How to know on what pitch you should sing a song?

Soul_Mate

Hi, i love a lot of types of music so I try to sing a lot of styles and sometimes i have problems trying to sing some songs. For example, I can sing No one by Alicia Keys pretty comfortably but when I try to sing for example Empty by Ray Lamontagne or Cherry Wine by Hozier i have a lot of problems trying to sound good with those ones, or I try to sing in the singers way and sound really weird or sound flat trying to sing it comfortably, I need help!

Klaus_T

if a song contains notes that are outside your range (too high or too low), you won't be able to sing it properly. you can then change the key to where the notes are in your range. it is also possible that the range of the singer is greater than yours (think Mariah Carey) and then you cannot fix it by just shifting the key. you would first have to find the best key and adapt the out-of-range passages, i.e. alter them and change the melody. depending on the song, this might sound OK, or might not work at all.

identify the notes that are the most problematic, and use them as a reference point.

you can change the key of a playback by using a pitch shifter. if the shift is not too big, the playback will still sound OK, depending on which pitch shifter you use (I use ableton live, you can just transpose a clip there by turning a knob). Ken also teaches us to expand our range, so this might be a more elegant way of fixing the issue. it takes time though. and I don't think I will have Mariah Carey's range EVER (not trying to either lol)