Singing In Tune, Part 1

Poor intonation is the bane of all music teachers, and especially choral music teachers. It is something so basic that we may have a hard time understanding why singers sing out of tune, and we may be at a loss as to how to fix it. Here are a few thoughts on the subject.

The initial problem is to ascertain whether the individual student actually knows the difference between singing in tune and singing out of tune. This can be an issue during the first few weeks of a beginning voice or choir class.

One approach to determine this is pitch matching. While working with a student, have him sing a pitch and then you sing a note a little lower or higher. Next, gradually slide to the note the student is singing. Tell the student to raise their hand when both notes are exactly the same. Draw their attention to the "little bumps" that sound when the notes are nearly the same, and how the sound gets smooth when they perfectly match.

This does three things. It lets you know if the student can tell when he is singing in tune, it teaches the student what to listen for in order to sing in tune, and it gets the student to think about always listening for correct intonation. Once the student gets the idea, reverse the process. Sing a note and get the student to slide into the pitch. Help the student to determine if they need to slide up or down with hand signals. As the student progresses, work toward doing away with the glissando so that they hit the pitch dead on. With a little coaching even tough cases can improve.

One can also demonstrate this to the whole class. Pick a student who is comfortable singing publicly, has a fairly loud voice, and has relatively good tone. Have them sing a note and then you sing and slide into their pitch. Have the rest of the class raise their hands when the two notes are in tune.

Once the class has developed reasonably good intonation, it's important to keep them on their toes. Try taking one of your typical warm up exercises and, instead of progressing chromatically, jump to random pitches for each iteration. For example, "mah, meh, me, moh, moo" sung on C followed by "mah, meh, me, moh, moo" sung on Eb instead of C#. It is too easy for singers to slip into "autopilot" mode when doing warm ups. This use of random pitches forces the singers to listen, helps them to develop their pitch matching ability, and keeps them thinking about singing in tune.

In part 2 I will discuss some of the vocal and musical issues that can lead to poor intonation.