Singing Family
In singing, everyone has a limit to how high a note they can sing or how low a note they can sing. Understand I’m not talking about pitch or being in tune here. I’m simply saying that everyone has vocal limits, high or low. Your highest note, your lowest note, and all the notes in between are what is known as your range.
Somewhere in the middle of all that is your natural note.
This is a different definition than the music theory definition of natural note. All of the theory geeks are protesting now, so if you really need to know the definition of the musical theory of a natural note, you can find that here. But let me save you the suspense. There are sharp notes (slightly high), flat notes (slightly low), and in the middle there are natural notes.
The definition that we are using here is YOUR natural singing note. I’m talking about the smack dab middle of your range. Everybody has one. And everybody’s natural note can vary slighly depending on the time of day, mood, or general health.
If you happen to be agitated, your natural note may be a bit higher than normal. If you have a head cold, it may be a bit lower. So, I guess you could say everyone has a range within their range. Call the natural note range, and that only varies slightly from a few notes up or down.
But generally in the middle is your natural note.
So how do you find it? Simple. Get to a piano or keyboard or online keyboard, follow the doctors orders and say ‘ah. Good. Now say ‘ah’ again and keep saying ‘aahhhhh’. While you are saying aahhhhh find the nearest white note down on the keyboard that matches it. Write that down using the following image as a guide. Then we will continue. Use the letter with the number, not the number by itself.
Piano With Notes
This image is right out of the book and the loan numbers are for something completely different regarding a cheaters way to do major scales from any note on the piano. So make sure you are only using the letter number combo as in ‘A4’.
Now, clear your mind by thinking of something completely different, like what you had for dinner last night. Really remember the entire meal. It’s important that you do this entire step. Then, repeat the first ‘ah’ step from above.
Do this 3 or 4 times and you will come up with a general average note in the middle.
That is your Natural Note!
With that note you can really dig into getting your singing in tune with the pitch drills in Singing From Scratch!
