If you’re like me, you may have often been left wishing you had a wider array of songs to choose from. The overwhelming majority of songs are not going to be perfect for practice with your voice.A big reason for this is the key that songs are recorded in. Depending on the range of notes in the song (how high and how low the notes are) and where those notes fall within your range, the key of a song can make the difference between struggling impossibly and experiencing the thrill of singing. This is where a key change comes in!
This post will provide you with a walk you through on how to change keys of your songs to suit your voice so that you can use them to sing along to – free!
What Do I Need To Change The Key Of My Song?
Technology has come a long way in the past few years. Key changing used to have to be done manually to get decent results, but now the future is here! With a simple upload and download process Audio Speed Changer is the best free application we found for this process.
Before we get into how to use the website though, we will first go over key changes in general!
What Is Key?
The key of a song refers to the collection of notes (known as a scale) the song is based off of. The key of a song determines how high or low it is.
Why Change The Key of a Song?
There are multiple reasons to change a songs key, but by far the most common is to make a song sit in a more comfortable range for a singer. If a song feels too high on most notes, it may be a good idea to change the key to a lower one. Vice versa, if a song feels too low on most notes, it may be a good idea to change the key to a higher one.
How Do You Know What Key To Change a Song To?
While there is no perfect answer for this as each singer is different, there are some general rules!
Keys are changed in a measurement known as semitones. Semitones move a song up or down by one musical half step. A small number, such as -2 semitones is a subtle key change that moves a song just a bit lower. A bigger number, such as -8 semitones is a big key change that will sound significantly lower.
If a song is close but just a little out of reach a smaller semitone change is best. In general, key changing software will work better the smaller the key change.
If a bigger key change is needed, it may actually sound better to go in the opposite direction and sing an octave lower. For example a key change of -8 semitones would be actually the same key as +4 semitones (from C major 8 semitones down would be the key of E major, where as 4 semitones up from C major would also land us in E major).
How Do I Use The Software?
Audio Speed Changer is simple to use and produces great results!
Step One
Upload your song file or paste a Youtube link of the song into the Select Song section.
Step Two
Type in the amount of semitones you wish to alter the song. The website gives the option for decimal points, but for popular music just ignore that! To raise a song put a + symbol in front of the amount of your desired semitones, and to lower a song put a – symbol in front of the amount of semitones.
Step Three
Select the file type you want to song to be converted to. In most cases an MP3 file will work.
For key changes the conversion will turn out slightly better if you change the Algorithm Method to Frequency Based.
Step Four
Hit convert. Once you file is ready you will be able to download it.
Step Five
Press play in your favourite audio file player on your device and enjoy singing along in your new key!
Closing Notes
If you like to learn more about singing and what keys work best for your voice reach out to use today! We would love to set you up with a certified voice teacher to help you on your vocal journey!
