Song practice
Listen to a short phrase from a well-known melody, then sing it back on a scrolling piano roll.
Enable your microphone to get scored
Suede Sing needs the mic to score your pitch against the melody in real time. Audio never leaves your browser. You can also practice without a mic in listen mode — the guide melody still plays, just without scoring.
Audio setupDefault mic·Headphones
Sing into a better mic than the one your laptop lid picked, and every score gets more honest.
The songbook, one page each
Every melody here is public domain, and every page says why — plus its lyrics as transcribed, the key it sits in, its tempo, and the exact note range you need to sing it.
Free to sing (26)
- Twinkle Twinkle Little StarNursery · MediumC4–A4
- Ode to JoyClassical · EasyD4–G4
- Row Row Row Your BoatNursery · EasyC4–G4
- Mary Had a Little LambNursery · EasyC4–G4
- Frère JacquesNursery · EasyC4–E4
- London Bridge Is Falling DownNursery · MediumC4–A4
- Amazing GraceHymn · HardG3–G4
- Auld Lang SyneTraditional · HardG3–A4
- Home on the RangeFolk · EasyD4–G4
- Home on the Range (Verse & Chorus)Folk · HardG3–G4
- Yankee DoodlePatriotic · EasyB3–E4
- Old MacDonald Had a FarmNursery · EasyG3–C4
- Silent NightChristmas · EasyE4–G4
- When the Saints Go Marching InSpiritual · MediumC4–G4
- Down in the ValleyFolk · HardG3–E4
- She'll Be Coming Round the MountainFolk · EasyE3–C4
- Simple GiftsTraditional · HardG3–G4
- Aura LeeTraditional · MediumG3–D4
- Loch LomondFolk · MediumG3–E4
- Deep RiverSpiritual · HardA3–C5
- Danny BoyFolk · HardG3–A4
- ShenandoahSea Shanty · MediumC4–A4
- Scarborough FairFolk · MediumD4–B4
- Amazing Grace (Verse 1 & 2)Hymn · HardG3–G4
- My Bonnie Lies Over the OceanFolk · HardE3–E4
- Swing Low, Sweet ChariotSpiritual · HardA3–G4
Practicing songs with pitch feedback
Song practice is where technique either shows up or does not. Singing a known melody with live pitch feedback shows you exactly which notes and which phrases drift, which is information that no amount of listening back to a recording gives you as precisely.
Exercises isolate one skill at a time. A song asks for all of them at once, plus words, rhythm, and breath points that were decided by whoever wrote it. That is why a singer can score well on warmup patterns and still lose the pitch in a chorus — the demands stack.
The most common cause of a song sitting badly is key rather than skill. A melody written for a voice higher or lower than yours will park its most important notes right at your weakest point. Transposing it is not cheating; it is what every professional does, and it is the difference between a phrase you can perform and one you can merely survive.
Each melody here is transposed automatically into a key that suits your measured range, and your pitch is scored against the target notes as you sing. The result marks which phrases held and which came apart.
How to practice a song properly
The efficient order is deliberately not 'sing it top to bottom repeatedly' — that mostly rehearses your mistakes.
- 01
Get the key right first
Run the range test so the app can transpose into a key that suits your voice. A song in the wrong key will make every other problem look worse than it is.
- 02
Learn the melody without words
Sing it on a single vowel or a hum first. Words add consonants, jaw movement and meaning; stripping them out lets you fix pitch before anything else can interfere.
- 03
Isolate the phrase that breaks
The score shows you where accuracy fell. Practice that phrase by itself — a dozen focused repetitions of four bars beats a dozen run-throughs of the whole song.
- 04
Slow the hard part down
Take the difficult passage at a speed where you can hit every note, then return it to tempo gradually. Practicing it fast and wrong makes wrong the thing you know.
- 05
Plan the breaths
Decide where you breathe, and mark it. Unplanned breathing is where phrases collapse, and the decision is best made deliberately rather than in the moment.
- 06
Add the words back and run it
Only after the melody is secure. Then record a take and listen — the recording catches what you cannot hear while singing.
Pick songs that sit in your middle
The instinct is to practice the song you most want to sing, which is usually one built for a voice unlike yours. Starting in a comfortable range builds the technique that eventually makes the hard song possible.
- Choose melodies with a narrow range and stepwise motion before ones with big leaps
- If a chorus is a struggle every time, transpose it down rather than pushing to reach it
- Sing along with the guide melody before singing without it
- Do not judge yourself against a recorded vocal — those are comped from multiple takes and processed
Practice the transitions, not the song
Experienced singers usually lose accuracy at specific structural moments — the leap into a chorus, the phrase that sits across a register break, the long note at the end of a bridge. Those moments are the practice.
- Work the two bars either side of a register transition rather than the phrase as a whole
- Try the same song a semitone up and down to find where the melody sits best against your passaggio
- Use the take recorder's A/B compare to check whether a change actually improved anything
- Pro tracks pitch accuracy per note across sessions, so a phrase's history is visible rather than remembered
Should I transpose a song to fit my voice?
Yes — professionals do it routinely, and the original key is simply the key that suited whoever recorded it. A melody that sits well in your range lets you sing musically instead of spending everything on reaching the notes.
Why can I sing a song alone but not with the track?
Singing alone lets you drift into a key that suits you without noticing. Against a fixed track, the pitch reference is unforgiving. That gap is normal, and it is exactly what practicing with pitch feedback closes.
How long does it take to learn a song properly?
For a melody in a comfortable key, a few focused sessions gets it secure. Songs sitting at the edge of your range take considerably longer, because you are building technique at the same time as learning the tune.
Is it bad to sing along to recordings?
It is useful for style and phrasing but poor for measuring accuracy, because the original vocal masks your own pitch. Alternate: sing with it to learn the shape, then sing without it to find out what you actually know.
Why do I sound flat only on high notes?
Almost always support and register rather than hearing. As the pitch rises the note needs more consistent airflow, and a voice dragging chest weight upward tends to land just under. It usually improves from breath work and letting the tone lighten near the transition.