Pitch question for a song I'm practicing

Roloca

Hey Everyone,

First of all, sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong subforum, I don't really know where should I post this. I'm currently practicing a song for a contest, but I feel like I've hit a wall regarding the pitch/notes. I usually just go by feel, only recently started to look at sheet music and check if I'm really hitting the correct notes. So I did a few recordings and showed them to a friend, who knows a bit more about singing than I do. She said, that I'm off (under) by around a semitone in the verses, and sent a reference she recorded. I also checked out a piano version and the notes (hers and the video) matched.

It turned out that I was off (over) by 3 semitones. However, when I tried hitting the correct notes, something felt off. It goes down to F2 (lowest I can hit is G2), but even then I feel that I have to hold back and can't recreate the original's brightness. I also tried one octave higher, but I don't have the techniques yet to make it listenable :'D

So my question is, does that +3 really sound off and I should aim for the original notes, or will it be fine? I can't put the instrumental in +3, as it becomes painful to listen to.

Original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTmlrZw6Ctc

Piano (seems to be correct until the chorus):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7q4VGEeTA

My original recording, that was 3 semitones off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h-gVWKS_rs

My try of hitting the original notes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAGMzDIVSdI

Thank you for your answers in advance^^

RandyB

I can’t play the audio. Try uploading in SoundCloud or YouTube.

jaclynser

So the original, you can hear he is up the octave, which as you mentioned is too high for you. Instead of trying to sing it the octave down, you could try lowering the key a bit to help make those high notes not as hard to hit. Singing it way down where you currently are it makes it sound monotone and flat in general.

Try lowering the key a bit, also on YouTube you can actually go into settings and hit playback speed and slow it down so you can really work on your pitch and make sure you are hitting exactly the right notes. When is the contest? You may want to consider picking an easier song that's more in your range.

Happy singing!
Jackie

Roloca

Thanks for your answer @jaclynser !

Unfortunately, I selected this song back in March, but due to the pandemic, the event was postponed over and over. Now they decided to hold it anyway but in an online form. I just have to send in a recording, but I can't change the song and the deadline is this Sunday. I have tried in -3 key (anything under -3 severely degrades the instrumental's quality) and an octave higher, but I'm not sure. I keep falling back to old methods and my higher notes are painful to listen to, even though I can reach them. So out of the two recordings, which one is more listenable (I found a better recording for the verse +3 one)?

I'm definitely going to be more careful with my song choices in the future but by the time the next contest is held, I hope I will be done with Volume 1.

@RandyB I added YouTube links.

RandyB

If you have to turn one in, I find the first recording (-3 semitones) to be more enjoyable.