Why Singing On Pitch Is Harder Than Most People Think

Pitch is a topic that’s been coming up over and over again in the last couple of weeks. And I get - being able to sing the right notes is important! But for some reason, so many singers have developed an obsession over pitch and they consider themselves bad singers if they can’t hit every note perfectly.

My friend, that is not the case! There is so much more to singing than just hitting the right notes. But I also understand that hitting the right notes IS important… So I sat down with Coach Emily from our team to talk about it—why pitch can feel hard, how to actually train it, and what to do if you’ve been told (or told yourself) that you're bad at pitch.

**Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch/listen this episode on our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast or YouTube.

Let’s Make One Thing Clear…

The chances that you’re truly tone deaf aver very small.

“If you can recognize when someone else is going off pitch—you are not tone deaf, even if you can’t hear it in your own voice.”

It’s much easier to hear what’s going on in other people’s voices than in your own. That is because when we sing, we hear ourselves from both the inside and the outside. But when you’re listening to others, you don’t have all the bones and cartilage vibrating inside of you (like when you’re the one making the sound), obstructing what you’re hearing.

The good news is that even if you can’t hear if you’re on or off pitch in your own voice, but you can in others (or on recordings of your singing), you can learn to improve your pitch and become a great singer. It’s just going to take some practice and time.

What’s Actually Happening When Pitch Feels Off

When I coach singers who feel pitchy (aka off pitch), I try to figure out what’s really going on, as there are a couple of reasons why they’re struggling to hit the right notes. The most common reasons for pitchiness are:

1. Hearing Issue:

   It’s hard for you to hear whether or not you’re on pitch. This is where ear training might be the solution. Check out this ear training series on our YouTube channel.

2. Coordination Issue:

   You can hear that you’re going off pitch your voice just isn’t behaving just yet. Continue training your muscles and you’ll get there with repetition and time!

3. Tension Issue:

   Tension in your vocal tract often causes pitchiness - mostly causing you to go flat (under the note/too low). Check out this post to learn how to release tension in your singing.

4. Range Issue:

   When you’re singing notes close to the end of your range it gets a lot harder to match pitch perfectly. If you’re struggling with pitch, first work in your comfortable range. Once that feels easy, start expanding your range and you most likely won’t run into pitch issues anymore (unless you’re straining!).

5. Breath Issue:

   Using too much breath can cause you to go sharp (too high). Reduce breath flow and see if that helps correct the pitch.

Please be patient with yourself when you’re working on your pitch.

“It’s not that you’re incapable—it’s that your brain just hasn’t made that connection yet.”

Here’s something that helps reframe that thought:

Most skills—including pitch—take about six weeks to build the first layer.

Not six weeks to master it—six weeks just to get started. So if you’re two weeks in and things still feel messy, that’s normal. It doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re learning.

Why Trying Harder Isn’t the Fix

I’ve seen it so many times—singers pushing harder, clenching their jaw, overthinking every note. But forcing your voice into pitch rarely works. It usually just makes everything tighter, and the pitch goes even further off.

The real fix? Less tension. More intention.

Here are some things you can do to work on pitch accuracy:

• Hear the note internally first before you make the sound.

• If you’re hearing yourself off pitch, scoop up or down till you find the note so that your ears can hear what it sounds like when you’re in unison with the correct note.

• Train your brain with small, repeatable steps.

• Reduce tension in your singing - tension often leads to going flat (under the note).

• Close your eyes!

• Record yourself and listen back!

• Sing together with the singer so you can hear more clearly where you’re going off pitch.

• Sing in your mother tongue. If this fixes your pitch, you know it’s not a pitch issue, but rather an overthinking issue.

• Sing in your comfortable vocal range.

It’s Not That Deep

Singers (and music consumers!) love to obsess over pitch and if not every note is 100% perfect, they’re a bad singer. Dear singer - that is SO NOT the case. Pitch is just one element of singing, there’s so much more to it!

Of course it’s important that we can sing mostly on pitch, but being 100% of the time on pitch is close to impossible. That’s just not how live singing works. I mean think about it - singers are literally just grabbing notes out of thin air. No strings or keys or anything to help us with pitch. It’s all just muscle memory and that takes time to develop. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had a singer in a session and they said that they have some pitch issues, but then when they sing it’s really no issue at all!

We’ve been conditioned to only hear perfect vocals because all forms of singing we consume online is perfectly edited vocals. Even live performances have autotune on them! And no - I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use tools like autotune (I think that’s a great tool for singers because again, pitch isn’t everything!), I’m just saying that the average person doesn’t really know what real vocals sound like anymore. This is why we create these unattainable goals for ourselves and are then disappointed when we don’t sound “perfect”.

When coach Emily works with singers who truly need to work on their pitch, she only does that for a couple minutes at a time (no more than 15 minutes) before moving on to something else. She doesn’t want her students to get frustrated and there’s more to singing than just pitch. So please apply the same thing to your own practice sessions too!

Want to dig deeper into conversation around pitch?

🎧 Watch or listen to the full episode here

👉 Grab the FREE warm-up track: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/free-warm-up-track

👉 Not sure what your voice needs? Get a vocal evaluation: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/vocal-evaluation

👉 Ready to work with a coach? Book a 1:1 session: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/trial-lesson

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