My ongoing struggle with Intonation - any tips?

[kalapoka]

So I brought an electronic tuner as suggested in the Raise Your Voice book by Jamie and I see that I have a real problem with my intonation. Ofcourse this does not come as a big surprise to me as I always kind of felt that I have pitch issues and I hear myself singing slightly flat most of the time (hence my lack of confidence and dissatisfaction about my voice and singing). According to my tuner, my intonation is at most times JUST a few cents far from 'perfect'. The tuner measures with accuracy of +-50 cents and I cannot sustain a note at the dead center of it.

Any tips on how to fix these micro tuning issues? What do I do to push the needle from a bit off center to the center of the tuner?

This is the most frustrating problem I have now so any tips would be really helpful!

[jonpall]

For the record, the first few exercises in Seth Rigg's "Singing for the stars" really helped my pitch a few months ago. I'd check that out. I think it's partly because you have to do those arpeggios and by doing that, your accuracy improves.

[Steven Fraser]

For the record, the first few exercises in Seth Rigg's "Singing for the stars" really helped my pitch a few months ago. I'd check that out. I think it's partly because you have to do those arpeggios and by doing that, your accuracy improves.

Jonpall: I think you are right. Provided the technique is not restricting, three related things get better doing that: 1) The mind gets more facile at imagining the note, 2) the voice gets better at following the imagination, and 3) the sense of hearing gets better at comparing what is coming out with what was desired. This latter one is especially important when attempting to sing in tune with and external pitch reference, i.e., the band backing a song :-).

[kalapoka]

Jon and Steven,

well I've been doing brett mannings program and I can correctly do the arpeggios. The problem is about the 'fine' adjustment - I can hit the pitch but not in the bull's eye. Is there any thing I can do to correct that?

[jonpall]

Sounds like you could need some work in your breath management or simply confidence. Try inhaling while relaxing your muscles - don't do it fast, just let it happen, and then sing a very long note, some with vibrato, some without. Do this a LOT and post an example here. I'll bet that you'll sound a bit shakey. Also, post yourself doing lip bubbles on a long, single pitch. I'm betting that the space between the bubbles is consistant. This is also something you should do every day, IMO, because it teaches you how to keep a consistant breath energy.

[Steven Fraser]

Jon and Steven,

well I've been doing brett mannings program and I can correctly do the arpeggios. The problem is about the 'fine' adjustment - I can hit the pitch but not in the bull's eye. Is there any thing I can do to correct that?

Kalapoka: Remember the technique I suggested with the keyboard mounted, and flute organ stop held down while you tuned to it? Its time for the next level on what can be done with that.

First, an interesting fact about sound... when two sounds are about the same frequency, the sound waves interfere with each other, and produce a pattern of beats. The beats sound like pulses of volume increases/decreases, the loudest of which are at a speed which is the difference of frequency between the two notes.

So, if you select the C below middle C on the keyboard, you'll get a note which is about 125 Hz. If you sing 1 Hz flat or sharp, you will hear a beat which occurs 1 time per second. This is pretty difficult to hear, but if you get a little more flat or sharp, you can hear it speeding up as you get farther from the drone, or slower as you get closer.

The first exercise is to set the drone, and to slide the pitch of your voice around until you can sing just a little sharp or flat at your discretion. Listen for the beats changing speed as you approach the drone note, and as you move away from it.

The next step is to practice onsets, where you attempt to start a sung note 'right on' the drone note. The beats will tell you how close you got. If you miss, onset the 1/2 step above the drone, and slide down to the drone. As you approach the note, slide slower. The goal of the exercise is to get the loudest beats to disappear.

Once you are able to get the louder beats to stop, there will still be beats between the harmonics, but softer. The speed of the beats on the 2nd harmonic will be 2 times the difference in fundamental frequency. If you listen carefully, you will be able to hear them, and use them as tuning guides. Similarly with the 3rd harmonic. Its beats will be 3 times the difference in fundamental.

Using this approach, by developing more finely your ability to listen, you will get better control of your vocal tuning.