I am sitting here at karaoke night trying my hardest to tune out this young man’s tone deaf singing. Then the thought occurred to me, why do some of us sound like a dying animal when we sing , and some of us sound like heaven’s angels.
Let’s see why…
Sean Hutchins a neuroscience researcher , at BRAM (International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research), suggests that our brain has all the tools necessary to “produce” a wide range of notes. According to Hutchins singing is a “complex emotion” especially “bad” singing , which is uncontrollable.
The problem is people who can’t sing are horrible at “pitch accuracy“, which is one of the three elements needed in order to be a “good singer” The other two are timing and note memory. Bad singers are good at the other elements , this is the reason , you recognize the song that they are attempting to sing. However, you may regret you allowed this tone deaf person to open their mouth. Being tone deaf is actually a condition , that goes by the name of amusia
Amusia is defined as ” the inability to recognize musical notes , or the ability to reproduce them” This condition could be another reason why you can’t sing. So maybe you should get diagnoised! In it’s more severe form people who suffer from amusia, can’t even hold a beat in their head without the lyrics being present. That is pretty severe in my opinion being as though I can’t sing at all but I know at least sometimes I can hold a beat.
My opinion on this singing matter, if you can’t sing … sing anyways because guess what WHO cares. As long as you’re enjoying yourself it is okay to sound like a tone deaf dying horse.
Not everybody can be a GREAT singer…
Her voice blessed my soul… so i suggest you click play…
I liked your post! I consider myself an okay singer and earlier today when I was researching blog topics. I learned that people can actually learn how to sing. Like you said in your post, it has to do with timing and note memory. However, singers can also learn how to focus their breathing and they will improve.
This is really an interesting posting, since I am a person cannot sing very well. This worries me a lot because I always go to karaoke with friends. I looked up some tips about how to improve singing voice. Sometimes people cannot sing well because they breathe incorrectly. Our vocals are mainly dependent on how we breath. And in oder to breathe correctly, we need to train our muscles. Though singing is not as tiring as doing sports, we do need them a lot when singing! Finally, I agree with your point, compare to the quality of how we sing, the more important thing is we enjoy singing!
I think this was a really nice post. I think it’s interesting how you mentioned, that even tone deaf people should sing if they want to. There’s actually work done showing that singing makes your happier. A recent study showed that singing released oxytocin, which can be linked to forming trust and relationships. It showed that singing in a group can lessen loneliness and depression. So it is good to go sing (even with your tone deaf friends)!
I wonder if hearing yourself can make an impact on how you sing? Whenever you watch a live concert, you can see that the artist all have ear plugs. This could be affiliated with how loud the stage is, or could this have to do with hearing yourself while you’re singing? Its possible that hearing your own voice will compromise your natural singing ability.
I never knew there was an actual name for being tone deaf! I think it would be interesting to look into what makes a person a good singer too. As a singer myself, I heard throughout my training that part of the quality of one’s voice is determined on the bone structure of his/her face. This might be something to look into. Also, why are people tone deaf? Is it a hereditary trait or does it happen for some other reason? Is there any way to help people who have this problem or are they forever stuck with it? Perhaps they can be trained and taught to be able to keep a beat. I know a few people who could benefit from getting help with their singing problem.
Every single time that I start singing I get angry because I know that I am an awful singer. This does not stop me from singing to any song that I can anywhere that I am. I didn’t know that being tone deaf was a real condition and now I can self diagnose myself with this condition!