By Cari Cole
“Pitch-ey” has now become a household word thanks to American Idol judges. At least now we vocal coaches don’t have to explain it!
Pitch is one of the fundamental, foundational core elements in singing – so much so that it is one of the most important – perhaps the most important – quality of a great voice.
Imagine pitch as a circle – about the size of a dime. Right in the center of that dime is the bulls-eye. This is the center of pitch. Flat pitch falls below the bulls-eye and sharp pitch falls above the bulls-eye.
In general, rock singers tend to compress their notes and fall flat – while R & B or jazz singers tend to sing lighter and “overblow” their notes, singing sharp.
Most singers scoop into their notes. Although it can be cool as a styling thing, scooping without knowing what you are doing tends to miss the center of the note.
The first step is to identify flat and sharp. And to do so, don’t let yourself scoop – hit the note head-on.
Sing a note in the center of the pitch (head-on – at the bulls-eye) and then fall slightly flat (slide slowly like a siren) and quickly return to the center again. The best way to do this is to hit a note on a piano (around a middle C) and sing the note matching the pitch exactly. Now do it again, but this time go slightly sharp in the middle of the note and slide back to the center. You have just identified flat and sharp.
Now cup your ears (or use Hearfones – hearfones.com) and aim for the bulls-eye. If you are uncertain where the bulls-eye is – sing slightly flat and then sharp to find the middle. This is super important because a singer – like a violin player – has to fix pitch as they go.
How else can you improve your pitch?
1. Here is my Number One Pitch exercise:
- Play and LISTEN to a Chromatic Scale. Just play each note on your keyboard up and down starting at C and go to C at the next octave. Do this slowly, listening first. The chromatic scale is every single note, black and white, as they occur in order on the keyboard, without leaving any notes out. The formal name for these notes is “half steps.”
- To sing the chromatic scale on pitch, you have to become familiar with how the steps sound. By listening, you get the sounds of the steps in your ear. After awhile this scale is memorized in your ear as “steps” and different “notes”.
- Now you’re ready to sing the Chromatic scale. Play each note on the keyboard first and sing it immediately after you play it. This allows you to hear the note first and then sing it – improving your ear – which is the first step to improving pitch.