Pitch - vocal problem or hearing problem

cjanewarble

Ken, any advice for someone who seems to be able to sing on pitch well in a relatively quiet environment (at home, with a small audience), but struggles when it’s loud - for example at a karaoke bar? Is this typically indicative of a vocal technique problem, or is it more often a hearing problem?

HuduVudu

More likely you are not hearing your pitch problems when you are at home etc ... You're more likely to be aware of them when you involve amplification to your voice. A good way to determine if it is your hearing or if it is your vocals is to use an app to determine whether or not you are really on pitch. Two good applications are SingScope and SingSharp. Using these can really help you isolate where the problem is.

I also want to include a good video from Ken about pitch, to help you further understand how to get correct pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTCrWRCsna8

cjanewarble

Thank you for your response, HuduVudu. I sing karaoke at different places, and I record myself at home often for playback (I have a quality mic, ear monitors, use GarageBand, with backing tracks). When it isn’t too noisy at karaoke, my husband says that my pitch is good, and to my ear and his it’s good when I record myself at home, When it’s really noisy, my pitch can go off course. I’ll check out those apps and the video; maybe my technique and ear both need more training to be able to handle the chaos of a noisy karaoke bar. Thanks again!

cjanewarble

If anyone has ideas or similar experiences here given that my issue is quite situational, it’d be great to hear other ideas! Ken’s video above is great - it turns out that I’d viewed it before posting originally - but it doesn’t get to my situation, I think. Thanks!

Gaston_Jauregui

@cjanewarble it has a lot to do with not brightening the sound, i know i sound like a broken record but open throat has to be with a lot of smile to hear what you are doing and you will get to hear your self and better yet to feel your sound whenever you cant hear yourself because of the drums or intstruments to loud, that is through experience

cjanewarble

Thanks, Gaston! That is super helpful. I appreciate it and will experiment. Happy weekend!