Chapter 1
Understanding Pitch Matching and How to
Get Better at It

In our experience, all singers are concerned about their ability to sing the right notes in songs. Becky, one of our in-person students, has a beautiful, resonant voice, but many of the notes she sings are either sharp or flat, making her performances sound just a little off. This inability to consistently match pitch was what brought Becky to our studio. She commented, “I sound pretty good when I’m singing with the artist, but when I sing to a backing track where I fill in the vocals, something just isn’t right.”

That something is her ability to match pitch.

At the beginning of her training, she had difficulty identifying which pitches were off and what segments of the song needed the most work. But as she trained in the studio and at home using an online pitch detector, her ear improved, as did her ability to match pitches more consistently. This took time—short but consistent practice sessions coupled with feedback from her singing coach and the app helped Becky become the type of singer she has always wanted to be.

This chapter answers your questions about pitch matching and provides you with the tools you need to improve. Let’s get started!

What Is Pitch Matching?

Pitch matching is singing the right note. But what’s the right note? It’s the note that is being played by an instrument or sung by another person. Pitch matching implies that there is a pitch that needs to be mimicked (or matched). For example, it could be a piano note, a guitar note, or a person singing a note. It involves hearing the note and then being able to reproduce it. The person singing needs to determine, by ear, what note needs to be sung. This can be challenging for beginners, but it’s a skill that can be learned in a matter of weeks although it can take several months to become