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Learning to sing. Advice, please?

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Case:

--- Quote from: pwhodges on 26 Apr 2017, 16:17 ---But can you sing along in a not-so-beautiful manner?  This:

--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 26 Apr 2017, 09:02 ---an intermittent ability to match pitches,
--- End quote ---
suggests that perhaps you can't, or not reliably. 

--- End quote ---

Maybe it isn't so much difficulty with matching pitches? - maybe he 'just' has problems with that specific song, rather: How it starts?  It looks deceptively simple, but there's a bit of a trick to it: Look at the score (spoiler), it's 'just a major scale' - which IICIH probably 'knows without knowing' - but the entry into it is a bit tricky.

With the song in C-major, the melody starts E-G-C (a C major arpeggio, but started from the E, the third) then shifts to B, while simultaneous the chord played underneath changes to G maj (G-B-D) -  again the B is the third of that chord.

So the first two 'motives' (First 2 bars: E G C B//B C-A B-G) start on the third of the respective chord, and the emphasis is on the fourth beat, rather than the first - that's not that easy for an unpractised singer (I could imagine it's more confusing if he actually already has a feel for the key he's in - his feeling will tell him "major chord", while what he's supposed to sing is the third of that chord, instead of the root)

I have to admit that I also found that a bit confusing until I had a look at the score.

Is it cold in here?:
The pitch matching is improving, mirabile dictu. It was something worse than not tracking that particular song, it was and sometimes still is a matter of not tracking a scale.

This is an interesting experience. What I feel lighting up are the foreign-language areas of my brain.

Case, that's brilliant, and it's going to help! It's a communications handicap not to understand basic vocabulary like "major third".

pwhodges:
Do you have Android or iOS devices?  The Apple store has some basic but useful-looking apps, such as:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/relative-pitch-free-interval-ear-training-intervals/id315130701?mt=8
which I found by Googling "app for understanding musical intervals".

Is it cold in here?:
One of each. Thanks for the link, I've already started using it.

Tova:
I think that the advantage and disadvantage of being an adult music learner is that very clear idea in our head of what we want to achieve. It helps our focus, which only partly compensates for the lack of elasticity we had when we were young, but on the other hand, can cause embarrassment and frustration when we fall seemingly so far short. If you can accept that you will fall short for the time being and simply observe how close you are, then maybe you can profit from the advantages that come from that knowledge. Case, I think, had great advice. Keep it playful and don't try too hard, or you will strangle it.

The best thing you can do is practice at least a little every day. Trying to make up for lost days by practicing more on the other days doesn't really work.

I am not a singer, but as a string player, my teacher would have me practice intervals via what we would charmingly call 'vomits' - that is, sliding from one note to the other. The key, he suggested, was not to try to make little adjustments when you realise that you were a bit off. Just notice how much you were off and in what direction, then try again. In time you could simply do the shift without the slide. It seemed to work reasonably well, but I have no idea whether that approach works for singing as well. Maybe not.

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