Intonation

[impossiblegermany]

I'm sure this is a common question/complaint. I am an accomplished musician with a degree in jazz guitar performance and I have an ear, but I cannot sing in tune. So far, hours of practice only seem to pay off minimally for me, while others, including many of my guitar students, sing quite well without any practice aside from singing along to the radio (which is something I definitely do). This makes me believe that one really has to be born or at least brought up with the ability, but I'm really hoping this isn't the case.

I'm wondering if it could be that I've just been working the top of my range to

o much.

The comfortable part of my range sounds bland, nonmusical, and doesn't cut through in a band setting. So, I tend to sing in a range where I always feel like I'm pushing it, and every vocal instructor I've had has only really worked that area.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Khassera]

^^ It's awesome to know that I've been intuitively doing the right thing. I always thought that matching the tune while it plays is just learning to sing while that certain note is playing, and not learning to sing the note on it's own with precision. It's like singing along to studio tracks vs singing along to backing tracks: There's no guidance, so you have to get it right or it sounds off.

I just play a sine, "memorize" it, turn it off and sing it back into a tuner. After a couple of weeks of this I get it right just about every time, but I still have trouble with the consistency. I get it accurate with semi-occluded sounds 99.99% of the time, but with open vowels the tuner doesn't even pick them up no matter how loud I get. If I cover the sound and make it darker the tuner picks it up, but it's a pain to hold the note, since it's not as economical as singing with a bright tone. I have no idea why the tuner doesn't pick up the bright tone.

[impossiblegermany]

thanks Phil! I'll definitely give this a try

[Khassera]

Just to bring this back up:

I very highly recommend an app called Perfect Ear (i prefer perfect ear 2), it contains different interval exercises, pitch singing etc. Singing different intervals of a note etc. At first I didn't hit the notes too well, but now i do it consistently with all vowels and semi occluded sounds.

Oh, and it's free.