In a few weeks time, the children of a church choir I assist with will each be performing a solo hymn or song of their choosing to the rest of the choir. This is a pleasant way to end the year and is a concept of the youths' own minds. Tonight, a boy of 13 announced that he wanted to sing Pharoh Song from Joseph. We went into a room with a piano and I tried to teach it to him. However, we faced a fundamental hitch - the boy was not able to hold a note in a bucket, as it were. The song started on G#. I played him a G# and asked him to sing it back. He responded with an E-type-thing (as opposed to an E-type Jag) and despite my advocating all the obvious exercises, he simply couldn't pitch the starting note. Eventually, he sang the first verse of the song reasonably in tune, but it was a few keys lower than written.

Is there anything that can be done to assist someone with this difficulty, or is it simply a fundamental disadvantage of the boy's musical ear? Wisdom and banter alike will be greatly appreciated. Ta!

This doesn't sound like tone-deafness to me. It sounds like someone who's not used to controlling his voice to make it do the particular pitch he wants.

I've had people come to me with this issue. Over time we've been able to build up the range of notes they can sing on target straight away and to build up the ability to match to the piano rather than just to match their voice to mine (which they often find easier to start with).

It's a case of reiteration and encouragement (isn't all singing teaching?). Starting from notes they can manage to pitch correctly, and gradually working higher or lower in the voice. One thing that I found worked well was to get them to sing any note and then decide whether that was higher or lower than the target note I played or sang. They then could slide up or down as appropriate until they reached the target.

One girl who originally came to me with this issue can now pitch any note in her range with confidence, sing back notes from the piano and will be taking her grade 1 singing in a week and a bit's time

Thinking about the "matching pitch" issue... have you tried getting him to sing a note (any note) and then you match his pitch, with you both singing (if that's possible for you - depends on his age, the pitch of his voice and your vocal range)? Or with him singing first, you singing a different note, try that a few times with the occasional "correct" one from you and getting him to nod or smile or wave or something when you're both singing the same note.

You could also try playing/singing him two consecutive notes and getting him to tell you which one is higher/lower/if they're both the same, and then play/sing him a note and see if he can sing the same one back, if he misses it then ask him if his note was higher or lower and see if he can slide to the right note?

It's definitely true that people often find it easier to match pitch with another singer than with an instrument, even a piano - perhaps connected to the amount of time spent "singing along to the radio" etc!

I know its off topic but when my voice was breaking (changing, call it what you will) I really struggled with pitching to a piano (mostly a which octave issue), but could pitch to a voice and the singy bits of exams would have been much easier if it had been singing back in repsonse to the examiner singing.

If his rendition is reasonable and you are limited for time just play the accompaniment in his key. Ask him to begin the song and then come in after a few notes when you have decided in what key he is singing.

i agree with everything that's been said so far.
considering the boy's age, he might still have these problems for a while - it doesn't sound like tone-deafness, which is really rare, but rather than a coordination-problem. this is very common in both untrained singers and kids (not only boys) with breaking voices.
in these cases, notation should not be over-emphasised for a while. there are a lot of things an experienced teacher would try with a singer like this, but if time is limited, i would also recommend to just let him sing the song in his comfortable key/pitch.

I agree with all the previous posters - it's most likely that given his age he is totally unable to control where his voice is going - if the verse was reasonably in tune with itself, it's unlikely to be an ear problem and more likely to be a 'my vocal folds won't do what I want' - thing is, as the folds are growing and don't know what's happening, they 'panic' for want of a better word and this causes constriction around the larynx, which can force the singer to sing a different note to the one they're hearing, or indeed to sing slightly flat or sharp all the time. The problem which will only really be solved once his voice stabilises and he learns how to sing properly.

I'd say play it in the key he can sing it in and practise it lots with him in that key. Worry about the voice later on.