Always a Little Sharp or Flat? Here’s How to Improve your Pitch Without Pushing

You’re halfway through your warm-up, trying to slide into that tricky passage—and your pitch? 

It’s starting to wander off... 

Drifting just sharp… or flat. 

And no matter how much you “try harder,” it never quite locks in.

Here’s the thing: inconsistent pitch isn’t always a musical ear problem.

In fact, more often than not? It’s a vocal efficiency problem.

If your vocal folds aren’t working together the way they’re meant to—if airflow isn’t balanced, or tension is tugging at your technique—your pitch will always feel like a moving target.

That’s where laryngeal stability comes in.

This kind of instability is super common. 

Especially in newer singers (but hey, even pros deal with it too). 

Your larynx—which houses your vocal folds—ends up chasing pitch as you sing. 

It reaches up when you sing high, down when you go low, and before you know it, your voice is doing a little cha-cha with every note change.

The result? Shaky pitch, breathy tone, vocal fatigue, and that slightly unhinged feeling when you’re just trying to stay steady.

So what’s the fix?

Back pressure. Balance. Straw phonation.

The Singing / Straw™ creates just the right amount of resistance to send energy back to your vocal folds. That back pressure naturally helps:

• Keep your larynx more stable and neutral throughout your range

• Reduce tension and overcompensation from surrounding muscles

• Improve control and pitch accuracy with less effort

It’s like giving your voice a balance beam to walk across instead of a tightrope.

One of my favorite exercises for this? The long scale with the straw.

In the video below, I walk you through exactly how to use it to develop better pitch consistency and help you train your larynx to stay steady no matter what note you’re on.

Watch the full breakdown here: Common Voice Issues (and how to fix them!) Part 3: INSTABILITY

Once you’ve nailed the exercise with a lower larynx, we play around with contrast—a higher, bratty larynx position—and finally, we come back to center. 

A more neutral, balanced sound where your pitch feels grounded, your tone feels clear, and your range feels way easier to navigate.

Want a pitch-perfect pairing?

Try our Singing / Straw™ Original Set—it’s the best starting point for singers who want to:

• Train pitch without strain

• Build confidence in their tone

• Smooth out range transitions

And if you want even more guidance, grab our Warm-Up for Better Balance Set. 

It’s designed specifically to help singers develop accuracy, agility, and consistency through targeted exercises.

Because you don’t need to push harder. You just need to train smarter.

Your not-so-basic vocal coach,
Whitney Nichole