Should this be happening?

[kidkage]

maaaaaaannnn.
I was humming along to one of my songs on my practice guitar which I keep tuned standard in E. My normal tuning is D#... But singing with the guitar tuned standard was easier for me . I was able to hold pitch so much better.

I thought it was generally "oh. well. we play our songs in D# live because it's easier to sing "

I'm . Why is singing in E easier for me?

(Now. I should point out that I don't write in 'notes' on guitar... I write in 'frets' . And I was playing the same frets on the E guitar as I do in D#)

Strange, strange, strange...

 

[guitarplayr82]

This isn't strange at all.

Depending on the song, playing in a lower key might not prove to be easier to sing in. Lower isn't always better, especially if the vocal melody is low to start with or if the singer feels more comfortable singing higher. I suggest you read this article on vocal fach: Vocal Fach The article talks about how some singers, even though they may have a tremendous natural range, feel more comfortable singing in lower keys. On this flip-side (and possibly in your case) singers with a lower/limited range might naturally want to sing at the top of their range because they like the way it sounds/feels. I can vouch for this. I have a rather low vocal range, but when I do covers I often shift the key of the song up a semitone or two so I can be more accurate with the notes I hit as I feel I have more control in the upper part of my range.

Here's a quote from the article I linked to: "It can be difficult on the voice for a singer to be singing as a lower-voiced singer when in all actuality they are a higher singer". In other words, regardless of the vocal range of the singer, some singers are naturally low-voiced and some are naturally high-voiced. You need to experiment and find out what is most comfortable for you. Don't hesitate to test your theory even more and put a kapo on the 1st/2nd/3rd frets of your E-tuned guitar and try singing the same song again. You may find that the higher you go (up to a certain point), the more accurate you are and the more comfortable you feel singing.

 

[grimtraveller]

There are musical mysteries I just don't understand. Once, I was doing vocals with two friends and we were doing this piece that had a convoluted melody, but easy to achieve. Then we treble tracked it. Now, I usually do the treble, double and quadruple tracks at different speeds so that when put back to normal speed you get a lovely texture of all these different voices. Each time we overdubbed to the original melody, it was easy, just a matter of moving up or down. The melody was the same, just a different key. But going down a semitone, the melody was really hard to get. It shouldn't have been and each time we recorded it, it was woefully out of tune. And none of us could figure out why. This was in 2000. I still can't figure out why. We got it in the end but we really struggled on the semitone down overdub. All the others were easy.

 

[gecko zzed]

I guess it's a bit like a car engine . . . it has a range from 0 to maybe 7000 RPM.

But there is a smaller range within that larger range where it is operating most effectively.

Some people have a range of three octaves . . . but not all of that three octaves is practically useable. There maybe just one octave in which the voice is operating most comfortably and with the greatest control.

That aside, there could be other factors at work.

For example, I have seen people practice a song, and they do it quite comfortably in, say, G. They get to play it in front of an audience, and they realise that the song is too low, and they need it to be up considerably, even as far as playing it in C. One reason is because the energy level playing live is considerably more than sitting around in a living room, and to harness that adrenalin, you need to give it something to work with.