Dealing With Flat Singing Pitch

A concern that invariably comes up for those just starting out in their singing careers is the ability to sing at the right pitch. This was one of my biggest up-hill battles when I was first getting involved in singing. Many people sing while incorrectly guessing they are hitting the right pitch, but to listener the person singing is delivering the notes just slightly flat. Other singers are able to hear when something is wrong but they have a hard time figuring out how to get right into that proper tonal level.

At the time I struggled with this problem, I was in that category of singers who could hear the problem but had a hard time fixing it. One of the tricks I would use to hit the right pitch would be to sort of "slide into the pitch." When I could hear that my tone was a bit flat, I would slide slightly up or down a bit in my tone until I hit what I could hear was correct. But this is hardly a solution, and it is a fix that is easily picked up by the audience.

So how is one to go about hitting just the right pitch without having to use some trick after you've already let the note out? A simple fix but one that comes with practice is to let go from your diaphragm. This is an part any vocalization that gets hammered into all young practitioners, but really breathing out from the diaphragm while singing or vocalizing is a deliberate action that has to be developed until it becomes habitual.

A simple yet practical drill you can do on your own is to match random tones on a keyboard or piano. Really you could do this with just about anything that emits musical tones, so you could try this drill even if you don't own a piano or keyboard. You can even record yourself doing this exercise and then play it back afterward. How you hear yourself in your own head compared to how others hear you is markedly different, so the sound you hear from your recorded voice will give you a fairly comparative version of what others hear when you sing or vocalize.

One of the best pieces of advice I received from one of my first instructors and one that helped me to clean up my pitch problem is this. Instead of sliding into the proper tone or pitch during the out breath during singing, hold the idea of the sound in your mind during the inhale so that you are prepared as you exhale. It is more than just having an idea of what the note should sound like in your head, and this is where the keyboard drills I mentioned before will come in handy. This idea will make more sense as you practice individual tones and then gradually incorporate this technique into all of your singing routines. Practice thinking, hearing and feeling the note as you take a breath, and then as you breath out with your singing voice, it will become easier to get the pitch that you want and out of the flat spots.

By: Joel Henderson

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