While some people have trouble singing in key at all, others can have a good start but then fail to maintain a tune and gradually begin hitting the wrong notes.
The primary concern and goal for a singer are to sing in key or pitch. If you don’t know how to read a music sheet, you’re far from becoming a revered singer.
How to sing on key? Practice the following techniques to improve your singing:
- Find out your sweet spot or power note
- Rectifying breathing technique
- Use a piano
- Hear your voice
- Train your ear
- Record yourself
- Stimulate your repertoire
This article will dig deep into these seven straightforward methods you should embark on today to sing in tune.
Are Key and Pitch Related To Each Other?
Pitch is the frequency of the sound an instrument or a singer produces. Pitch can be low or high.
For instance, when singing, you allow your vocal muscles to change note frequencies by letting the air pass through them while relaxing or constricting your throat cords.
Also, when producing lower notes, you often loosen your vocal cords’ resistance. Or, when going higher, you tend to apply greater resistance to the airflow.
Simply put, singing a melody means you’re reproducing the notes. Meanwhile, you also need to maintain the right tone while keeping the right timing or time signature.
Of course, the pitch is not as complicated as the concepts of the key. However, it’s necessary to emphasize that when you change the track’s pitch, you’re changing its keys.
How To Sing On Key: 7 Techniques To Improve Your Singing
If you’re starting from scratch, don’t worry. You can enhance your singing skill logically and reliably with the following ultimate lessons.
It takes forever to really become a brilliant vocalist, but after taking up these methods, you’ll always be sure that you’re perfectly pitched and in tune every time you show off your voice.
#1. Find Out Your Power Note
The first lesson on how to learn to sing on key is to figure out your comfortable vocal range.
You need to understand your vocal, sweet spot, or the most fitting part in your voice range, where you feel most comfortable singing.
As at this point, your voice sounds and flows best. Determining your sweet spot to focus on developing that spot will put you at an advantage when performing.
A song includes a variety of high and low notes called tessitura.
The keys consisting of your sweet spot may stand in the chorus, a line, the refrain, or the chorus’s end. You can feel it when you sing out that key.
So, one way to always bring good performances is to choose a song that consists of many keys at your favorable range. In so doing, you can show off your best ability.
Another tip is to arrange a song in advance so that it specifically applies to your voice, and your power note will happen at the verse or line you wish to emphasize.
#2. Breathe Correctly
The primary problem for neophyte vocalists is that they have no idea how to breathe while singing correctly.
Usually, you instinctively breathe as you feel like when singing. Some can still manage to sing on key even when not breathing appropriately. But for most beginners, that isn’t the case.
Should you know the first thing about vocal training, you understand how important it is to breathe correctly when performing.
If the reason for your off-tune singing is incorrect breathing, you’re pretty lucky. There are tons of breathing lessons that can help you sing on key quickly, just a few weeks after taking up those exercises.
In case you don’t know if you’re breathing properly or not, feel and focus on your breathing when singing.
Should you know the first thing about vocal training, you understand how important it is to breathe when performing correctly.
You can consider this video to learn how to breathe right when singing.
#3. Use A Piano
A piano is a fantastic assistant, aiding greatly with bettering your singing. Though many newbies don’t have a piano available in their houses and have no idea how to play around with a piano, there are plenty of alternatives to consider.
Even professional singers sometimes take advantage of software or free applications that mimic a piano. There’s no need to pay for fancy apps; just wander around the Internet.
Our top recommendation is to go for those web-based piano websites or apps that do not require any downloading. Indeed, there’s no way you can know what is inside these downloads.
Web-based piano websites will turn your keyboard into various piano keys, which is so convenient.
Now, you simply practice with your mimicked piano. Hit any key and sing along that key right away. This way, you can improve your ability to sing in tune alone when you can’t afford a piano yet.
#4. Hear Your Voice
How can you achieve a perfect pitch without listening to yourself, alright? So, another straightforward yet crucial method regarding singing the correct pitch is to hear your voice.
In particular, you have to boost your ear’s keenness for each key. One of the ways to do it is by concentrating your listening on the middle of your forehead.
Aside from coming from your mouth, your voice also resonates in the skull. Thus, you can listen precisely to the key you’re hitting by focusing on the middle of your forehead.
If you keep focusing on listening to the voice from the middle forehead, your hearing will be keener due to constant practicing.
That way, you can control your vocal to sing in tune better and enhance the sensitivity of your ears.
#5. Train Your Ears
Another essential lesson on how to sing on key consistently is hearing and learning each key on scales before you work your way up to a full scale.
It’s a brilliant idea to use an instrument or portable keyboard already tuned to embark on hearing training exercises.
Listen carefully to every note played. In so doing, you can envisage the correct keys in your subconscious mind or imagination.
After that, try to sing out the note. Should you be able to reproduce the precise notes without the assistance of an instrument, you’ve imbibed that sound.
Hit the key and strive to match your voice’s sound. You might sound sharp or flat the first time but just strive to adjust your sound so that it hits the correct key.
Keep doing it until you’ve subconsciously assimilated the right keys’ sound and can duplicate it precisely.
#6. Record Yourself
Recording yourself singing can be frightening and intimidating at first, yet it’s still better than singing in front of a crowd with a terrible off-beat vocal, alright?
You can record yourself alone in a room, and no one will hear the recording but you. Thus, there’s no need to be shy or embarrassed.
Also, you may not like your own sound at first, which dramatically affects your motivation and self-confidence. Indeed, there’s a reason for this common problem.
Your voice may sound unfamiliar in the recording because of some voice-changing or voice-filtering features that your app offers. It takes time to get used to it.
This unfamiliarity is also because your sound actually goes different to other people than you. The sound’s physics held in your body makes your voice sound different when passed through the air.
So, when you listen to recordings of yourself, you’re listening to what people hear as you sing.
Don’t worry since you’re not the only one that hates your voice’s sound when first hearing it on the recordings. Remember that it’s just the unfamiliarity’s discomfort, not that your vocal is terrible.
Once you’re used to recording, you will realize that your voice is actually nice as always. And from now on, recording yourself turns into a powerful tool to enhance the ability to sing in key.
You can identify where your toning is off, hence correcting it in the next recording. Also, the recordings allow you to know where your pronunciation is not yet accurate, thus improving it.
If you’re not shy, it’s advisable to ask for objective opinions from your friends on how good you are.
In a word, recording yourself offers the chance to better your performance privately before sharing it with the world.
#7. Practice Your Repertoire
After the above section, you may ask, “what should I record myself singing?” Here’s the answer: your repertoire.
For musicians, it’s a unique term meaning the things they know and perform. For singers, it refers to a collection or library of songs they’re confident performing.
A three-song repertoire is a good start. Choose three songs that offer a comfortable range to you from your favorite list.
You love the songs, so you already memorize the lyrics. This way, you can get minus one thing to notice when singing.
Practice with a background track first. The most common way is to find the karaoke version of your song on Youtube. If you’re not really confident, seek the standard studio version and sing along with the singer.
Start with a brief part, for instance, the chorus. Then, record your singing and rectify some mistakes on the next recording. Ask your friends to drop some comments as well.
Repeat the process many times until you can correct at least one thing that you previously did wrong.
One more helpful tip for our readers: don’t delete the recordings right away. Save them in a file, entering today’s date and the song title for each sub-file name.
After a couple of days of practicing the same songs, open the files and compare your current performances with the earlier ones.
You’ll likely see a significant improvement in your singing and pitching. This result will pretty much motivate you to go ahead.
Keep it up until you master the song and no longer face the issue of off-pitching or singing the wrong keys or any performance weaknesses.
Final Words
Indeed, singing in tune is what differentiates singing from speaking. Those who can’t perfect pitching are never deemed a pleasant vocalist to listen to, not to mention a top-notch singer.
Aside from learning how to sing on key, you need to consistently practice, train, and study to refine your voice.
