Singing & voice glossary
Plain-English definitions of the singing and voice terms you'll meet across these guides — from cents to the passaggio. Each links out to a deeper read where there is one.
Pitch
How high or low a note sounds. It's set by how fast your vocal folds vibrate — faster vibration, higher pitch.
Intonation
How accurately you sing a pitch — how close you land to the note you're aiming for. Good intonation = "in tune." See how to sing in tune.
Cent
A unit for measuring pitch, equal to 1/100 of a semitone. Trained listeners notice differences of roughly 20–25 cents, so grading in cents gives a precise error signal to correct.
Semitone (half step)
The smallest step in Western music — from one piano key to the next, black or white. Twelve semitones make an octave.
Octave
The interval between a note and the next note with the same name (e.g. C4 to C5). The higher note vibrates at exactly twice the frequency.
Interval
The distance in pitch between two notes — like a major third or a perfect fifth. Recognising intervals by ear is the heart of relative pitch.
Vocal range
The span from the lowest to the highest note you can sing cleanly, written as two note names (e.g. C3–C5). Find yours with the vocal range test.
Tessitura
The part of your range where singing feels most comfortable and sounds best — usually narrower than your full range. It's a big factor in classifying voice type.
Register (chest / head)
A series of notes produced a similar way. Chest voice is thick and speech-like (lower); head voice is lighter and brighter (higher). See head voice vs chest voice.
Passaggio
The transition zone between registers, where an untrained voice tends to crack or flip. You smooth it by singing gently through it, blending into mixed voice.
Mixed voice
A coordination that keeps some chest-voice strength while adopting head-voice ease, letting you cross the passaggio without a break — key to singing high without strain.
SOVT (semi-occluded vocal tract)
Exercises that partly close the vocal tract — straw phonation, humming, lip trills — raising back-pressure so the vocal folds vibrate efficiently. A research-backed warm-up.
Relative pitch
The trainable ability to identify or reproduce a note by its interval from a reference note. This is what ear training builds.
Absolute pitch (perfect pitch)
Naming or producing a note with no reference. Rare and largely innate — and, happily, not needed to sing well. Relative pitch does the work.
Vibrato
A small, regular oscillation in pitch (typically ~5–7 times a second) that adds warmth and life to a sustained note. It emerges from a free, well-supported voice.
Timbre (tone colour)
What makes two voices singing the exact same pitch sound different — the mix of overtones that gives a voice its character.
Amusia (tone deafness)
The clinical, congenital form of "tone deafness," affecting only about 1.5% of people. Far more common is a simply untrained ear or voice — check with the tone-deaf test.