How the singing score works
We track your pitch 100 times per second and split the melody into held notes (vibrato is smoothed out first, so it never counts against you). For each note we measure how close it sits to the nearest semitone — in cents, where 100 cents is one semitone. Because many people sing in their own key, we first fit the tuning grid to your notes, so singing slightly “between” A440 notes isn't punished.
Fitting a grid to any set of pitches gives an average error of roughly 20 cents, so we also compute that chance level for your exact notes and score how far below it you are. The curves were calibrated on 114 amateur karaoke recordings (MIR-1K, where our pitch error matched the dataset's hand-labelled pitch to within about 1 cent), 600 singing clips rated by human listeners (SingMOS) and professional singers (VocalSet). Speech is detected and rejected: only about 40% of speaking falls on held notes, versus about 90% of singing.
| Sub-score | What we measure | What scores 10 | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitch accuracy | Duration-weighted distance of held notes from the semitone grid, compared with chance | Error about a third of chance level (≈ 7 cents) | 40% |
| Note control | Slow drift inside each held note (vibrato excluded) | Under 6 cents of drift within notes | 20% |
| Range | Span between your low and high sung notes | 17+ semitones (about 1.5 octaves) | 15% |
| Clarity | Voice above background noise, mic quality | Clean, close recording | 15% |
| Dynamics | Volume shaping across the phrase | Natural loud/soft contrast | 10% |
What do cents mean for singers?
Trained listeners notice pitch errors of roughly 10–25 cents on sustained notes. Professional singers typically stay within about 10–20 cents on held notes; untrained singers often drift 30–50 cents or more.
What is a good singing score?
In our calibration, amateur karaoke singers had a median score of about 6 (most between 5.5 and 7.5), while the singing clips listeners rated highest averaged about 7.6, with the best around 8.5+. So a 7 means you're singing more accurately than a typical amateur, and 8.5+ is genuinely strong.
- Under 10 cents — studio-level intonation.
- 10–20 cents — confidently in tune; most listeners hear no problem.
- 20–35 cents — noticeable drift on long notes.
- Over 35 cents — “off-key” territory; practise with a tuner.
How to get an accurate singing rating
- No backing track. Music in the background confuses pitch detection — sing a cappella.
- Choose long notes. Ballads and slow choruses give the clearest pitch reading; fast rap or spoken verses don't.
- Warm up first. Two minutes of humming and lip trills usually improves accuracy by several cents.
- Stay in your comfortable range. Then try the vocal range test to find your extremes.
FAQ
Can an app really tell if I can sing?
It can measure the parts of singing that are objective — pitch accuracy, note stability and range. It can't judge tone colour, style or emotion, which are a matter of taste.
Why is my singing score lower than I expected?
Background music, a noisy room or fast passages without held notes lower the score. Sing a slow chorus a cappella, close to the mic. If you get a “sounds like speaking” message, hold your notes longer.
What is a good singing score?
Typical amateur singers score around 6. A 7 means more accurate than most amateurs; 8.5+ means accurate and well controlled — the level of experienced singers.
Is my recording stored?
No. Pitch and loudness are analyzed inside your browser. When a test needs speech-to-text, the clip is sent once to our provider and not saved by us. Shared links contain only your numbers. See the privacy policy.
Do you use AI?
Pitch detection and scoring run in your browser with signal-processing algorithms. Your singing is not sent to any server for this test.