Pitch vs. Headphone level

A question for engineers, does headphone level have or could it effect a singers sense of pitch, I tend to sing sharp when the phones are cranked is this common

That would depend on what's coming through the phones, and at what relative levels.

I, personally, like to have the cans cranked, then take one off ear so I can hear myself in the room.

I need my cans CRANKED, with both playback and vocal.

My band practices VERY loud, actually, every band I've ever been in has been loud....but this current one...Jesus..

Anyway, the closer I am to performance/practice volume, the more comfortable I am. I actually base a lot of my pitch off the physical feeling I get from the volume, which is near impossible with headphones.

Despite being a rock/metal guy, I like the headphones just barely loud enough to hear the pulse of the music for timing purposes, but no louder. This goes hand in hand with the fact that I don't like a lot of the vocal mix coming though the cans.

But any louder than just loud enough, and I start getting annoyed because it distracts me from nailing the best takes I can get.

Part of it is that my technique is very consistent, independent of the instrumentation's volume level. I can get into it by just singing acapella, so any instrumentation is just a small bonus that quickly becomes a negative if it starts distracting me.

But like micwalt, I also will often take off one side of the headphones to hear the room sound.

To answer the original question, you certainly CAN go sharp if you are driven to push the vocals out at a louder volume than usual to keep up with loud music.

James Labrie of Dream Theater does it all the time live. Some shows, his highs are pretty much "in the pocket", and others he goes sharp in a cringe-worthy way.

I would bet money that during the shows where he goes sharp, the band is louder than usual and/or and his vocals aren't coming through the monitors enough.

As a sound engineer I can tell you that yes, having the headphones too loud will distort your sense of pitch.

This is because it gets to a point where adjacent hairs in your cochlea are vibrated also.