The term "flat & sharp"
Hello everyone, whenever you hear or see the term 'flat' or its equivalent, 'sharp', you'd suppose it is accidentals that are being referred to. By accidentals, I mean the alteration of natural keys by one semitone, either higher or lower. In case you've forgotten, that's exactly how the keys in the flat and sharp series are created.
In this tutorial, I won't be focusing on accidentals or scale building. I'll be talking about note precision while singing. Yep! I'm addressing we singers. I'm sure you have found yourself in a situation where you actually intend to sing a given note within a particular song, eg G, but you end up sounding something in-between G and Gb or G and G#. When you erroneously go lower, you're singing flat, but when you go higher, you're singing sharp.
Most music directors and band leaders mix up the terms, hence, some singers are confused. It is easier to correct yourself when you actually understand what you've done wrong. It should be clear to you whether you're flat or sharp. If this sounds familiar to you, and you have been guilty of this before, like me, have no fear. There are solutions. Here are some of the causes:
1. Insufficient breath intake:- sometimes, when the air you take in is less than required, it will be almost impossible to hit the correct pitch. Also, you might have a long phrase to sing, and you run out of breath towards the end. The result of this is that the final notes will be flat. This is because the energy needed to keep the vocal cords at the right position for the pitch has failed. It will take a struggle to finish the phrase correctly.
2. Singing without concentration:- many times when I'm just fooling around, or when I'm humming or singing a song casually, I catch myself missing a few notes. This is because my mental faculty is focused on something else that most times, has nothing to do with music. You might experience this right in the middle of rehearsals, performance or recording because you've taken your mind off the music momentarily.
3. Poor tonal control:- some people may have a more complicated reason for singing flat or sharp. In this case, the singer's ability to select given pitches with the vocal cords is below average. This is more of a natural fault which has prevailed due to lack of vocal training and pitch related exercises.
The above listed causes are not 'death sentences' which have no remedy. There is something you can start doing today, if you can relate with any of the above causes.
*Get proper and comprehensive vocal training.
*Always keep your mind and ears on your voice and the music when singing.
*Take good breaths for long phrases.
*Stay away from voice-damaging substances.
*Sing carefully, and with good tonal control.
J©§H D GREAT™ ~ ¶All About Music¶
In this tutorial, I won't be focusing on accidentals or scale building. I'll be talking about note precision while singing. Yep! I'm addressing we singers. I'm sure you have found yourself in a situation where you actually intend to sing a given note within a particular song, eg G, but you end up sounding something in-between G and Gb or G and G#. When you erroneously go lower, you're singing flat, but when you go higher, you're singing sharp.
Most music directors and band leaders mix up the terms, hence, some singers are confused. It is easier to correct yourself when you actually understand what you've done wrong. It should be clear to you whether you're flat or sharp. If this sounds familiar to you, and you have been guilty of this before, like me, have no fear. There are solutions. Here are some of the causes:
1. Insufficient breath intake:- sometimes, when the air you take in is less than required, it will be almost impossible to hit the correct pitch. Also, you might have a long phrase to sing, and you run out of breath towards the end. The result of this is that the final notes will be flat. This is because the energy needed to keep the vocal cords at the right position for the pitch has failed. It will take a struggle to finish the phrase correctly.
2. Singing without concentration:- many times when I'm just fooling around, or when I'm humming or singing a song casually, I catch myself missing a few notes. This is because my mental faculty is focused on something else that most times, has nothing to do with music. You might experience this right in the middle of rehearsals, performance or recording because you've taken your mind off the music momentarily.
3. Poor tonal control:- some people may have a more complicated reason for singing flat or sharp. In this case, the singer's ability to select given pitches with the vocal cords is below average. This is more of a natural fault which has prevailed due to lack of vocal training and pitch related exercises.
The above listed causes are not 'death sentences' which have no remedy. There is something you can start doing today, if you can relate with any of the above causes.
*Get proper and comprehensive vocal training.
*Always keep your mind and ears on your voice and the music when singing.
*Take good breaths for long phrases.
*Stay away from voice-damaging substances.
*Sing carefully, and with good tonal control.
J©§H D GREAT™ ~ ¶All About Music¶
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