I am TONE DEAF

“I am tone deaf.  You are non-auditioned, but you don’t understand… I am TONE DEAF! DID YOU HEAR ME?  are YOU deaf? I am TONE DEAF!!!!!!”

Tone deafness: Definition (from Wikipedia): “Tone deafness is the lack of relative pitch, or the inability to distinguish between musical notes. Being tone deaf is the difficulty of being unable to correctly hear relative differences between notes that is not due to the lack of musical training or education.”

I am going to challenge this notion that tone deafness is something innate that is “not due to the lack of musical training”.  Do we all have different levels of talent with music? Yes.  Do we all have different levels of talent with anything? YES. Some of us a mathematical, others are kinetic, some are intuitive, others are logical.   I admit it, I am not a natural talent when it comes to gardening.  Does that mean I should never pick up a pitch fork or a flower bulb? “Oh but, I am completely agrnonomically challenged”…

There is this fear in music of being ridiculed for being “tone deaf” so those who think they are, are very quick to be self depricating, so as to avoid embarrassment.

Having worked with people over the years who think they are “tone deaf” has made me realize that this is an over-diagnosed symptom.   It is one that comes from lack of musical training, specifically vocal training, not from a innate inability. This then develops into a full fledged insecurity, mental blockage which can often last a lifetime.

I have what is commonly called as “perfect pitch” – “absolute pitch” is the PC word… not a blessing but a curse in many ways for musicians.  People confound this with great musical ability when really it is simply the ability to recognize frequencies as certain pitches. People used to always say to me  ”sing an A”… I rarely could hit it accurately.  Why? Because singing an “A” actually  is a different skill altogether. That involves a muscle memory in the voice, I would imagine most opera singers could do this without having perfect pitch. I can recognize pitches the way others recognize colour.  But does recognizing colour make us all artists? No. Neither does perfect pitch make one a good musician. Sure I flew through ear training in university, but to be honest I have met pop, folk, gospel and blues singers who have better natural ears than most of my university colleagues,  who do not have “perfect pitch” nor do they have a theory degree in music.

I was at a workshop recently where someone said to the clinician, “I am tone deaf”… the voice teacher asked this person to sing 5 notes, C, D, E, F, G… the person sang C,C,C,C,C… he then whistled 2 notes and said “can you whistle those notes?”… the person did just so, perfectly in tune.  The teacher then said “well, if you were indeed tone deaf, how could you have known to match those two notes?”.  This got me to thinking that we often as musicians and teachers confound the concept of tone-deafness with lack of musical talent.  When really… the ability to replicate pitch is only a skill.  Some of us have better skills and some of us have lesser than skills.

Musical pitch replication and musical talent are not synonymous. This is why I do not audition, it is not to fill my choir with “numbers”.  Personally I would much prefer to have lively people with great spirit and enthusiasm, and who love to sing in front of me each week, (many of whom by default are fabulous singers)  than those who I have screened to have a skill which is irrelevant to the act of “Playing music”.  I do however understand why some choirs audition and that there are all different levels of choral singing, some of which do not lend themselves to having untrained singers.  I am not criticizing auditioned choirs in any way. My intention here is simply to say that “tone deafness” should not be a label applied to people which then allows us to dismiss them and not give them permission to enjoy singing, and learning music.

Playing music should be just what it is… “play-ing”.   As a result people have told me that singing has transformed their lives, that it is only because I let in the “tone deaf” that their lives have been altered, they have sought out singing lessons, and improved to the point where they now could audition for an auditioned choir and would be welcomed in with open arms.  My job is to bring out the best in each singer regardless of musical training and skill.  Music is all about passion, love, and joy, and skill can be developed over time.  Passion is far harder to come by.