Many beginner singers (and even experienced ones) struggle to be able to sing in tune and hit the right pitches at the right time! The main problem is that singers are only mainly concerned about how they produce sound and how they vocalize, but they rarely think about how they can train up their ears and be able to listen to notes properly.
To be in tune, one has to work on one’s listening ability so that you can recognize the pitch and reproduce that same note with your vocals!
In this article, Intune Music Director, Aaron Matthew Lim, will provide you some exercises so to improve your ear training!
Exercise #1: Listen, Hum, Voice!
- Play a note and listen carefully to it.
- After that, start humming the note and adjust your pitch to make it sound the same as the pitch you are hearing.
- Finally, voice out the note that you are humming.
Once you are able to do it correctly, try to remember and internalize the sensation of producing that note with your voice, noticing for example the vibrations you feel near your vocal folds, how many muscles you are activating in order to hit that note, and the overall effort in your body when singing that particular note.
You will feel slightly differently in your body and around your vocal structures with each different note that you sing, so do associate the feeling awareness with your singing so that when you need to sing a particular note, you will be able to feel if you are in tune or out of tune.
Exercise #2: Practise Singing a Series of Notes
This exercise is a build-up from Exercise #1 but just one single note, and it involves getting you to sing a series of notes in succession!
- Start with the first few notes of the major scale, so that it helps you to identify the notes better, and understand how the major scale progresses, and subsequently be able to voice the various pitches out accurately.
- Similar to the first exercise earlier, do the 3-step process of ‘Listen, Hum, Voice’ in order to get the first note accurate, as that note is the foundation for this exercise and you will build the rest of the notes from this first note.
Also, make it a habit to practise more musical scales so as to become more familiar with your singing voice in different pitches, and understand the changes in your sensations and vocal effort with the different scales you sing.
Watch this teaching video by Intune Music’s Vocal Director, Aaron Matthew Lim, to learn more exercises, techniques and tips on How to Sing In Tune!
How To Sing In Tune by Aaron Matthew Lim Vocal Coach
Youtube Direct Link: https://youtu.be/5NZihsuXAyY
Even so, you may still be asking, “How would I know if I am singing the correct pitch?”
There are many tuners on the market, and also tuning software that you can use to practise your pitching. However, the best recommended way is still to seek guidance from voice professionals as they are able to provide you with detailed feedback. It is also better to get another person’s advice because what you hear internally may not be what others hear externally.
Intune Music provides trial lessons for our courses, such as Pop Vocals, Classical Singing and Broadway Singing, and also Speech Level Singing and Estill Voice Classes, to help you to be able to sing more in tune next time!
