Being able to sing on key, or on pitch as it is also called, is one of the main concerns and goals for singers.

After all, singing on key is what makes singing different from speaking. A person who sings off key is after all not considered very pleasant to listen to.

So how do you learn to sing on key?

Naturally, we would think it is about developing the ear. Many are the people with difficulties singing on key who have even come to believe they are tone deaf. It is not surprising then that we would think that they way to develop this skill is by singing scales and listening to the notes.

You may even have been told to listen extra carefully - to make sure you hear the note in your head before you sing it.

I am here to tell you that being able to sing on key has far less to do with your ear than you might think.

In this free video demonstration, you'll see what it takes to learn how to sing on key.

Let's think of it this way: Have you ever heard someone who sings off key who also sings with a warm, beautiful, free, effortless, confident, and resonant voice?

Of course not. The person who constantly sings off key also sings with a restricted sound.

We can simplify it like this:

If a string isn't allowed to vibrate freely, how could it possibly remain on key?

If you hit a guitar string and let it vibrate, will it continue vibrating if someone pours honey on it or touches it? There is always a lot of tension that accompanies the voice that sings off key. Unfortunately, following the standard advice of trying to listen for the note does very little to free these restrictions. More often than not this approach creates an even more held-back and restricted sound.

On the other hand, if you work the voice from the perspective of releasing the sound, then you will not only produce sound with less effort than ever before, you will also experience that singing in tune becomes an easy and natural by-product.

With the inner directed approach of The Bristow Voice Method, you become accustomed to the sensation of free vibration and instantly recognize the pleasure of  how to sing on key.  You no longer have to artificially listen for the note (which accesses the wrong part of the brain).

Surprising as it may sound, the ability to sing on key is far more a muscle issue than an ear issue.

How does a dehydrated vs. hydrated body affect your singing and speaking voice? What effect does dehydration have on performance?

So you want to perform at your peak? You want to be mentally and physically sharp throughout the day? You want to be creative and productive and energized? Many people say they want this, yet they deplete their bodies of the very "fuel" that makes this possible. Many rather have sodas, coffee, etc., rather than a glass of water.

As a vocal and performance coach, I have found that just about everyone who seeks my help for voice problems drink frighteningly small amounts of water. (Many drink a lot of other, not so healthy, fluids.) This is hardly a coincidence. Although there is more to healing and peak performance than drinking water, hydrating the body is a very important and ever so easy step. Studies have suggested that the average American is dehydrated. As much as 75% of the population may be chronically dehydrated.

While scientists argue whether these statistics are true or not, and how much water a person really needs, what we can agree on is that the thirst signal weakens as we age. We also know that the more dehydrated we become, the more our thirst signals weakens. When you start drinking more, you start feeling thirstier more often – you are awakening the thirst signal.

If you are thirsty you are already dehydrated. Thirst is never a measure of adequate hydration.

Water is the medium through which all of our cells communicate with each other. It is how the immune system monitors the body for invaders or imbalances and how it knows where to send its "troops" when the body is under threat; all done without our conscious awareness of what is happening.

Water makes it possible for the autonomic nervous system, and its two branches, to maintain equilibrium in the body. Every cell in our body becomes aware when there is even the slightest water shortage. In response, the cells change from a state of optimal function to a state of conservation. Our tendency to substitute water for sodas, coffee, juices, etc. adds to the problem. Sodas create a bigger problem than merely the dehydration factor. They are also highly acidic and water is needed simply to restore pH balance, or the body will take from its calcium reserves (the bones) to maintain equilibrium.

The dehydrating effect of caffeine is still being debated, but people who drink coffee tend to do so instead of drinking water (even instead of eating food sometimes), rather than in addition to it. Most health practitioners, nutritionist, sports-trainers, athletes, singers, peak performers, etc., agree that drinking more than our thirst tells us is of absolute necessity for optimal performance.

• Water carries nutrients to our cells, aids digestion by forming stomach secretions, flushes our bodies of wastes, and keeps our kidneys healthy.
• The kidneys control the concentration levels of bodily fluids and the balance of electrolytes. They are responsible for removing excess hormones, vitamins, minerals, and foreign toxins such as drugs, chemicals, and food additives. They get rid of the waste products from protein metabolism - uric acid, urea, and lactic acid - but they need lots of water to accomplish this.
• Research has suggested that women who stay adequately hydrated reduce their risk of breast cancer by 79 percent.
• Gastrointestinal problems have been shown to be connected with water shortage. Hydration can help prevent chronic joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis because water reduces inflammation and promotes cartilage health.

As singers and speakers, we depend on the flexibility and elasticity of the tissues, membranes, muscles and cartilages in our throat. We need water and lots of it. No liquid ever touches the vocal cords directly on its way down. You are not lubricating the vocal cords with the sip that you just took, although the swallowing itself does have a lubricating effect. To truly lubricate the vocal cords and the larynx, the water must go through your entire system.

On stage, we expel enormous amounts of energy whether it is a physical performance or not. Touring musicians live in air-conditioned vehicles and air-conditioned hotel rooms. AC and heating dries the air. The traveling voice professional would benefit by bringing a portable humidifier (clean it often to avoid bacterial growth). Airplanes are probably the most dehydrating forms of transportation. Athletes and singers drink copious amounts of water when flying (as should everyone). Jet lag worsens with dehydration. Conversely, keeping the body hydrated when flying is one way to diminish the effect of jet lag.

So how much is enough? The answer is that it depends. The measuring stick is always to have clear and odorless urine throughout the day (except for early morning). Can you drink too much water? Yes, the condition is called hyponatremia, and is a condition in which excess water intake dilutes the normal amount of sodium in the blood. However, realize that we are here talking about massive intake of water, such as the marathon runner who drank 3 liters in one hour the night before a race. The bottom line is this:

• If you want to heal illness, you need to hydrate.
• If you want to prevent illness, you need to hydrate.
• If you want optimal performance, you need to hydrate.

A: Yes, I work a lot with singers and speakers with these kinds of issues.  Any time we get discomfort, surrounding muscles compensate. For example, when you hurt your foot you start limping when you attempt to move forward - i.e. other muscles compensate.  When you experience discomfort, pain, strain, or hoarseness in your voice, other muscles compensate in an attempt to produce sound.  If we don’t do things to create balance, the condition becomes worse and it takes more and more effort to produce sound until it is chronic. The key is to rebalance, strengthen and free the muscles so you can create free resonating sound again with less effort than before. My Sing With Freedom home study course deal with these issues extensively too. Also see the article on hoarseness :  Why Your Voice Gets Hoarse

A. Yes, it is as natural as it is to fall when you begin to walk as a child.  And just like when you were learning to walk, you need to develop muscles and balance so it soon becomes easy.  And to use the same analogy, it’s not the warm-up, but the overall balance, strength and coordination that enables you to walk without falling. Once you got it, warm-ups are of course important.

A. Yes, you train and then you very soon realize that you are not tone-deaf at all – just untrained.  Very few people are really tone-deaf, although the expression is often used. The fun question to ask someone who says he is tone deaf is:  How do you know? You will find that the person is very well aware that he/she doesn't sound great? In fact, he probably hears very well. There is probably nothing wrong with your hearing. To be able to sing on key you have to be able to create vibration (sound) without restrictions.  The beauty is that you can develop this much faster than most people think. However, if you practice via singing scales I can guarantee that it will take much longer than necessary.  Also see the article on “How To Sing On Key”

A. I don’t claim to be a vocal coach for classical or opera singers, because if so one needs to be very familiar with the repertoire.  I am indeed focused more on contemporary styles of singing (I have  however been trained in classical singing myself).  Classical singers benefit from my method because it focuses on awareness and freedom rather than style.  Many classical singers also use far more effort than needed, so we make sure to train the functionality of the voice. This also helps the singer to express with greater freedom and authenticity. 
 

A. Well, when you say “try”, we don’t know you are doing or what the muscles are doing. The reason you can’t do it because the muscles that make it happen aren’t developed.  The bummer is that most people spend years and years singing scales, frustrated over this so-called “break”, but never discover the awareness of the muscles that make it happen - thus never develop theses muscles.  Sorry for the pitch, but in the Sing With Freedom program you develop greater awareness in the first 40 minutes, which we build on the create significant results in a couple of weeks.

A “Passagio” is one of those classic terms that I find unnecessary to use in my teaching (unless as fun trivia). It’s a term from the operatic school and refers to the “passage” – the bridge – between different registers, especially between chest voice and head voice. (The human voice actually has several areas of “register changes”.) What many seem to have forgotten is that the classic operatic “passagio” training strategies are about maintaining an operatic quality of sound while you pass through the “passagio”. Those strategies may not at all be helpful for contemporary singers.