[Harp-L] RE: OT: learning to sing

[R Kraft <hoosierdads@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roy,

Just because you're a "bad" singer, doesn't mean you can't sing.
I'll only address pitch here - a vocal coach can help you with voice quality, but if you get pitch together you'll probably feel much better. I've never met a person who was tone-deaf. If you can tell the difference between a statement and a question you can hear small pitch differences.

I've had a friend and a guitar student that had trouble hearing pitch.
Here are quick stories on how they got better:

Friend, ~55 years old, lifetime radio DJ and oldies program director.
His kids made fun of his singing (and he knows the words to thousands of songs).
We spend 10 minutes matching pitch (I would sing a pitch, he would match), then he picked a phrase from a song that was easily in his range and we worked on that, note-for-note. When he went home his kids were amazed that he could stay on pitch. His problem was that he was hearing the song in his head without hearing his voice.
I'm guessing that this could be what you're doing. Any person who you feel can sing a tune can help you listen and correct. 

My guitar student (15 years old) actually sang every note a major 3rd above the note he wanted to sing (what he heard in his head). He would play the melody and then sing it completely differently - it made for some pretty cool harmonies.
I would play a note on the keyboard and he would copy it - the first few times it took maybe 30 seconds for him to adjust his pitch. Within about 15 minutes he could scoop to the note within one second. It took him a few weeks of working on it with his girlfriend to get it together. As with above, anyone who you trust to hear pitch can help you.

Remember, if you're singing a song you get to pick the key to make it best fit your range.

Good luck and have fun learning!

Ned