How to Learn to Sing In Tune
If you’re a singer who struggles to sing in tune, you might think that being able to sing on pitch is some kind of natural gift that only certain people are born with. That isn’t true! Anyone can learn to sing in tune with the right tools and techniques.
In this article, we’ll explain what it means to “sing in tune,” and give you some actionable tips to sing in tune that you can start practicing today.
What Does It Mean “To Sing In Tune”?
The most basic definition of “singing in tune” is “matching pitch”. This means that you can sing the right note at the right moment in the melody. If the melody goes C D E F G, you should be able to match each pitch in that ascending line.
The other component of singing in tune is intonation. Intonation, as it applies to music, refers to the accuracy of a pitch being played or sung. By this, we mean whether the pitch is sharp, flat, or correct. Sharp means the pitch is slightly too high. Flat means the pitch is slightly too low.
A pitch that is sharp or flat might technically be very close to the correct note, but a pitch that is almost correct can actually sound more wrong than a totally different pitch. For example, if you should be singing an A but you are singing a very flat A, it might sound even worse than if you were just singing a G.
Why is this? It’s because of the tonality of the piece. If the note G appears in the key of the song you are singing, you might be able to get away with singing a G instead of an A over certain chords. However, you will never be able to get away with singing a flat A, because that note simply doesn’t exist in the tonality. It is a note that is halfway (or a third of the way, or a quarter of the way) between two notes, thus it sounds very dissonant to our ears.
Why You Need to Learn to Sing In Tune
For singers, it is crucial to develop good intonation and learn how to sing in tune, because you cannot rely on an external tuner to tune your instrument for you. While a guitar player can tune each string once at the beginning of a song, a singer must continuously monitor themselves to make sure they are singing on pitch. For this reason is essential for singers to develop the ability to sing on pitch intuitively, without even thinking about it. Keep reading if you want to learn how to develop this skill.
Why Is Singing In Tune So Important?
If you plan to sing anywhere other than your car or shower, you need to learn how to sing in tune. This is true both when you sing by yourself, or when you sing with a band or along to recorded music.
When you sing along to music, with a band, for example, it’s very likely that all the musicians will have tuned their instruments and will be playing in tune. If you are not in tune, your part will sound completely off from what everyone else is playing.
When you sing alone (without any accompaniment), you might think you can get away with not singing in tune because there is nothing to compare your part to. However, it’s actually even more important that you sing in tune in this situation. Why? Because there is nothing but your own ear to guide you through the piece. You cannot rely on other instruments to tell you where you are and what notes you have to sing.
If you don’t have a good mental map of how the song sounds, or if you get off-key and can’t get back on, you may continue to sing further and further off-pitch until you are so far off that the song doesn’t sound like the song anymore.
Сan Anyone Learn To Sing In Tune?
Yes; learning to sing in tune requires patience and commitment, but it is attainable by everyone. To learn how to sing in tune, you need to develop your inner ear through practice and repetition. However, to do this properly, you need to make sure you’re practicing the right things.
Simply memorizing pitches or intervals, or singing pitches in isolation won’t help you learn to sing in tune. First, you need to develop a basic feeling about whether you are singing in the tonality of the musical piece or not. Then, you must internalize the sonic sensation of notes within the most common musical keys used in western music: the major and natural minor keys.
Don’t worry—no fancy music theory knowledge is required for you to learn this.
How Do I Know If I'm Singing In Tune?
The easiest way to know if you’re singing in tune is just to ask someone—believe me, they’ll let you know pretty quickly! Most people, even if they are not singers or musicians, can hear when someone is badly off-pitch, and most people can’t stand listening to someone sing off-key.
The best person to ask in this case is not your mom or your best friend. They might not give you an honest answer. If you have a friend who is a musician, ask them. If not, find the most brutally honest person you know and ask them.
Sing-In-Tune Test
Another easy way to test if you are singing on pitch or not is to check your pitches against a musical instrument. For this, the best instrument to use is a piano, but any instrument can work. Play a note on the piano (for example, Bb3) and try to sing the note.
The first issue you may run into here is that you don’t actually know whether you are matching the pitch or not. Again, a musician friend or music teacher can help you here. Play the note, sing it, and then ask them if you are singing the same note.
The second issue you may run into is that you can easily match one note at a time, but you start to get off when you have to sing many notes in succession or sing a whole song. If that is your issue, keep reading to learn how to improve your relative pitch skills and intonation to start singing on pitch.
How To Start Singing On Pitch - A Few Simple Tips
Many ear training methods are completely ineffective for learning how to match pitch or sing with good intonation. Why? Because they only focus on pitch memorization or interval memorization. Read on to learn why these methods are unhelpful, and for some better tips to sing in tune.
An Ineffective Method - Pitch Memorization
Pitch memorization is the first approach many singers take to try and improve their pitch. Often, they do this without knowing they are doing it. They might try listening to a song over and over again until they have memorized the pitches, or pick out individual notes on an instrument and then sing the notes.
This method is ineffective because it makes you reliant on an external instrument or sound to be able to reproduce the pitches. Additionally, you can only memorize pitches for a very short amount of time. As soon as your mind wanders somewhere else, those pitches will be gone and you won’t be able to recall the melodies you are studying.
An Ineffective Method - Interval Recognition
Interval recognition or memorization involves learning the intervals between pitches and singing those. Most ear trainer apps that you find online teach this method. It is ineffective because it only teaches you to recognize pitches in isolation, out of a musical context, or in a specific order.
A Better Way - Sing the Major Scale
A better way to start improving your pitch is to begin to internalize the most common harmonic context in which the vast majority of songs are built. In other words, you have to learn to sing the major scale.
All songs are made up of notes within a scale. Simply learning a scale will allow you to experience what “harmonic context” means. You will start to hear which pitches are in the scale and which ones are not. Then you’ll know when you go “off pitch” or sing notes that are not in the scale. The ability to intuitively understand wether you are singing notes in the key of the musical piece (versus singing notes that are outside the key), is the first important step toward learning to sing in tune. Thus, learning to sing the scale is absolutely essential.
You’ll need to use an instrument at first to learn the scale. A piano is best. Find middle C and then play all the white notes from that C to the next C. That’s the C major scale. Play a note, then sing it back, then play the next one, and so on. Then, try playing sections of the scale (3-4 notes at a time) and singing those.
Eventually, you should be able to play just middle C and sing the entire scale up and down without playing it. This might take some time, so don’t worry if you don’t get it right away—just keep practicing!
Sing Notes From the Scale
Once you can sing the whole scale, start practicing singing random pitches from the scale. This is different from memorizing random pitches out of context because you are working in a tonality, keep reading to better understand this.
Play middle C, then sing the whole scale. Then, try to sing the G above middle C (in this case G is the 5th degree of the C major scale). After you sing it, check your pitch by playing it on the piano. At first, you might need to play the pitches before you sing them to learn how they sound. But you should move on from this and begin producing the pitches by yourself, without playing them first.
By doing this you start to experience the very specific sonic sensation of each note within the major key (stability, instability, happiness, sadness, etc.) Internalizing and recalling that sonic sensation is what allows you to intuitively sing on pitch without thinking about it. When you are comfortable doing that, you literally won’t be able to sing off pitch because it will sound wrong to you.
Can I Achieve Perfect Pitch?
Perfect pitch is the ability to sing or recognize notes out of context, in isolation. So someone could say “sing F#2” and you can sing it. As an adult, you cannot learn perfect pitch (many scientific studies have proved this fact). Perfect pitch is a rare ability that a person acquires in very early childhood under specific conditions.
The good news is, you don’t need perfect pitch in order to sing in tune. The majority of the population—even musicians—does not have perfect pitch. While it is an impressive skill, it is absolutely not necessary for singing in tune. Most professional singers in the world do not have perfect pitch.
A more useful skill to acquire in order to learn how to sing on key is good relative pitch. Relative pitch is the ability to internalize a tonality (like a major scale) and then recognize and reproduce pitches within that tonality. Relative pitch helps you develop a good mental map of a song and helps you hear and feel how the melody moves within the song’s harmony.
Why Can’t I Sing In Tune?
There might be many reasons you have trouble singing in tune. Usually, it is a combination of an undeveloped inner ear and poor vocal technique. Both of these aspects can be improved by practicing the right things.
One of the main reasons people struggle to sing in tune is that they haven’t felt what it feels like to sing in tune. By this, we mean they haven’t internalized tonality and understood the sonic sensation of the notes.
By working on your relative pitch skills, you will build a strong inner ear that will be able to tell you when you are singing off-pitch. You will have a mental connection to the music that will help you feel the contextual sensation of the notes in a song, so you can sing on pitch intuitively, without even worrying about it.
In addition to developing your inner ear, you should also continue to work on your vocal technique. By this, we mean all the physical aspects of singing: good breath support, relaxed throat and tongue, lifted soft palette, and good posture. All of these things will align your instrument (your body) and contribute to better intonation.
What If You Tried All Our Tips and They Didn't Work?
Don’t worry! Learning how to sing more in tune takes time and practice. It won’t happen right away, so if you’ve tried a few things and they haven’t worked, don’t despair. As long as you are practicing the right things (like the tips outlined in this article or the exercises in our video courses) you will begin to see improvement.
It’s important to note that, depending on your current skill level, the tips we’ve shared in this article might not be enough for you to develop good intonation in a gradual way, without getting stuck and frustrated.
Check out how we can help you further by providing you with the best step-by-step method to developing advanced relative pitch skills, and dive deeper into learning how to sing in tune.
Use Your Ear - an innovative ear training method
Relative Pitch Video-Course
The Use Your Ear Relative Pitch Video Course is the best online method available for developing your relative pitch skills and learning to sing on pitch. It’s the only step-by-step, science-based method designed to work for singers and musicians of any level of expertise or skills.
The course includes a huge library of exercises that will help you to internalize harmony and learn to sing in tune. You will gradually improve your pitch and intonation skills by working in a tonal context and internalizing the sensations that notes assume within the tonality.
Free Use Your Ear Intonation Training
For a free comprehensive introduction to our methods and techniques, and how they can help you learn to sign in tune check out our Use Your Ear FREE Intonation Training. In this 1.5 hours introductory lesson, you’ll learn the skills necessary to develop your inner ear and discover a science-based model that shows you how anyone can develop great intonation skills, no matter their age or current level.
Whether you’re a total beginner who just wants to get better at karaoke, or someone who has struggled to sing in tune for years, you’ll learn how our methods can help you improve your pitch and intonation. You’ll also see how hundreds of other students were able to develop their musical ear, starting from scratch.
You’ll gain an understanding of your current level, practice lots of different exercises, and take home actionable steps to work on in your own practice.
Individual Online Lessons
One-on-one lessons are perfect for people who want to take their skills to the next level or who want to make big strides in a short time. This includes both serious music students and total beginners.
Our one-on-one online lessons will pair you with a qualified teacher who understands our method inside and out. They can provide real-time feedback, pinpoint and work on trouble spots with you, or give you the tools to move on to advanced techniques and skill sets.
Conclusion
Can anyone be taught to sing in tune? Yes! With the right approach and dedicated practice, you can develop a strong inner ear and solid relative pitch skills that will empower you to sing better than you ever have before.
