5 Secrets to Better Pitch, Power, and Precision in Your Singing Voice

A world-class voice is a great accomplishment. There are many aspects that go into making a voice perform on a high level at it’s peak performance.

1. Hitting the bullseye in the center of pitch

Singing with great pitch is a hallmark of excellence in singing. You can get away with a lot not being perfect, but even well known singers who don’t have great voices all have great pitch. It’s a fundamental piece of great singing. Nothing feels better to the ear than what I call “the bullseye” center of pitch. Pitch is something that all singers work at improving and maintaining.

Imagine a circle and the bullseye of that circle. That is great pitch. But outside of the bullseye are varying degrees of pitch that are still within a reasonable aim of pitch, but are not as good as the bullseye.

The things that interfere with good pitch on a technical level that can make you go either flat or sharp are:

• Improper placement: pushing the sound forward cause issues with sharp pitch
• Strain: pushing the voice too hard on a big note can cause it to go flat
• Tension in the muscles that surround the voice: neck, tongue, jaw, laryngeal muscles cause flat or sharp pitch.
• Weakness in the support muscles cause flat or sharp pitch.
• Lack of proper breath support can cause flat or sharp pitch.

2. Know your scales and intervals ascending and descending

Another issue that can cause problems with executing good pitch is not knowing your scales and the intervals within them inside out – or what I refer to as “forwards and backwards.”

Scale: A scale is a series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave, with different intervals and patterns depending on the key that scale belongs in. In popular singing most scales are based in the major, minor, pentatonic, and chromatic scales.

Intervals: In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two notes.

Becoming a better singer involves developing strong ears and musical knowledge in order to replicate the scale and the exact intervals you are singing.

Singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan were excellent singers and equally musicians. They knew theory and the notes they were singing over the chords and how that would influence the effect of their singing.

Try this in this order:

If you are new to this just start with the major scale and chromatics. Once you master those it will easily lead to the others.

• Learn the major scales and intervals.
• Learn the chromatic scales (half step scales)
• Learn the minor scales and intervals.
• Learn the pentatonic scales and intervals (blues scales).
• Sing them ascending and descending- with a piano accompaniment and without until you can execute them well.

Once you know your scales and can sing them ascending and descending without the piano staying on key you have internalized the scale and can execute pitch with more ease.

3. Developing the proper support to sing with more sound

Precision and excellence in singing rely upon the proper support. Without it, the voice will fall back on the throat where you’ll experience strain which will mess up your pitch and precision.

The proper support starts with good posture, head position, and keeping an elevated chest so you have access to diaphragmatic breathing and the support of the trunk of the body.

Start by lengthening the back of your neck and tipping your chin slightly down in a neutral position. Balance your head over your body as if it is resting there. At the same time, lengthen the small of your back.

Try this:

• Stand evenly in the center of both feet
• Soften your knees so they are not locked
• Scarecrow: Head sitting on top of spine
• Tuck your pelvis slightly underneath you
• Pull up tall out of the waist
• Shoulders at rest (heavy): down and back
• Lengthen the cervical spine (neck)
• Lift the base of your skull towards the ceiling
• The head is level + placed over your body (not in front of)
• The chin is slightly tipped down to achieve a level head position and a long cervical spine

As you stand in this alignment

• Notice if you feel your body working more on one side?
• Do you feel any tension anywhere?
• Do you feel any muscle pulling or pain anywhere?
• Any areas you feel tension are indicators of shortened muscles and areas that need attention and lengthening.

If you feel tension, after you get into position, gently take a step back and soften those areas. Over time this tension will go away. For now, practice this alignment before singing and during singing notice what is occurring and make notes.

Improve your posture and singing technique with my Singers Gift Warmups. Click here to learn more!

4. How to belt without strain

In order to sing with more belt without straining, you want to first develop real vocal strength. This starts with #4 above – but the next step is to build the core foundation of your voice where you will develop the right motions and movements with a repetition of exercises (like going to the gym for your voice) that will build the proper strength.

Improve your vocal strength and singing technique with my Master Voice Building Exercises inside my Vocal Freedom Circle. Click here to learn more!

The first step is to practice the proper positions to eliminate strain. On a technical level it’s all about form first.

Try this:

• Lift the chest up towards the chin while keeping the back flat (don’t arch the back).
• Press on your chest about 5″ down from the collarbone.
• Exhale.
• Did you notice the chest dropping a little?
• Now exhale while keeping the chest in the exact same spot you started at.
• Without dropping the chest even a smidge.
• Now let’s sing an AH like this and hold it out.
• Sing again pressing on your chest and not letting it drop at all.
• Did you notice you had more sound with less strain?
• This is the start of learning to belt without the strain.

To learn how to unlock your voice, decrease strain and experience more sound, sign up for my FREE 4-Day Better Voice Challenge. In these 4 one-hour workshop style sessions you’ll experience a transformative shift to open up and free your voice. You walk through 8 sequences in my Cole Vocal Method to unlock your voice, decrease strain, anchor your sound and expand your power and resonance. All for FREE>> Click here to get access.

5. How to execute tone and smooth phrases with precision

Precision, excellence and smooth phrasing in singing all start with the development of vocal tone. Tone is the key indicator of the smoothness and richness in the voice, and also the agility and flexibility in the physical instrument.

To develop tone, the singer needs to practice vocal technique to practice the correct movements in the right positions that develop vocal tone.

It starts by stripping away the compensatory or accessory muscles in order to isolate the vocal muscles to improve their function.

When the vocal folds are too far apart this results in an overly breathy voice and a lack of overall control.

Sometimes the singer is even unaware of the breathiness in their voice. Because the ears are far back from the mouth, the singer mostly hears the sound from inside their head and not the actual sound that is being produced coming out of their mouth. That is why your voice sounds slightly different on a microphone or during recording listening in headphones where you hear all of the subtleties.

Additionally, when the vocal cords rub together aggressively the result is a “raspy” or “hoarse” sound. With the right vocal therapy techniques we can get them to stop rubbing and eliminate hoarseness altogether. Raspy voices struggle with early fatigue, so fixing this issue is important for the longevity of the voice.

Try this:

• To more accurately hear your voice first sing and “AH” without cupping the ears
• Then sing an “AH” while cupping your ears with your hands. This brings the sound from your mouth directly into your ears. You will hear your vocal tone more accurately— as if under a microscope.
• Cupping the ear is not a habit you want to establish, but it is useful in this exercise.
• I use a device called “Hearfones” worn during vocal technique exercises that allows the singer to hear the voice more accurately. As you hear the voice more accurately, you will automatically self-correct the tone of your voice.
• Ultimately tone is developed and improved correctly with specific vocal techniques taught in my Cole Vocal Method that includes The Singers Gift Vocal Warmups, The Vocal Rescue Kit and my Master Voice Building exercises taught inside my Vocal Freedom Circle.

Improve your vocal tone and singing technique with my Singers Gift Warmups. Click here to learn more!