Vibrant Nation

With the popularity of television talent shows, singers who are tone deaf are frequently shown on audition reviews as their ’singing’ makes other singers sound so much better by comparison. We can see the happy expressions on the faces of the tone deaf singers turn to puzzlement as it becomes clear that those auditioning them aren’t enjoying their performance. Their inability to understand how far off pitch they were, and how awful it sounded to those who aren’t tone deaf makes for a humorous moment – but at their expense.

For those of us who aren’t tone deaf, our understanding of what the tone deaf hear when they are singing is incomprehensible. Both my mother and youngest brother were tone deaf, but loved to sing. My mother freely admitted that for her music fell into two categories, ‘God save the King’, (which for some reason was never updated to ‘Queen’) and ‘Not God save the King’. She would sing hymns with gusto, getting the words right, but to a melody that had little relationship to the accompaniment that was being played. I was torn between grimacing with embarrassment and admiring her ability to create and sing a melody that was at such odds with what everyone else was responding to. My brother would frequently and lustily sing along to music too, knowing what he was hearing was not what others were hearing, but enjoying the moment and the pleasure it gave him nevertheless.

Now I read that this wasn’t just a behavioral aberration, but that they were hot wired to be tone deaf. No matter how much anyone had tried to teach them to match pitch, there was little chance they would ever do so successfully except as an unrepeatable fluke.

I find this interesting as there are people who insist that anyone can sing in tune. Having come across people of all ages, who despite hours of individual and group teaching simply cannot match pitch, I find the brain wiring explanation to be much more likely. The sheer frustration on the face of tone deaf singers who are trying desperately to match pitch makes me know that this is more than a learning difficulty. Their desire to sing in tune is so strong that if willpower and determination were enough to overcome being tone deaf, they would be singing at the Met by now, not struggling to repeat the pitch of just one note.

After watching my brother, I realize that being tone deaf had absolutely no impact on his enjoyment of music. He didn’t know what others were hearing, so listened to and appreciated music in his own way. He had a huge CD collection that revealed a broad and eclectic taste in music, and he derived great pleasure from singing – more perhaps than those of us who were within earshot! From this unscientific study, it would seem that being tone deaf seems to be more of an affliction for those of us without it, than those with it – but either way, being tone deaf most definitely isn’t your fault!

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