How To Sing On Key (and why it has little to do with your ear)

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.