Melanie,

Firstly - I'm not a professional singer! I've always been singing, but not until now I've really started to focus on it.

I am, though, a professional musician. But mainly as a guitar player! So I'm not going to talk about vocal technique and such, cause I don't see myself as a guru in this field.

But, about pitch - that is somthing that you definately can learn. People claim to be born with perfect pitch, and that might be true, but as for me I've learnt pitch over the years.

Yes, you might be able to be born with it - as in, you can have an affinity for it, but in the end - in the long run - the only thing that really counts is persistence and will to continue learning. Talent is only something that gets you to a certain point faster than others - after that a fighting spirit's all that counts. Which means, everyone can get there.

What you're born with, is your natural tone.

But when it comes to pitch, that's something you definately train. Just like guitarplayers can pitch reeeeally badly when they bend strings. As long as you hear in your head where the right pitch is, you can train yourself to come closer to it.

I've learnt alot about pitch when recording and also when improvising - I'm still improving, but now I can safely say that I have a great sense of pitch. I hear when I pitch a few cents wrong when singing, and try to adjust it. One thing that really helps to improve this is, for me, to sing scales (gaaah, those **** scales!!) together with a piano at a slow tempo and try to mimic its pitch!
In this case, you're better off singing after a digital piano or sampled piano than the out of tune piano in the living room :)
This way you can train your muscle memory!

And lastly, this all is my uneducated view of the concept of vocal pitch! So it might be just total nonsense - I'm just writing down the thoughts about this that comes to my head in this moment.

Hi Fabes,
what you say def makes a lot of sense :) I have found that the best way to learn pitch is by just matching without scales. For me anyway. The problem with scales is that they just keep going and give you no time to actually hear the notes. Why I love Jaime's program is because it isolates the notes. I can actually hear them in my head now before I sing them. Learning guitar has also helped me with the pitches. But I think overall guitar is harder to learn than singing. I started 4 years ago learning guitar and still can't play a song. But I didn't know what I was doing until I had a few lessons recently.

If you love doing something then that makes all the difference. And having the right teachers.

Definately, you have to love it! Talent or no talent, as long as you love it you can be the best at it. Well, define "best", but anyone can really become a great singer if they just set their mind to it and keeps at it until they've reached that level. It's the lazy ones that falls behind in the end :)

Singing is a gift to me because I have pure fun with it!! I mean, what is more fascinating that producing beautiful sounds with your own unique voice?? Hearing your vocals on your own recorded songs?? Sure I play guitar too and pretty well, but to me, those kind of instruments will always sound more artificial than singing, which to me, is natural, organic, from my own body. I don't need anything else than my voice to make music, I can sing ANYWHERE, ANYTIME!! SUCH FREEDOM SUCH LIBERTY

In that view, yes it is ;)
Some people who don't have the passion and desires for music seem to think that it's a natural talent and there's something you must be born with since they apparently don't. If you must be born with it then I'd say the first thing is passion. This is soooo hard to explain to someone who doesn't understand. Like my mom. She played piano but never was great. She said she enjoyed it, but doesn't regret quitting. I tried explaining that it wasn't just lack of ability but more of wanting something so bad that you'll do ANYTHING to get it. That is what was lacking for her, no deep down desire. And no willingness to practice tons