Flattitude

I have this problem that I think a lot of other singers have but I don't know quite how to correct.

When I practice my singing (which I record so I can check later) I'm almost always on key.

But during a live performance I'm almost always flat. It's really frustrating because I know I can do it correctly except when I get in front of an audience.

I figure it's part of stage anxiety but I don't know what to do to correct the problem.

Is it because I'm not taking as deep of breaths while playing live?

Or is there some other cause?

Any suggestions?

Its probably the acoustics of the live setting that is throwing you off. When singers are too use to a certain acoustic environment and then suddenly change to another one, the effect can be drastic. Since this will affect the way you hear yourself.

The main thing people do to remedy this is to have an adequate live monitoring system. Either stage monitors or in-ear monitors should help with this.

Alcohol!

Davie is probably right. Don't settle when it comes to monitoring. The louder you can hear yourself, the easier it will be to maintain pitch. Singers should no more be expected to perform without adequate monitoring than a guitar player without his/her tube amp of choice.

Nerves can also be a problem, as the throat/jaw will sometimes clench, but that usually produces tone rather than pitch problems.

Yup - not being able to hear yourself properly can not only lead to a bad performance but also opens you up to vocal damage since you can easily push your voice too hard just in order to hear yourself.