S.T.M.: I don't think it is a pitch problem, however, but more of a "music" problem. I am confident that I can hear the melody I am supposed to be singing accurately in my head, yet it does not come out of my mouth. 7/10 I can hear that I am out of tune (although I never used to be able to, before I saw my current- very patient- singing teacher). I can hear when other people are going out of tune easily and can tell the difference between two notes (not by name, but I can hear that they are different).

I can really relate to that. I have exactly the same problem, and it's also put me off contributing to singarounds (what with that and my nerves about playing guitar in public, I tend to be a complte mess at them!). I certainly don't have perfect pitch, far from it. And I have no idea what key I'm starting in.

For me it's "hit and miss" whether I start off in a key that I can accommodate the whole range of the song into...I often start off too high, and "squeak" the high notes, or too low, and find that I can't get down to the lowest low ones.

But as with you, my main problem is knowing the melody in my head, and hearing it come out completely wrong through the mouth, irrespective of whether I've chosen a key that I can get the full range into. There's one song that I want to sing unaccompanied that I've been practicing for literally months, usually in the car. I've also recorded me singing it at home and played it back several times. I can hit it just right about one time in 4 and it sounds *great* (to me, but also to others listening to the recordin, so I know I'm "calibrated" to what other people are hearing too). The other 3 times it sounds anything from "OK-ish" to "really ropey".

I don't know what to suggest, but as a fellow sufferer desperate to sing, I can only offer loads of sympathy and the knowledge that you're not alone. My sister and brother are the same, though my dad was an excellent tenor lead in a local operatic society, and my mum a pretty fair voice in the chorus.