How to Improve Intonation?
In this post, I’m going to talk about how you can improve intonation. Either you're a singer or an instrumentalist everything I'm going to say will apply to you.
In very few words, I can say that the only way for us to memorize a melody long-term so we can effortlessly sing or play it on pitch, is by memorizing the contextual sensation that each note assumes within the key implied by the melody.
Okay, that might be a bit difficult to understand so let me explain everything in a much deeper and understandable way.
Clarification for singers - vocal technique vs intonation skills.
Let’s clarify an important thing for singers especially: Intonation in singing is not only about vocal technique, but ear training skills also have a really huge impact on your ability to sing in tune. If you're going to develop vocal technique, that's perfect, it will be helpful to you but that's not all; Ear training skills are also crucial for you to be able to sing on pitch.
You can have perfect vocal technique but if you have difficulties creating a precise mental representation of the notes that you need to sing, that is obviously going to have a very negative impact on your ability to sing in tune.
So let's now talk more specifically about how intonation works and how we can develop it.
How does our melodic recall mechanism work?
First of all, it’s important to understand how the melodic recall mechanism works.
This is the perceptual mechanism that we use every time we recall a melody.
No exact pitch memory.
It’s important to understand that we don't have exact pitch memory. This means that when we listen to a melody, and we try to memorize it, we can't really memorize the exact pitches included in it. So if the notes played are C, B, A, etc. we don't need to try to memorize the exact notes.
That’s because pitch memory, it’s not stored in long-term memory. In other words, we can retain the exact pitches of the notes for a short amount of time only. Then, as soon as we think of something else, we tend to lose the exact pitches of the notes.
Just to clarify, there is one exception to this rule: People who have perfect pitch can, of course, retain the exact pitch for a longer time, because they feel each exact pitch is different from one another. In case you don't have perfect pitch (most people don't have perfect pitch) you can't do that. It’s impossible for us that don’t have it, to memorize the exact pitch of the notes and retain it long term.
So trying to do that will only cause you a lot of frustration, and no results.
Don’t think of intervals when memorizing a melody.
Another ineffective approach that people adopt when memorizing a melody with the goal to sing or play it on pitch, is memorizing each interval in between the notes. That's another thing that will cause you a lot of frustration because thinking of intervals doesn't take into account the context in which the melody is played in. In other words, if you think of intervals, you don't take into account how the sound of the key of the song influences your perception of the notes.
As we’ve already discussed in many other videos on our youtube channel and other posts in our blog, the same interval can feel extremely different, depending on the function that the 2 notes assume inside the key.
For example, let's say that we are in the key of C major: If we take the major third interval that goes from C to E, it will sound totally different than the major third interval that goes from G to B because the first interval starts on the tonic and goes on the major third of the key and these 2 notes have a very stable sound. On the contrary, the interval from G to B has a very different sound because the notes are the fifth and seventh degree of the scale, so their sound is really unstable.
You can feel a better explanation of that in this video.
That's a very simple example that explains why, in a real musical context, the same interval can assume very different sounds and convey very different sensations. That's one of the biggest problems of interval thinking.
There are lots of other issues with intervals, I made a specific post and video on that.
How to properly memorize a melody so you can sing it on pitch.
The proper way to really internalize a melody so that it will become second nature for you to sing or play it without any pitch issues is to absolutely take into account the harmonic context in which the melody is played in and internalize the sound that each note assumes within the key.
That's not just my opinion, there are real scientific studies that show that our ability to recall melodies is 100% dependent on our ability to internalize and memorize the harmonic context in which the notes are played in. This is shown, for example, in the study "immediate recall of melodies" from Sloboda and Parker.
I've already talked about this study in a previous video related to "short-term musical memory" that you can find here.
This study clearly shows that the first task that needs to be accomplished, in order for us to be able to properly recall a melody, is "retaining the mental representation of the tonal structure implied by the melody".
In more simple words, when we listen to a melody, we automatically feel the tension and resolution sensations that are implied by that melody. That allows our mind to create an abstract representation of the key implied by the melody. Basically, we can feel the gravitational center (tonic note) that attracts all the notes that are included in the melody. The gravitational center is the note that gives us the sensation of total rest, and that note by itself identifies the key. Establishing and retaining this abstract idea of the key in your mind is of crucial importance in order for you to properly retain a melody and sing it on pitch because this allows you to properly feel and internalize the sensation that each note included in the melody assumes in the context of the song.
This way, you can feel that one note assumes a feeling of resolution, another note has a feeling of tension, another note has a stable but sad feeling, etc. Then once you've developed a very precise mental representation of the sensation that each note has, you can very easily sing it back on pitch because you automatically know when a note "feels right" or "feels wrong". Indeed, at that moment, it will be much more difficult for you to sing or play it off-pitch, because then it would not correspond to your mental representation of the melody. It would be like saying that you're turning left when you're actually turning right, once you know the difference between left and right, it's totally unnatural to do so.
So the only thing that really allows us to memorize a melody long-term without issues is memorizing the contextual sensation that each note assumes within the key implied by the melody.
This contextual sensation that the note assumes inside the key is what I call the key's color of the note, you might have heard it in other posts from this blog or videos from our YouTube channel.
The key's color of a note is the specific sensation of tension or resolution or everything in between, that the note assumes inside the key, and that's dependent on the function that the notes assume within the key. For example, the first degree of the major key has a very stable sound, the seventh degree of the major key has a very unstable sound, and all the degrees of the key have their own specific sound. We can internalize these sensations and that's the only way for us to memorize and retain a melody long term so we can reproduce it without any pitch issues.
If you've already seen other posts or videos from us, you've probably noticed that working in a tonal way, is really the key to properly improve every aspect of your musicality. You've seen me talking about short-term musical memory, about how to figure out melodies by ear, how to figure out chord progressions by ear and everything comes down to working and thinking in a tonal way, in a contextual way.
That's not a coincidence, working in a tonal way, is really the key to developing an intuitive connection to music.
Developing relative pitch skills is like learning a language. The way to learn the language of music is to work in a tonal way and always take the context into account. That's because the context influences our perception of the notes a lot, as it's clearly proven by multiple scientific studies. You can find a better explanation in this video.
Intonation is a feeling-based skill.
It's very important to understand that intonation is a feeling-based skill.
So once you have a precise mental representation of how the notes should sound, you will feel whether a note is sounding on pitch or a little bit off.
You can realize that a note is off-pitch because what you're hearing doesn't match your expectations, and it feels like there is something wrong with it.
In order to have some expectations on how the note should sound like you need to have a mental representation of the melody. The more precise the representation is, the more precise your expectation will be, then even the slightest difference in pitch will seem to you like a noticeable difference. That's what we want to achieve.
By facing ear training in the way I've previously outlined, you can really form a very precise mental representation of the notes so that, as soon as a note is slightly off pitch, you can immediately realize that and you can correct yourself.
Then by correcting yourself over and over, you will get used to singing or playing the notes on pitch.
Either in singing or playing an instrument, you can't improve your intonation skills if you don't have a precise mental image of the melody that allows you to feel when you're off pitch and consequently allows you to correct yourself. If you don't have this precise mental image, you can't even understand when you're going off pitch, so you can't correct yourself and without correcting yourself you're not going to improve at all.
That's one of the most common mistakes people make when practicing music in the beginning, they overlook the importance of ear training and the difference that proper ear training makes in the long term. Ear training allows you to develop a much deeper level of awareness that is the underlying factor that makes the difference between a great player and a mediocre one. The better your mental image of the sound you should produce, the easier will be for you to find out the mistakes you make and correct yourself. Correcting yourself over and over is what's going to make a real difference in the long run.
Music theory knowledge is not important at all in developing intonation skills.
Music theory knowledge is not important at all in developing intonation skills.
Feeling and internalizing the sensations that the notes assume within the key is totally independent from the rational understanding of music theory that you develop in music school.
You can just form precise images in your mind of these sensations, even without knowing anything about music theory. These sensations will still guide you in properly recalling the melody without singing notes that are off-pitch.
That's why you see people being able to sing, even though they don't know anything about music theory. Basically, they've just internalized the sensations that I'm talking about by singing, by playing music, by listening to music, etc.
So they can even not know what a chord is, or what an interval is while having great singing skills. That's because you don't need to know anything about music theory, intervals, or other stuff in order to be able to feel the sensations that are inherent to music, you can just listen to music and feel them.
How to develop intonation in the fastest and easiest way possible?
That being said, it's very important to clarify that developing great relative pitch skills doesn't naturally happen to everyone. That's not too bad because with proper training you can develop these skills independently from your current level, from your age, or whatever. You just need to be committed to properly follow an effective ear training program that will help you to gradually develop advanced skills, starting from your current level.
As we've seen not all ear training methods are effective and not all ear training methods will really help you in the process of improving your intonation.
That's why we've created an entire course including a very thorough step-by-step path that will allow you to effectively develop advanced relative pitch skills independently from your current level (you can start from totally zero skills). Our course is entirely based on the scientific findings and general principles you find outlined here and in the other blog posts or videos we've published online. Other than that, it also includes a lot of audio and pdf exercises along with detailed explanations on the thought processes to adopt when practicing each exercise and dealing with different ear training tasks.
If you carefully follow the material and detailed explanations included in our course it's literally impossible for you to fail. If you're serious about music, if you really want to develop great relative pitch skills and consequently great intonation skills, subscribing to our course is the best choice you can make. It will allow you to focus only on the exercises that are adequate to your current level and improve from there. This way you'll avoid struggling and wasting time on ineffective exercises or exercises that are simply too difficult for you right now. That's the easiest and fastest way for you to develop great relative pitch skills.
Free Intonation Training for Singers & Instrumentalists
For a free comprehensive introduction to our methods and techniques, and how they allow you to take your intonation skills to the next level check out our FREE Intonation Training. In this 1.5 hours introductory lesson, you’ll learn the skills necessary to develop your inner ear and discover a science-based model that shows you how anyone can develop great intonation skills, no matter their age or current level.
Whether you’re a total beginner who just wants to get better at karaoke, or someone who has struggled to sing or play in tune for years, you’ll learn how our methods can help you improve your pitch and intonation. You’ll also see how hundreds of other students were able to develop their musical ear, starting from scratch.
You’ll gain an understanding of your current level, practice lots of different exercises, and take home actionable steps to work on in your own practice.
On this page you can check out the amazing results that our students are getting after following our indications.
Check out our youtube video on "How to improve intonation?".
