Believe it or not, most beginners do not sing on the beat. They may feel as if they sing on the beat but often are not. A matter of fact, I just performed with three Broadway stars this weekend who struggled with it. Truly staying on the beat takes time and practice.

Keep a Steady Beat: The first step to singing on the beat is to feel and keep a steady beat. It is one thing to tap your foot along with music, but can you tap your foot steadily while the room is silent?

If not, you have some work to do. You may hear good musicians choose to slow down and speed up during a song, but it is a stylistic choice and they are already able to keep a steady beat.

Buy a Metronome: The best investment in your endeavor to learning to keep a steady beat is a metronome. You can set it to many different speeds and either watch a flashing light or hear a beep played for every beat. Sing a song to a metronome as many times as it takes in order to keep time with the metronome. Practice ingrains the beat into your head. Later when you sing with a piano or other accompaniment, you will not rely on your instrumentalist to keep time for you.

Count: Great singers count. When practicing, they don’t just ‘feel’ it. There is no guess work involved. If professionals count, think how much more important it is for beginners. Just ‘feeling’ the music when first practicing, does not produce a good sound. Some singers rely on pianists or vocal coaches to teach them their music, but that kind of crutch takes a lot more time and energy in order to produce singing that falls right on the beat.

In the long run, spending hours learning to count is easier and a more efficient use of time than learning each song with the help of someone else.

On Dragging: In music, dragging means you are singing slower than the indicated tempo or speed. You may start singing fast and as the song continues you ‘drag,’ or slow down. Sometimes an audience hears it as an actual slowing in the music and other times it just sounds like the song lacks energy. Either way, the sound is not good. A singer should never rely on their pianist or other accompanist for their sense of beat. If they do, they are much more likely to slow down when a hard to pronounce phrase comes up or even when they sing softly.

A Note on Rubato Singing: Rubato literally means ‘to rob.’ Singers may speed up, in order to rob one part of a phrase and slow down another. The original tempo should begin again on all subsequent phrases. Often, I hear singers describe their performances as ‘rubato,’ when they just slow down and speed up whenever they feel like it. First of all, rubato is not appropriate in all musical styles. For instance, most musical theater, opera, or folk songs do not call for it. Even when it is appropriate, your music will sound less energetic if you don’t have a sense of forward motion or ‘drag,’ throughout the entirety of your song. Always remember when singing ‘rubato,’ you are robbing the phrase. Practice a song with a metronome before you take liberties with it, so slowing and speeding of the tempo is a choice rather than an indication you can’t keep a steady beat.

Why is Singing on the Beat the Secret to Fame? When you truly keep a steady beat, your music becomes thrilling and exciting to hear. Instrumentalists enjoy playing for performers who sing on the beat rather than relying on them to indicate time, so it will lead to more gigs and an easier time finding accompanists. Lastly, music is so much easier to learn for a singer that can feel the beat and sing on it. More music learned, means more opportunities to perform.