Intonation in Singing

Intonation in Singing - Intonation is a term that communicates more with tone, stress, duration, and an attention towards the singing. Generally, intonation is called as a sentence song or a voice song of a person when speaking. However, in music intonation is thought as an accuracy in playing a particular tone. Our intonation is right when we can find the correct pitch of a tone.

A singer must be able to sing with proper intonation, either for higher notes or for lower notes. Proper intonation can produce a very catchy sound. Yet some times we often see a singer with improper intonation. This usually happens because:

1. Lack of practice, so that he is less mastering the song that he is going to sing

2. Doubtful, so that it create the feeling of anxiety when trying to reach high note

3. The improper breathing techniques.

4. Les sensitive towards the musical accompaniment

5. Having a difficulty in aiming to leap the right tone

In order to get a better intonation, we need to increase the musical intelligence and to practice controlling the breathing as well as to train the auditory sensitivity toward the tone.

In learning intonation, it is suggested that we practice accompanied by music instrument that has pitch control such as piano or keyboard in order that we can singing the right tone and controlled pitch. Nevertheless, if you think it is a bit difficult, we can use a recorded sound of piano that is proper to the vocal lesson need.

These are some of the ways to practice intonation:

a. Practice musical scale with its modulation

b. Try to sing some songs that is related to the steps of training

c. Practice the songs with some varieties of tempo.

d. Try to guess tones using close interval until distant interval.

Beside the voice pitch, intonation is also related to the stress that is put on words, some parts of the words, and even sentences. In the structure of intonation, there are three kinds of stress:

1. Dynamic stress (strong-weak), this stress focuses on the words that need emphasis. For example on the sentence "I buy this pencil". See these examples below, the same sentence but different emphasis:

• I buy this pencil (I am, not someone else)
• I BUY this pencil (I buy, not sell or not something else)
• I buy THIS pencil (this pencil, not other kinds of pencil)

2. Tone pressure, it is given on certain tones, especially higher tone. The stress or pressure given must refer to the song melody.

3. Tempo pressure, this stress or pressure is in relation with slow down or speed up the pronunciation. This stress is usually used to clarify what we mean.

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