How Do I Match My Pitch to Another Singer?

“How do I match my pitch to another singer?” First, use a length of hose or PVC pipe to channel sound from your mouth to your ear.

• Put one end of the hose to your ear and sing into the other end.
• Why does this help? Bone conduction (i.e., the sound traveling through the bones in your head) will make notes sound lower than when it travels through the air.
• The hose helps you hear the notes without the interference of bone conduction.

How do you match pitch? This tip comes from Gerald Eskelin:

• You start by singing your note against another steady tone.
• Then, you shift your note up and down until you match the correct pitch.
• This will be a bit like focusing with a manually operated camera lens.

Click on the first soundtrack below. Can you hear the beating as the singer swings the pitch above and below the synth note?

• You need to be aware of beating because it’ll help you tune up your notes.
• Beating is the ‘wah-wah-wah’ sound you hear on the soundtrack.
• When the beating goes away, you’re in tune.

Try it:

• Sing against the synth tone in the second soundtrack.
• Sing the vowel oh without any vibrato.
• Swing your pitch back and forth until it locks into place.

Once you can successfully match your pitch to the synth, you’re ready to start working with the Intonation Flight Simulator:

• Intonation Flight Simulator