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There are several reasons you might find yourself singing off-pitch.

If you sing flat...

It might be because you are using too much weight in your vocal fold coordination. In other words, you’re using too much chest voice, and it’s weighing your voice down and making it difficult to go up in pitch.

If you sing sharp...

You may not be using enough chest voice, and too much head voice, so your voice is thinning out and stretching too much. This is causing you to sing above the pitch.

The Brain/Body Connection

When neither of these is the issue, it can be a brain/body disconnection. You might need to work on your ability to audiate, meaning you need to be able to hear the pitch in your head. This is how the brain tells the vocal folds what pitch to sing.

Auditation can be improved with ear training practice and by changing the way we listen.

How do you listen to music?

Singers often just listen to the vocal melody and lyrics.

If you play an instrument, you’re more likely to listen to the layers below the lyrics and melody. You can bet a drummer is listening to the beat and rhythm before they listen to anything else!

Separate the Layers of Song

Try separating the layers in your mind and hearing them individually. Then specifically listen to the rhythm layer and the harmony layer, one at a time.

Lyrics

Lyrics are the icing on the cake. They tell the story in words, and they allow the singer to play with different vowels and consonants. While the lyrics are an integral part of the song, they are not going to help you stay on pitch.

Melody

The melody lies on top of the harmony. If you can hear the bass line and start to follow along with that, you’ll hear how the melody “fits” on top of it. The harmony supports the melody. This is what the singer sings, but other instruments also get a chance to have the melody when there is an instrumental solo.

Harmony

The harmony is the instrumental layer beneath the melody. There might be a piano, guitar, keyboard, or other instruments, but I want you to listen for the bass, which is usually the lowest note you’ll hear. The bass is most often playing the root, also known as the tonic. This helps you hear the overall chord structure of the song, which repeats throughout the song. You’ll likely hear the same order of chords for the verses. The chorus or other sections will have different chords, but they will also repeat throughout the song. They also usually stay in the same key signature unless the songwriter really wants a section to stand out from the rest of the song.

Rhythm

The rhythm layer is the feel of the song. For example, the rhythm is what gives it a feel like a swinging jazz beat or a rock beat.

Beat

The beat is just the basic rhythmic unit of each measure. A song in 4/4 would have a beat like 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.

The Layers as a Whole

Each layer of the song needs to be strong individually as well as fitting together as a whole. All of the layers of a song support one another in the communication of the song’s message.

Practice Listening

When you exercise your brain to hear music this way, you’ll get better at being able to hear where the melody fits in and your pitch will improve!

If hearing the layers separately is too much of a challenge to do on your own, find a teacher or musician friend to listen with you and help point each layer out.

Practice listening like this for 10 minutes a few times a week, and you’ll hear your pitch improve!

The other benefit to listening in this way is that riffing will be easier! To be able to riff or improvise, you have to be able to always know what the harmony is doing.

Give it a try!

Let me know if you found this helpful, or if you have any questions.