Stage fright can come from wondering what’s going to come out of your mouth when you begin to sing. If you do not have a solid technique to work from – a step by step process that gets you the result you want, then it can be very scary to sing.

Do you tighten up when you know the high note is coming? Do you drop down into the throat for a low note. Do you become thoughtless with the pitches in a comfortable range? If you answered, ‘Yes’, to one or all of these questions, then you are like most inexperienced singers.

Here’s a great vocal exercise that will make your singing more reliable. It’s step #4 in the Sing Like You Speak ™ vocal method and requires that you respond to pitch instead of anticipating how to get to the next pitch.

Most singers make some sort of adjustment in the throat or vocal tract to accommodate pitch. The truth of the physiological process that produces pitch is:
1. Your ear hears the pitch
2. Your ear sends that signal to your brain
3. Your brain sends a signal to your vocal chords and vocal tract
4. The pitch is perfect

Singers like to ‘help’ with the above process by getting involved physically with creating a pitch. The only thing you can really do to help is to stay out of the way and let the natural process take over. That is why I developed Random Pitch Exercises.

Random pitch exercises, with practice over time, rid your mind and body of the idea that you need to do something magical or unnatural to produce a wide range of pitches. Just open your instrument when you hear the pitch and let your voice respond honestly without fear or physical anticipation. Leaving pitch fear behind increases the accuracy of your pitch – because you are not listening to the fear messages in your head, but to the music. You are simply responding instead of using physical effort to “create” pitch.

Here’s what you do:
1. Play a pitch, any pitch, on an instrument
2. Without thinking about it too much, say the word ‘simple’ on that pitch
3. Play another pitch
4. Respond to that pitch by saying ‘simple’ on the pitch
5. Repeat the above being aware of how you are either ‘helping’ or simply letting your body – the perfect musical instrument – respond honestly to the pitch.

Over time, this exercise will rid you of pitch fear and strengthen you connection and accuracy of pitch. Have fun with the exercise and do it without judgement on your part.

Want more singing tips? Visit SingLikeYouSpeak.com

About the author

Sally Morgan is a professional vocal trainer with over 30 years of experience. Sally is also the creator and author of SingLikeYouSpeak(TM)!

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