1. A method for coding an audio signal for providing parameters indicative of an audio signal, the parameters comprising timewise unaltered pitch contour data containing a plurality of pitch values representative of an audio segment in time, said method comprising: creating, based on the timewise unaltered pitch contour data, a plurality of simplified pitch contour segment candidates, each candidate corresponding to a sub-segment of the audio signal, wherein each sub-segment has a start-point pitch value and an end-point pitch value and each candidate has a start segment point and an end segment point; measuring deviation between each of the simplified pitch contour segment candidates and said pitch values in the corresponding sub-segment; selecting, among said candidates, a plurality of consecutive segment candidates to represent the audio segment based on the measured deviations and one or more pre-selected criteria, wherein the start segment points of at least some selected segment candidates are different from the start-point pitch values of the corresponding sub-segments and the end segment points of at least some selected segment candidates are different from the end-point pitch values of the corresponding sub-segments; and coding the sub-segment of the audio signal corresponding to the selected segment candidate with characteristics of the selected segment candidate.