How To Center Your Pitch

[Overdrive]

I have been hearing recently that my biggest problem is that I don't have a center of pitch, I go sharp and flat and sharp and flat but it never just stays on pitch like I wish I could.

Here's a sample: http://soundcloud.com/tmusician/basket-case-demo-1/s-RLBbh

How do I go about centering my pitch? Are there exercises to help with this?

[WebAndNet.com]

Very good resonance though. You'll get pitch soon.

I guess the first question would be-- do you hear yourself off pitch while singing?

[Keith]

It's a lot harder to sing along in unison with the original singer, then it is to sing with a backing track. Due to circumstances with wave patters beyond my comprehension, singing in unison can make it very hard to tell if you are in key - and one tends to be slightly off just as a way to hear the two separate voices. Try singing to a karaoke track.

[Overdrive]

I do not notice myself going off-pitch while singing, is that due to an untrained ear? Lack of focus?

Also I created the whole track, so it can be a 'karaoke track' and I think that was what I did when I recorded these vocals (sometimes I do sing along with the song anyway though, so maybe it's a good tip to not do that).

By the way, I did this thing where I recorded the same thing twice, and made one track much quieter than the other so maybe you guys are noticing that and thinking that the original track is there somewhere?

[ronws]

Keith, I think it's due to different vowel shades between yourself and the original singer. Ron has mentioned that before. And also what you said, trying to hear both voices. When I sing along to a track with vocals, I try to only listen to myself and mentally ignore the vocals on the track. Maybe that would help. It works fine for me. But I haven't had any significant pitch problems from the beginning so I wouldn't know what's necessary to work on correcting pitch.

Well, Owen, you beat me to it. But it was something I notice in the last few months. Where you can be on pitch with the original singer but the vowel sound differences may sound kind of dissonant. Just as, two singers in the same pitch with different rates of vibrato will produce an odd "beat" in the sound, as they are singing in unison.