How to Work With Pitch in Music

Many people are born with the ability to keep perfect pitch while singing. Sadly, many others painfully butcher every song they sing. If you are one of the latter, it is not a hopeless situation. Hide your natural "tone-deafness," train your musical ear and improve your pitch.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Cassette tape
• Cassette tape recorder
• Guitar, piano or virtual piano

1. Recognize that there is a pitch problem. Many people have no idea that they sing off pitch. Listen to yourself sing to identify off-pitch notes. Record yourself singing a song that you know well. Play back the recording to see if your notes sound as melodic as the original singer. Identify notes that sound harsh, flat or sharp. If you are able to identify these off-pitch notes, there is definitely room to improve.
2. Practice pitch exercises. Train your musical ear by reproducing notes you hear. Use a piano, guitar or other musical instrument to produce a note or chord. If you don't have access to a musical instrument, there are virtual instruments available online. Play a single note or chord and try to copy it with your singing voice. Use a tape recorder so that you can play it back. Listen for harsh, sharp or flat notes. Repeat the exercise until your singing pitch matches the exact note that you play.
3. Increase the difficulty of your pitch exercises. Improve your pitch by vocally matching every note that makes up a chord. For example, in a C chord, the notes C, E and G make up the chord. Repeat the pitch exercise until you can vocally match every note that makes up each chord. Continue to record yourself and play it back to document your progress. First tackle the major chords, C, D, E, F and G, then move on to the minor chords. Eventually you'll feel comfortable singing any chord from any scale.
4. Practice singing scales. Learn to sing the Chromatic Scale to improve your pitch. Use a keyboard to play every note of the Chromatic Scale up and down. Listen carefully to what you hear. Play a note. Imagine what it would sound like by singing it in your head before you actually sing it. Record yourself and play it back to check for correct pitch. Repeat the exercise until you master the pitch of every note in the scale.