This is something that is more important to vocalists than you would think. Practicing basic vocal technique and knowing the words and melody of a song are all things that you should be doing to prepare for a performance. However, knowing what key you should sing a song in (whether the key is too high or low) can also make or break a great performance of a song. If you’re not singing in the right key, you can become nervous, overcompensating in other parts of your body–this can lead to not only intonation issues, but injury from strain as well.
1. Practice & Experiment
In order to know what key you should sing a song in, you should have a general idea and comfortability with your range. I say “comfortability,” because some singers that I have come across can give you the exact starting and ending pitches of their range, but have never actually sang through their whole range. In order to know and feel that, you should be practicing scales and singing songs that utilize different parts of your range regularly; both on your own and with a vocal instructor. If your goal is to expand your range, then practice exercises and songs that push you to expand that range. If you are very comfortable singing in the lower part of your range and you want to show it off during performances, practice exercises and songs that strengthen that part of your range. Point is, practice, so that you are comfortable enough to know what feels wrong and right with your voice.
2. Try the Song in Different Keys
Knowing the range of your voice, you can then test out several different keys for a song that you are learning. I would encourage you to learn the melody of the song like the back of your hand first so that you can easily move the whole melody up or down a half-step and sing through it, instead of having to re-learn the entire melody when you change the key (I, unfortunately, have made this mistake several times). A great tool to aide in this is the program, iReal Book–or iReal b, as many call it–which has a feature that lets you pick a certain key and it plays through the song chart for you so you can sing along. It’s available for iPad or iPhone too, so you can even be on-the-go while you practice!
3. Keep Two of the Keys For That One Song Memorized. The lower key may allow you to belt the melody at certain points (if you are able to do so without strain), giving the performance a different character than, say, a higher key, which could change the overall timbre of your voice entirely. I know several vocalists who have recorded songs in the studio in a higher key so that they can give a “wow” performance for the recording, and then sing it in a lower key during live shows for loyal fans. The more strategies you have that can aide you in connecting with your audience in different ways, the better.
I hope that this helps in trying to find the right key for a song. This is always the hardest step in the song-learning process for me because I always feel like I might have picked the wrong key to sing the song in. Remember to also have fun. Music allows you to connect with people and ultimately, whatever key you sing a song in, if you’re enjoying yourself, everyone around you will truly appreciate your performance too.