Singing on Pitch for All Vocalists
Singing on pitch seems to be reserved for only those ordained at birth with a golden voice. Most people either sing close to pitch, or sing badly off pitch, and those winning awards and making lots of recordings seem to be the only spared from ridicule. However, the truth is that all singers sing off pitch and have trouble at times, if not frequently. The real issue is a matter of how far off pitch a singer goes, and for how long they miss the note. A quick slip and recovery may not be noticed, yet a long sustained tone that is flat may become irritating for even novice audiences.
Vocal pitch is one of the most difficult instruments to keep on track because it is confounded with an additional hearing disability that interferes with the performer hearing their vocal pitch correctly. If you play a guitar, for example, you can hear the pitch of the strings almost the same as the audience as the audio wave travels from the guitar directly to your ear. However, most of the volume that a vocalist hears from their own voice travels through the bone, mucous, and tissue of the head before reaching the ear. Very little of the tone coming out of their mouth comes in through their ear, so they hear differently. New vocal pitch software enables all vocalists to sing on pitch with very little effort.