Pitch Detector: See What Note You're Singing
Sing or hum and see your note, how sharp or flat you are, and a live trace of your pitch. Free, in your browser.
Your audio is processed on your device and never recorded or uploaded.
Tap Start, allow the mic, then sing or hum one steady note.
You're singing
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Waiting
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Reference tones
Tap a key to hear the note, then try to match it. No mic? No problem: the keyboard works on its own.
What this pitch detector shows you
Sing, hum or whistle into your phone or laptop and the pitch detector tells you which note you're on, live. The big letter and number is the note name and octave in the usual piano naming, so C4 is middle C and A4 is the A above it (440 Hz). Under that you get the exact frequency in hertz, and a needle that shows how many cents sharp or flat you are of the nearest note.
The graph underneath is a pitch trace: a line drawing of your last eight seconds of singing, with a gridline for every note. A steady note is a flat line. A wobbly line means your pitch is drifting, and a line that sags at the end of a phrase usually means you're running out of air. Hit Hold to freeze everything and take a proper look, then tap it again to go back to live.
How to use it to sing in tune
- Start in a quiet spot. Tap Start and stay quiet for about a second while it measures the room's background noise.
- Pick a reference note. Tap a key on the keyboard to hear it. If you're not sure where to start, try A3 for lower voices or A4 for higher ones.
- Sing it back on "ah". Hold one steady note. Watch the needle and slide your pitch until it rests in the green zone.
- Check the trace. If the line wanders, take a bigger breath and aim for a straighter line. If it starts low and scoops up, you're sliding into notes; try landing right on them.
- Move around. Try the notes around it, a simple scale, or the first line of the song you want to sing at karaoke tonight.
A few minutes of this a day trains the link between what you hear and what your voice does, which is really what "singing in tune" comes down to. You don't have to be perfect. Even pro singers drift a little; what matters is hearing it and coming back.
What cents mean (and how close is close enough)
A cent is a tiny slice of pitch: one hundredth of a semitone, the gap between two neighboring piano keys. So if the needle says +20¢, you're a fifth of the way from your note towards the next one up. At +50¢ or −50¢ you're exactly halfway between two notes, and the detector flips to whichever note you're closer to.
The green zone on the needle covers 10 cents either side of the note. Inside it, you're in tune for almost any listener. Between 10 and 25 cents a trained ear will notice, but a karaoke crowd mostly won't. Past 25 cents it starts to sound off, especially when you're singing over a backing track. Sharp means a little too high, flat means a little too low, and most singers have one direction they drift when they're tired or nervous. This tool will show you yours.
Tips for accurate readings
- Find a quiet room. TVs, fans, traffic and chatter all confuse a pitch detector. If the note keeps flickering, it's usually noise.
- Turn music off your speakers. The mic hears the backing track as well as you, and it'll try to read both. If you want to sing along to a song, play it through headphones so only your voice reaches the mic.
- Keep one ear free. Noise-cancelling headphones make it hard to hear yourself, which makes it hard to stay in tune. Slide one side off, or take them off when you don't need a track.
- Sing "ah", not "ee". Open vowels give the cleanest sound wave. Hums work well too.
- One note at a time. A pitch detector follows a single voice. Chords, harmonies and two people singing at once will confuse it.
- Get closer. About an arm's length from your phone or laptop mic works well. Too quiet and it won't pick you up; too loud and the sound clips.
- Hold notes for a second. Readings settle after a moment. Short, fast notes are harder to read than long ones.
No mic? Use the keyboard
You don't need a microphone to get something out of this page. The on-screen keyboard plays any note from C2 to B6: use the arrows to change octave and tap a key to hear it. It's a quick way to find a starting note, learn what a note name sounds like, or warm up your ear before you sing. If your browser blocks the mic, the keyboard still works.
Find your range next
Once you can see what note you're singing, the obvious next question is how low and how high you can go. The vocal range test walks you through it in about a minute and tells you which voice type you're closest to. If you're curious how good your ear is without a mic at all, try the perfect pitch test: you hear a note and name it. And when you're ready to try it for real, find a karaoke night near you.