, you will need to bring your voice slightly lower. Again, you will want to be quite delicate in any adjustments that you make if you’re singing a bit sharp. Often times, just a small adjustment in lowering the pitch will get you singing right in tune.

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8. Once you have found the correct pitch, try to remember the “sensation” of singing in tune. There’s no doubt about it. Singing on pitch is a game of muscle memory. However, I’ve found that it’s helpful when I ask my singers how it “feels” to sing a note in tune. Often, they will tell me that they feel their voice “vibrating” with the note they’re playing as the notes come perfectly into tune.

Can I Achieve Perfect Pitch?

This is a question I get a lot from students.

“What is perfect pitch? Can I have perfect pitch?”

Perfect pitch, also called “absolute pitch”, is the ability to sing any note at will, on the spot, without a reference note. No piano, no guitar, not even a tuning fork. You know, instinctively, how to sing perfectly on pitch.

Wow! That’s amazing! All the greatest singers must have perfect pitch, right?

Well, that’s the thing. Do they? Does Beyonce have perfect pitch? Does Celine Dion have perfect pitch?

The truth is, perfect pitch is a very controversial topic. Some people think you have to be born with it. Some scientists think it’s just a myth and doesn’t actually exist at all.

So please, don’t sweat it if you don’t have perfect pitch.

“Perfect pitch” is not required to perfectly sing in tune, meaning that anyone can learn to sing in tune with good old-fashioned practice and experience. One thing that is certain is that beyond a certain age, learning perfect pitch becomes more difficult. So if you’re wondering how to help a child sing in tune, you’ve come to the right place.

Why Am I Singing Flat?

What does it mean to sing on pitch and avoid flat singing, for example? The answer is not quite as obvious as you might think! The most common reason a vocalist can’t sing on pitch and produces a flat voice tone has to do with what the vocal folds (cords) are doing, rather than the ear. If you’re wondering how to sing on key consistently, know that hitting exactly the right notes is a quite complex task for the vocal cords.

Try this at home:

I like to use a rubber band to demonstrate this.

Hold a rubber band loosely between your thumbs and pluck it.

The band is so slack that there is no audible noise.

What the vocal cords look like when singing higher.

There should be an audible “thoink”.

If you stretch the rubber band even further, the sound produced by the rubber bands is even higher in pitch. As you stretch the rubber band, it vibrates faster, resulting in a higher pitch.

Cool, huh?!

The Vocal Folds and Pitch

So, returning to our main question: What does singing on pitch mean? Basically, the vocal folds work in the same way as the rubber band. A vocalist sings a given pitch by unconsciously stretching or shortening the vocal folds to the point that the speed of the vibrations produces the pitch they want to sing. In short, the meaning of “sing on pitch” is more complicated than a lot of people realize.

Now, if all this scientific stuff is happening and I’m not even thinking about it, how do I get rid of the flat voice tones and learn to sing on pitch?

Well, the point here is simple: if you want to sing, pitch control is essential. Most pitch problems are the result of the vocal cords being the wrong length or depth for the desired pitch.

Here’s a Pop Quiz:

“How do I know if I’m singing on pitch” you ask?

Well, how about we do a quick singing pitch test?

If I’m trying to sing in my chest voice and my vocal cords are too thin and stretched for the thickness required to hit it, will my pitch be flat or sharp (too high)?

Since the vibrating length of the instrument is too long, my pitch will be higher and I will sing sharp. As a voice teacher, we have a name for when the cords are too thin and stretched in the chest voice range. We call this light chest and it’s a huge barrier to singing low notes on pitch.

If I’m trying to sing on high pitch, and my vocal folds are thicker than the stretch required to hit it, will my pitch be higher or lower than the sound I want?

Since the vibrating length of the instrument is too short and thick, my pitch will be lower and I will sing flat. As voice teachers, we call this abundance of thickness in the cords vocal weight.

How to Stop Singing Flat

“Why can I not sing in tune?” a lot of students ask. Well, one of the most common issues I see is that students end up singing flat. As we’ve seen, singing flat happens when vocal folds are too uncoordinated for the note you want to sing. So here are some tips on how to learn to sing on pitch and avoid the flat notes.

One of my favorite tools for working with singers is vowels.

Vowels are the speech sounds produced by the open vocal tract between consonants.

“Ah” (as in “Otter”) is an example of a vowel.

But in addition to being a huge part of language and singing, vowels have a strong effect on the pitch-making process. There are vowels that tend to produce more chest voice and thickness in the vocal folds.

There are also headier vowels that stretch and thin the vocal folds.

If You’re Singing Flat

Try singing scales with a wide range (bigger than an octave) on a heady vowel such as “ooh” or “ee”. These vowels tend to direct towards more head voice and hence more stretch in the vocal folds. A great exercise that I love to do for a song is find the passage where I’m singing flat and sing the melody on “Goo” or “Gee” to help my folds find the perfect configuration for those notes. I’ve created a short video demonstrating the “Gee” exercise over a long scale.

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Check it out:

Professional Singing Warm Up - All Male and Female Keys

Watch this video on YouTube

When I feel comfortable singing the melody on “Goo” or “Gee” and I’m sure that I’m on pitch, I switch back to the original melody and lyrics and am always shocked to find that I am singing on pitch. This is one of my favorite sing in tune tests that I recommend to my students. If for some reason you’re sure that you’re singing the incorrect pitch, go back to the “Goo”s and “Gee”s until you find the correct pitch again and repeat.

If You’re Singing Sharp

Try singing scales with a shorter range (less than an octave) with a chesty vowel such as “Ae” or “Uh”. Since these vowels tend to direct more towards the chest voice, the resulting vocal folds will be thicker and shorter resulting in a lower pitch. Or you can try counting the numbers 1 – 5 on a short scale.

I’ve made a short video demonstrating this exercise.

Check it out:

Professional Singing Warm Up - All Male and Female Keys

Watch this video on YouTube

If you’ve been having a hard time singing a song at the bottom of your voice, try singing a “Nae” (as in “Nasty”) or “Guh” (as in gutter) instead of the melody on the difficult passage. When you feel that the exercise is giving you a bit more security on the low notes in the song, try switching back to the melody and lyrics while trying to retain the feeling those chesty vowels gave you. I’m always amazed at how this simple exercise helps singers (often females with light chest) with low notes. Before long, they learn to sing perfectly on pitch. If for some reason you’re not singing the correct pitch, go back to the “Nae” or “Guh” until you find the right pitch again and repeat.

Sing Pitch Games and Apps

There are a ton of vocal pitch monitors and sing in tune app games which can test a singer’s ability to sing in tune. And while these games are really fun, remember that singing on pitch is not the ONLY test of a great singer.

Just as important are tone, hitting high notes, vibrato, belting and sustains.

All of these techniques benefit from the ability to sing in tune, but they’re also different skills to master.

A Few Things to Note

For most people, learning to sing on pitch happens in their youth. Sadly, not everyone is exposed to music and singing early on in their life. Usually this means they haven’t developed their ear enough to hear and produce the correct pitch. So even though these pitch singing exercises can be incredibly helpful for anyone, it may not help those that still need to develop their musical ear.

Only ear training will do that.

Musical hearing training (aural training, to use the technical term) is essential for all singers. If you want to know how to sing in tune naturally, that’s the best advice I can give. Now, do all singers sing on pitch? Not necessarily. Some singers can achieve distinctive sounds by being just a little bit off key. But that doesn’t change the fact that pitch accuracy in singing is an essential skill that every aspiring singer should have. And remember, even for those with a great musical ear, we ALL sing off pitch from time to time. This is completely natural but we want to do everything in our power to honor the music we’re singing by finding the correct pitch. One of the best ways of doing that is by using exercises to get the vocal folds to stretch or shorten the desired amount and then revert to the original lyrics. If you believe that you’re not executing these exercises correctly or you just want a trained ear, consider booking a lesson so I can hear exactly what you’re doing.

How Can I Put This to Use With My Own Voice?

Be sure to check out the bonus video below, but before you do, there are a few things you can do to ensure you’re always singing in tune. First, grab yourself a “how to sing in tune” app or “sing on pitch” app. There are several free ones available. Download the Voice Monitor App for Android or Apple so you’ll know exactly which notes you’re singing in real-time. (Do you have a different “sing in tune” free app you really like? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!) You can do this with a Google search or through a service like Scribd. Then, record yourself singing the song you’re having trouble with using the app. As you play it back, follow along with the sheet music while glancing at the monitor to see which notes you’re not singing in tune. Then just sing those words or notes into the app until the monitor matches the note(s) on the sheet music. How long does it take to learn to sing in tune? As you can see, this depends a lot on the singer. Just keep practicing it with the rest of that line in the song until you’re getting it right consistently.

It’s that easy!

And again, if you want to learn how to sing on pitch for beginners, feel free to check out my ‘Teach Yourself to Sing‘ article.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, is it possible to sing perfectly on pitch? Can anyone be taught to sing in tune?

Yes, of course! It takes practice, but I guarantee you it’s possible.

If you’re still wondering how to learn how to sing in tune online, for free, I created a free video that will help you apply the info from this post in your own singing. The bonus video includes 6 exercises designed to help you sing on pitch and in tune. That way, you’ll find the right note every time and sing on perfect pitch in no time!

Click the download image to get the free bonus video!

ramseyvoice.com - Sing on Pitch: 8 Exercises to Make It Happen Every Time

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