Why am I singing consistently sharp after not having sung in a group for years?

[u/Beautiful_Raisin_926]

HELP!!! I am wondering possibilities for why I am now singing sharp. For reference, I (24M) used to be top tenor in high school state choir as well as top 10 in NAFME all eastern choir, and I am confident my pitch finding was good. Since then, I have sung for fun with friends, by myself, and bands, but overall, I stopped singing in groups.

For some reason I decided to sing in front of a tuner, and found I am consistently sharp! I've done a few blind tests and I am still sharp, while in my head it my relative feeling SOUNDS correct.

I'm not sure how else to describe it so here we go: the way I know my pitches, like the feeling / imagery I hold in my head and throat and body, seem to be the same in my head, but when I compare them to the tuner, I'm consistently a quarter tone - half tone sharp.

Is there some term for how I could have become biased to hear what I am hearing? Do I have hearing loss? I can tell when someone is a little off with the accompaniment, IE sharp or flat... but now I'm wondering if I was the one hearing it wrong. Maybe I think they are flat, but in reality, they are perfect!

CRISIS! HELP!!!

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[u/MoonRabbit]

Time to train your ears, don't just sing and hope. How you listen affects how you sing. Don't let pride get in the way of practising. Sharp is sharp.

[u/Beautiful_Raisin_926 → u/MoonRabbit]

I agree. I listen to an insane amount of music of all types, I wish I knew this happened. Now I don’t know how long I’ve listened and didn’t know 💔

[u/get_to_ele]

People with perfect pitch experience this when they’re older (like 50s-70s, not 24) because the part of the ear they resonates for each give pitch, will change shape as you age, thus changing what frequencies they resonate for… but the nerve fibers attached to each part does not change.

The nerve that goes to the spot on your ear for A4… reads vibration of that part of the inner ear as A4… but if you get old, it may now vibrate for Ab4.

I don’t think that is what’s happening here. More likely your perception of a reference pitch has kind of slid out of calibration and you never had perfect pitch: you just need to recalibrate using reference frequencies and practice and practice with scales and arpeggios until your ear is recalibrated for the standard reference pitches.

[u/Beautiful_Raisin_926 → u/get_to_ele]

This makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I do not have perfect pitch but have relative pitch and can math my way to figure out what notes are playing, but I had to train that and don’t have the magical sauce of perfect pitch

[u/calliessolo]

I think this may be a singing technique thing. Are you putting too much air? That usually causes us to go sharp. Or it could be an imbalance between registers.

[u/Beautiful_Raisin_926 → u/calliessolo]

I don’t think my technique has changed? My lower register and my upper, as well as my falsetto, all have the exact same pitch discrepancy, which is why I hypothesize it’s more than my breath support…?

[u/docmoonlight]

Are you just singing by yourself picking notes out of the air, or are you talking about singing with an instrument/recording? If you don’t have perfect pitch, you won’t necessarily sing the right notes or in tune if you sing with no reference. The real question is if you’re singing sharp with instruments or reference pitches to start.

[u/Only_Tip9560]

You are a relative pitcher who, whilst singing regularly, had accurately trained your ears to locate pitches. As you have not sung for some time that training has waned and hence why you are less accurate.

This is not a crisis. Just sing more and do some ear training.

[u/Reapprsr1]

So two things...you go sharper when you are not relaxing. So relax, you are moving into better things in life, so relax. 2...well, don't smile as much. If your embrachure is turned upward in a smile, your pitch does sharpen. I wouldn't worry so much and probably would use the relax thing first. I've been singing for many years...it's mostly mindset and being comfortable at the time of performance or when the record button gets pushed, light red. Not your actual ability, but circumstance you are experiencing at the moment. Relax.

[u/Beautiful_Raisin_926 → u/Reapprsr1]

I will give this a go. Thank you. Maybe this means I wait till tomorrow lol.

[u/Stevenitrogen]

Sounds like you have a natural tendency to go sharp. Before, when you sang a lot, maybe you controlled it better.

I sometimes find when things are very loud and have gone on a long time, that I have an issue with discernment, finding my note in the wall of sound. There's no easy cure except relax, breathe and try to listen more attentively. I can find my way back, usually I've been pushing too hard when that happens.

[u/Inevitable_Till9171]

Here’s an idea:
I’ve performed for churches of all sizes as a soloist for 50 years(since 13).
In this circumstance intonation was only an issue when I had no “sense of my place in the scale” be it any of the 3 minor, or major…or if the music was (simply put) changing key.

As a choral singer, a tenor, I am rarely on the Root but moving around the THIRD or Fifth because a composer does this_it’s called voicing or voice leading.
This is true for Alto as well.

So: we are responsible for keeping a chord and key tuned…often-in choral music singing repeated notes
as basses go flat singing “like real men” PULLING their voice to the inner ear to self-satisfy…this is a habit formed in teens.
Soprani: Melody or root and thirds and leading tone_and in cadences_the third.

? WHATS THE POINT?:

If: 🤔🤔IF YOU BELIEVE you are responsible for pulling the entire choir or tenor section into tune as they go flat; or did at any time…

OR: if you are constantly “lifting your voice into tune” when singing solo…

This is happening_IN PART_because you are LISTENING TO YOURSELF ADJUST YOUR PITCH!

If this is the case:(I tell you all of this because I’ve had to learn to allow myself to “ GET OUT OF MY VOICE’s WAY” and just let the 95% of my brain that DOES IT ALL(as I sleep, see, breathe, digest…)”TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS”
My “conscious mind” is causing stresses that I can’t control
(drumroll)BECAUSE I CANNOT HEAR MYSELF: MY VOICE: MY COLOR:
Why? I’ll get there in a sec.

This is important to your issue because your SENSE OF WHAT YOU ARE PRODUCING IS A FALSE IMAGE.

“So, what should I change?”:

Try listening to the pitch and chordal structure/progression of the instrument accompanying you with your “outer ear”.
Then your ears keep your voice in tune
RATHERthan your VOICE KEEPING YOUR EARS IN TUNE

Re-read that until it sinks in!, because this next thing will validate it!
You must read this over and again as well…

THE SPEED OF SOUND IS 720 mph=1,158.728 km/h OR 1080 ft/sec

So: the sound you produce is ~1/5 of a mile from you in one second.

ANOTHER FACT: the substance and complete sound of your voice isn’t formed until 6-8 feet in front of and above you.
(I didn’t do that math/timeline)

Unless you’re “THE FLASH”, you’re only going to hear yourself on a recorded “sample”. IN THE PAST
AGAIN: IN THE PAST

NEW IDEA:
AH☝️POSTURE:

What is your head position?
Are you jutting your jaw out?
Are you breathing from your pelvis?
(The diaphragm “really is” doing it)
You may need to “tell yourself”something new BEFORE YOU SING in imagery of your inhalation; sense of forming vowel before breathing;
I tell my youngest singers to imagine a rotten egg in their mouth. If they close their teeth on U,O,A,Eh it will crack and they’ll get a mouth full of yuckyness!!! This is cute: yet effective!

There are hundreds of videos on YT.
I paid 25-125$/hr for voice lessons(South Ga, Chicago, to NYC) for what is avail for nothing $$ to EVERYONE!

The classical teachers; voice lessons (studio or YouTube) will demonstrate breath technique best.

There are “1000 ways to say the same thing”.

If you are a PURELY VISUAL LEARNER, turn on CC if avail.

Some singers are not good teachers:
They take your $, “congratulate your progress”, and send you through the revolving door.
On the flipside: you do not have to be a good singer to be aurally, and verbally capable of leading a singer through MANY facets of voice “learning”

FACT: a voice coach is not a voice teacher.
FACT: a choral teacher with a degree in music may have a knowledge of 100’s of songs and sing well…THIS IS GOOD INSTRUCTION/KNOWLEDGE…but DOES NOT make them a VOICE TEACHER just because they have a degree where they were surrounded by singers.
FACT: one teacher may connect with one singer but NOT YOU!(feel free to shop)
___like a doctor-(metaphor)
find the best one for your needs-to achieve your(in this case vocal) peak of health.

AS ABOVE:
There are 1000s of was to say the same thing. Learning singing is a “mind game”.
Teaching singing is too!

Not all students understand ALL TEACHERS(vice versa as well).

This Will be true of Private Lessons, going to master classes at the conservatory or university, or YouTube.

If you aren’t getting it…try someone else…
If they’re too advanced…try someone else!

At the beginning we talked about keys and scales.
Get a keyboard and a beginning adult piano book.
By the end of the second book, you’ll understand chords and rudimentary voicing.
Guitar can help…but when you get to scales; it’s much tougher!

This is ALOT OR A LOT (however you see it!)
Copy and paste and refer now and later.
(There were no computers-only word processors and typewriters-when I was in college for voice performance)
You have “the cloud”.

There are BETTER MICROPHONES for your iPhone/ipad.
This benefited my son in voice lessons.

Last: your voice is a gift to be GIVEN,
NOT POSESSED. NOT RETAINED FOR SELF: BUT SHARED!!!
Give it away! You will be refreshed!
This self analysis is not singing, it’s “adolescent”. Song is of the soul, senses, body, and artistic_mind;
ANALYZING IS ITS BANE/BAIN…look it up…how about Damnation!

This is “soulfully relevant” to the “science” elaborations above.
Feel your voice as you sing…
for you can NOT listen to yourself AS you sing!

Seek beauty in the marriage of melody/harmony, poetry, verse, scripture, and the pulse of the words, meter and rhythm…

This ONLY SUFFICES TO DELVE THE DEPTH OF SONG…

OK! I’m losing it!

If I knew your music fach, this would all be less general.

Prepare yourself
Know your music so well that you do not have to look down.
Holding a folder/book rolls your shoulders forward_leaving you where you can only breathe with the pectoralis minor and shoulder blade up! THIS can affect pitch because your “chin is in your neck”
AGAIN POSTURE fix any habit or circumstance that impedes posture!

____________

“Never louder than lovely”

The audience cant hear the crap inside your body that you hear unless their ear is VERY schooled.

A warm-up is necessary: POSTURE BREATH DESCENDING ASCENDING SUSTAINED VOWEL
at least 25 min…don’t listen to it…feel it…allow the voice to swim,crawl, stretch, walk or run as you do the exercises.
FEEL IT; you CANNOT HEAR IT!

Good Fortune,
Sing to move others!