At the recent Promise of Music Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the question above was posed to Dr. Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University (and best-selling author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music"). Dr. Levitin's response was interesting.
This is a paraphrase: Lack of exposure to music in utero or before age 8-10 can shut down the music circuitry in the brain. This, however, is extremely rare. Perhaps, 1 in 500? A person with true tone-deafness would find it difficult to differentiate between different voices, since the same perception measures pitch and tone quality! End of paraphrase.
So, although you may think that you are tone-deaf, you are more likely a member of the large group of people in need of training to develop and fine-tune your sense of pitch. If you get a chance to do so, you won't regret it!
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2 comments:
Scott,
Probably a better term is "matching pitch" or maybe "able to carry a tune". I know people who "think" they are carrying a tune because they perceive their own pitch (tones) are changing; however, this "tune" has no relation to any sort of constant key. Sometimes they can't even match the tune even if they are singing along to a melody.
Just as there is hand-eye co-ordination for some skills I think there are mouth (vocal production) - ear skills that you might either be born with or need some (or a lot) of training.
--Jim
Thanks, Jim. I agree that "matching pitch" or "comparing pitch" are far better terms. I use "tone-deaf" here because it was used in the original question and because it's so often used by people who don't understand the mechanics of music.
Being a music educator, I'm all in favour of training!
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