Can you improve a child's (musical) pitch?

[Claraetal]

DD (9) has been learning violin for a few years. She enjoys it and is hard working and serious about practice and has made great progress. However, she is still quite often out of tune when playing. Through practice and focusing on the tuning this does improve a lot for specific pieces she plays but we have to work on it all the time.

Getting to the point, if she sings she is wildly out of tune. I am sure she is not actually tone deaf but her singing is quite painful to hear.

Is there any specific training a child can have or do to improve their pitch? I feel that if it doesn't improve soon it will make making further progress with the violin difficult which would make her sad.

[Didiplanthis]

She sounds very similar to.my dd aged 8 also learning violin which she loves. But she sings like a strangled duck and cannot sing back a tune AT ALL. She does play out if tune sometimes but if I say is that right she can hear it isn't and correct it. I too have concerns about progress beyond a fairly basic level. However I know an extremely talented adult violinist who cannot sing a note in tune so thinking there may be hope !

[horseymum]

My son was like this with singing when about 7, but his piano teacher did loads of listening/ singing with him. Basically she played one note and asked him to sing it and kept getting him to listen first before correcting him, then doing a couple of notes with bigger intervals. He improved loads in a few months and for my husband's birthday he sang a whole song, as a surprise, perfectly in tune! He then got into the school choir and loved it, singing a wee solo in p7 and has a lovely voice. He doesn't have to adjust the pitch to play the piano but the careful patient work really helped his musician ship as it made aural/oral tests easier in exams.i think there may be some apps too but just the old fashioned listen and sing really helped!

[Flowershower]

My eldest is now gd 7 violin, couldn’t sing in tune when she started but now can carry a tune well. She struggles with aural tests more than her peers, but has always done well in exams despite that. Don’t worry too much - keep going with the violin, maybe do some singing - choir is good.

[Claraetal]

This is very reassuring to hear! I really like the simple idea of singing along to the piano too. Now to find someone who doesn’t need their old piano any more...:)

[Didiplanthis]

I picked up an old but really good keyboard in a charity shop for £15 aa

[Claraetal]

Didiplanthis Sorry to sound like a dinosaur, but when you say keyboard is that something digital? I guess that works just for getting notes but if I wanted DC to learn to play piano I was told you need a pressure sensitive one (you get a louder note when you press harder) and those seem super expensive.

[Claraetal]

Turns out I didn’t know anything about digital pianos. It seems graded hammer standard is the magic phrase.

[moneymoneymoneyneverenough]

I'm a singing teacher and when working with young students and female adults who have difficulty pitching I abandon the piano altogether and sing. Many people find it easier to pitch to a voice than to the piano.

[Pythonesque]

Lots of singing and lots of listening. Also, if her violin playing is always from the music, get her playing things that are easy for her, without looking at the music. That way she can listen to the sound she is producing, and focus on producing music. Trying to read from printed music can get in the way of listening to what you are playing.

I was tone deaf when I started the violin age 6, but a constant focus on listening, playing with recordings and with others, steadily improved my ear. The more you can immerse her in music the better, I say!

[rainbowfudgee]

Yes you can!

I'm a teacher and lead music at a primary school. A colleague said to me once, these children couldn't sing before you taught them, and now they can. I have a choir who sing brilliantly but the ability of the whole school during singing assembly has massively improved recently. I'm really proud of this as they genuinely enjoy it- we do lots of fun songs.

[Ishouldntbesolucky]

This is interesting. I'm an adult (obviously!) but am embarrassed about my singing ability - or lack of. I don't think I'm tone deaf, because I can hear if something isn't right, but I really struggle to pitch the notes when I sing. Perhaps a bit like the op's dd?

Do musicians on here think that anyone can improve their singing, or is it best done when you're young?

[horseymum]

You absolutely can improve, maybe find a teacher to have some initial lessons but get singing with a fun choir as soon as possible! I love singing! Others might have better advice but go for it I say!

[Claraetal]

So is the general advice to have singing lessons to improve your pitch instead of just singing along to a piano keyboard?

[corythatwas]

either singing lessons or just someone to sing with

I had completely abandoned hope concerning my own daughter, I really did believe she was tone deaf

but her pitch has come on a great deal since she started drama school; I believe she actually sang her last audition song in tune

it's the listen and sing, like horseymum said

[Seeline]

The other thing to consider is whether there is a problem with their hearing. As a child I had permanent chest infections, colds and coughs and couldn't sing in tune. Once I had my tonsils out, my health improved immediately and so did my singing as my ears weren't continually blocked.