Weeks 7-8 · range · glide → discrete landing
Slide to the note. Stop on it. Don’t scoop past.
The rule
pass: last 1s within ±35¢ · 7/8
The emerald trace starts on the cue pitch and sweeps toward the target line, then settles inside the green tolerance band for the final second — the landing window. The grey ghost shows the typical untrained miss: the pitch overshoots, sits sharp, and never settles. Only the last second is scored; you can scoop and adjust on the way in.
Hear it first
A clean glide that arrives and locks; then the same glide that overshoots and lands ~50¢ sharp — a fail. The third clip undershoots and lands flat, never reaching the target — also a fail. Train your ear to notice the difference between “close to the note” and “on the note.”
What’s happening.Real singing connects notes with portamento — a brief glide between target pitches. Cleanly “landing” means the cricothyroid stops adjusting at exactly the right tension; the most common failure is laryngeal momentum carrying past the target by 30-80¢, then a corrective swing back. The bel-canto term is intonazione di gusto — taste in intonation.
Why ±35¢ and a 1-second window. ±35¢ is the tightest tolerance a listener perceives as “in tune” on a sustained note — below it, even keyboards differ from each other. The 1-second window is long enough that brief wobble averages out but short enough that an unstable landing can’t fake it. Only the tail is scored; the glide itself is free.
Why this is the bridge. Landing precision is the prerequisite for two-syllable legato, intervals at speed, melismas, and harmonic singing against a drone — every lesson where the pitch has to arrive exactly. Practice the discrete stop here; the connected phrases later assume it.
Session ahead
8 glides · hear a starting pitch and a landing note, slide between them and rest · last 1s within ±35¢ · 7/8 to pass.