I was wondering if anyone has any good exercises or practices for matching pitches and singing in key.
I've found that I have a bad habit of starting a half step lower or higher than the note I'm supposed to be singing. I can match pitch pretty quickly after that, it's just the very initial matching of the note that I have trouble with. Is it something that just comes with practice, or is there a good vowel sound to work with or anything?
Short answer is yes, it comes with practice. But for the best results, you need to focus your practice on your goal, rather than just singing songs, and hoping to improve.
Play a single note. This can be on a keyboard, a guitar, pitch pipes, or whatever other instrument you have, including a keyboard app for your phone. Instead of singing immediately, take a moment to imagine what it would feel like to sing that note. Hear your voice in your head. Once you know in your head where you’re coming in, sing. At first, take several seconds in your head, just to get used to thinking this way. It will take some practice, but the time you need to find the right note in your head should decrease the more you do this.
With this exercise, if you come in on the wrong note, stop singing. Don't slide to the right note. Instead, think about what you did wrong. Were you too high, or too low? Play the same note again, and come in with a fresh entrance.
If you can match pretty quickly, you can do the same thing along with the radio. When a song hits a note that’s held, sing that note. Don’t sing along with the rest of the song while doing this, because then you’ll be practicing singing with the radio, rather than practicing entering a song on the right note.
