Perfect Pitch
Most of the time when singers are thinking about pitch, they’re thinking about how to improve it!
Going off pitch when singing is also called going “off key”, and it means that you sing a slightly different note then you intended to. Usually, you end up hitting a note that’s a little bit higher or lower then what you were aiming for.
This is called going sharp (a little to high) or flat, which is a little to low. Everyone goes off key sometimes, but some people have a hard time controlling their pitch. Of course, you can learn lots of tips to singing in key.
Let me explain how pitch works, and where it comes from.
Pitch begins with tone. Tone is the sound that results in air passing through vibrating vocal cords. Try this: Start reciting the alphabet, and place your fingers over the bumpy part in your throat. (Adam’s apple)
Can you feel the little vibrations happening there? Now switch to a whisper… the vibrations are gone. Those vibrations in your throat are what makes tone come out!
It’s the frequency of those vibrations that determine the pitch of the tone.
The higher up you go, the faster your cords vibrate. This can be much harder to control then it sounds! There are two ways you can go off key:
1. You can go sharp, which means that you’ve hit a note slightly above the one you were aiming for,
2. Or you can go flat, which is to go just below.
There are several reasons believed to be the cause of these problems.
- Lack of breath support, according to the classical method,
- Lazy ears, or not listening to your pitches enough,
- And unnecessary tension on the vocal cords. (straining to hit high notes)
According to the classical method of vocal training, pitch problems are a direct result of taking a breath that is not controlled or supported properly. In order for you to be able to fix this problem, you must learn how to breath correctly and practice that skill constantly.
There is also the problem of having lazy ears. This is usually quite common in the beginning, when a singer is just starting out. It basically means that when you’re singing, you aren’t making an effort to really listen to the notes coming out.
The idea is behind this is that when you are really listening and paying attention to what notes you’re singing you will become more aware of when you go off key slightly and be able to fix it.
(People who are tone-deaf can hear the sounds and pitches just fine, but they have an inability to hear and control what pitches are coming out of their mouth.)
Poor pitch is also caused by tension on your vocal cords when singing. This usually happens when you’re trying to sing high note and you “pull” on your cords in an attempt to sing the note. The result more often then not is the note comes out sharp.
The cure for this problem is to learn to sing without vocal tension. There are scales and exercises you can practice to train your voice to stop singing with tension, but along with the scales you have to constantly make an effort to stop tensing your mouth and throat when you sing.
