One of the biggest benefits of today’s article is that it’s an easy way to improve your singing performance in just a few easy steps, so read on.
Key Choice is EVERYTHING
Recently, I’ve been visiting songs new and old and concocting a list of 10-15 songs that I like and are exciting, both to sing and listen to. One of the big questions with each song is – what’s the best key to sing in?
Picking the right key, for the right song, for your voice will not just help you acquire the best quality for the basic singing of the song, but will naturally lead to style opportunities. But we’ve got to be honest with ourselves about where we sound good, rather than doing it in a particular key “cos that’s where the original artist did it“.
Q: Which key gives you most ease, least strain, and maximises time to think during singing?
It’s not just about being able to sing songs where the high notes sound effortless to the audience, we want them to FEEL effortless. We want the whole melody to feel easy from start to finish. We want to deliver it without strain, or worry about whether we’ll even make the top notes.
Good key choice will achieve all this, and give you time to think, so everything feels risk-free. We want you to feel like your voice is not going to throw you any curve-balls or any surprises.
Try it a bit lower
This key of ease is sometimes lower than where you might otherwise choose to sing the song. This will often mean admitting that a certain note in your range which is ready and useable for singing at home with no pressure, is actually not quite reliable enough for you to feel totally cool and comfortable live in any circumstances. Park your ego is probably the best way to put this.
The right key may even feel TOO easy if you’re used to jamming your voice with some aggression. Singers who get used to singing in exhausting keys often associate physical intensity – singing at their limit – with emotional intensity. We need to divorce these two ideas.
The benefit of this approach is you will sound AND feel like it’s barely any work for you (because it is). This in turn leaves you free to style as little or as much as you like.
Let’s assume…
…a singer has been singing a song for a while and is feeling good about it, but perhaps finds they still find the odd niggling doubt creep in as to whether they’ll “make it” on certain notes/lines. This is a sign they should try a couple of different keys to increase ease, reduce strain, and give themselves time to think. In such circumstances I usually find exploring keys 1-3 semitones lower than the original yield a good experience of what that ease should feel like. The more niggling doubts or worries a singer has, the lower they should stick the song.
NOTE: In less common cases, there are often singers with lighter voices trying to sound bigger than their instrument this is meant to be. As a result, the keys for songs sometimes need to be higher than they’re used to. But this is based on ease in the singers voice, and finding the best key for quality in their voice.
Take-home message
Above all, there are no prizes for singing something in the original key badly, the only prize is for sounding good and being listenable. That’s it.
As such, that should be your ultimate metric… even I regularly need this as a sanity check in my own song work.
If you feel this applies to you, try exploring a song you’re questioning in a few different keys, and see where you get to. Start 1-3 keys down, and play around.
Learn More: Related Articles
If you want to learn more about performing and improving your own performances you may enjoy these related articles:
Performance Anxiety: What is it, where does it come from, what can we do about it
Performance Workshop with Rhonda Carlson: Part 1
Performance Workshop with Rhonda Carlson: Part 2
Performance Workshop with Rhonda Carlson: Part 3
5 Simple Tips to Improve Your Performances
Pacing yourself: Micro- and macro- rests in songs and sets