3 Things You Can Do Now to Sing More in Tune

Pitch accuracy (whether you are singing in tune or not) is one of the main things that gives singers performance anxiety. When we sing out of tune, it makes us feel like there is something wrong with us as a person. That is so far from the truth because singing out of tune happens even to professional singers. It has to do with using the voice incorrectly or lacking some vocal skills, rather than who we are as a person.

I want to show you three things to help you sing more in tune and increase your pitch accuracy. 

Managing Expectations

Performance anxiety plays a big part in making singers go out of tune. 

If you worry about forgetting the lyric, then you will pay less attention to the melody - making you go out of tune.

If you try too hard to sing in tune, you will push air out of your lungs too hard and cause your vocal folds to vibrate too quickly - making you go out of tune. 

If you micromanage each part of your voice because you do not want to make mistakes, your throat muscles will tense up and your vocal tract will constrict - making you go out of tune. 

Managing your expectations means you should set a challenging but achievable and realistic goal for yourself when it comes to pitch accuracy. 

For example: if you sing out of tune 40% of the time, it means you pitch accuracy is 60% (rough estimate). You want to look at improving your pitch accuracy by maybe around 5% in 2-3 months’ time. If you force yourself to go from being 60% to 90% accurate in 2 weeks' time, then you are putting too much pressure on yourself and you will get anxious - making your pitch accuracy worse. 

Another example that does not involve math: You can sing pretty in tune with a backing track but you sing out of tune when singing a Cappella (without musical accompaniment). It would be good to start learning to sing only 1 line of a song a Cappella. Learn that line really well until you can sing that line in tune a Cappella. Then, learn to sing 2 lines, then half of the song and so on. 

Using a Keyboard/Piano

For other instrumentalists (guitarists, pianists, trumpet players etc), the pitches are made by the instruments when musicians play the right keys/strings/valves etc. 

As a singer, we need to audiate the pitch in our head (hear it in our head) then sing the pitch with our voice. We need to rely solely on memory to sing in tune. Working with a keyboard/piano is so important because it gives you the reference pitches for you to sing. In other words, playing the notes on a piano helps us remember the pitches we have to sing so we can sing more in tune. 

If you have a keyboard/piano or even a keyboard app or virtual keyboard, play one note at a time and sing it back. Play notes that are within your range. Sing it to “mah” or “mee”. You can watch my demonstration in the video above. 

Learn Solfege

In simple terms, solfege is a system of assigning syllables to pitches so we can learn to sing those pitches well. In Western music, we use the “do re mi fa sol la ti” syllables. 

I like to use numbers to represent pitches because it is easier to understand. The larger the number, the higher the pitch. 

Watch my demonstration in the video above and start practicing. 

Conclusion

Singing in tune is a skill that takes time, hard work and patience to cultivate. Focus on the journey and let the results come to you when your voice is ready. Have fun with it and your pitch accuracy will improve over time.