Finding Your Optimum Singing Pitch
Finding your optimum singing pitch starts with finding your optimum speaking pitch. You can move from singing to chanting to speaking and apply your same breathing technique and tone production when speaking or singing. In exploring chanting, you find the pitch that sounds the best in your voice, called the optimum pitch.
Your optimum speaking pitch, or the central speaking pitch that sounds the best in your voice, is usually where you say, Uh-huh. The pitch on huh works the best for most people. If someone asks you a question and you answer without thinking about what you’re doing, you probably make the tone on a pitch near your middle voice if you’re a woman and near chest voice if you’re a man. This is good.
The tone of the optimum pitch is important, not just the pitch itself. To find your optimum pitch, follow these steps:
Notice the second pitch that you sound for the huh of Uh-huh.
Say Uh-huh a few times and then move right into speaking by saying your name immediately after the huh.
Notice the pitch when you said your name. Was it one of the pitches in Uh-huh, or was it lower? If it was lower, try again and say your name on the same pitch as the huh.
Your optimum speaking pitch helps you find prominent vibrations and easy carrying power to your speaking voice. You can then take that to other pitches. If you aren’t sure what sounds best, ask a friend to listen or record yourself and listen back. It’s okay to explore different pitches; that’s the objective of the exercise.
Listen for the pitches that really buzz or really vibrate as you speak. The best speaking pitch isn’t the lowest or highest note of your range; it’s somewhere near the middle voice range for women and the chest voice range for men.