What the Pitch with Heather and Tom – Vocal Advancement Podcast #019

As voice coaches, we need to properly assess our students’ voices before we can devise effective lesson plans for them.

But what happens when you get a student who can’t match the pitch you want them to sing?

It’s an issue that comes up a lot in our chat box. Many voice teachers wonder if these students are “tone deaf.” They worry their students can’t recognize different notes or sing tunes accurately. This creates a lot of stress when they try to understand the student’s issues and come up with proper exercises.

When this happens, it’s important to have the right teaching tools ready to help students sing in tune. In this episode, IVA co-founder and mentor teacher Heather Baker shares the “pitching tools” she collected after encountering many “tone deaf” students in her classroom.

Join us as Heather reveals why the term “tone deaf” is such a misconception. You’ll also learn what the research says about pitch recognition and formation — and how popular video games can help students improve their pitching skills!   

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why the term “tone deaf” is so inaccurate 12:20
2. What “amusia,” the neurodevelopmental disorder that affects perception and production of musical sounds, really is — and why it isn’t a problem for most voice teachers 13:22
3. Why only listening to different pitches doesn’t help many “tone deaf” people match pitch 16:14
4. How growing up in musical or non-musical environments affects your ability to match pitch 20:18  
5. What the phrase “practice makes permanent” means when developing motor functions 21:30
6. Why listening to recordings of your own singing voice makes recreating notes easier 24:03  
7. Why accurately demonstrating singing techniques in front of students is so important 26:41 
8. How to pinpoint where a student’s pitching issues come from 30:07
9. What research says about taking the time to form a mental representation of a desired pitch before producing the pitch 32:42 
10. How the brain interprets feedback to create a more accurate pitch 36:56
11. Why nursery rhymes are used so often when training the brain to sing 38:53 
12. How playing the singing version of the “Guitar Hero” video game can improve pitching 40:40

Heather built her expertise in teaching by studying with some of the greatest music teachers in the world, including Seth Riggs, Kathy Kennedy, Dave Stroud, and more. Her clients include signed artists, songwriters, gigging musicians — and vocal instructors. She is also one of the 8 co-founders of IVA.