A question for people who can’t sing….

Interesting about the accents. DD is a good singer and could sing in tune even as a toddler. She is also very good at accents. My theory is that it’s listening/hearing that is most important- if you’re hearing it ‘properly’ you’re more likely to be able to reproduce the sound.

I'm quite aware I can't hit a lot of notes when I sing, especially higher ones. I'd love to have a good singing voice, but at 62, with a deviated septum, I can't even breathe properly to sing. I can't whistle either, and I have tongue tie that was never corrected. I don't know if that's in any way connected?

In my head I can sing, & I think I can hold a tune in a group (maybe I can't?) but if I hear myself sing it is definitely off key.
I learnt the piano as I child & could sing the next note so I think I can hear tunes ok? I wouldn't know what key anything was played in. I think I can hear middle C in my head but suspect I wouldn't know it I'd someone played it

I am not unmusical. I can play two instruments.

I hear when the notes sound correct or not but that doesn’t mean I can replicate them vocally.

I can sing something like Happy Birthday well enough, but I can’t reach up or down an octave, I just don’t appear to have the instrument.

Members of my family sing well and one of my DC can sing, the other (who also plays an instrument ) got my vocal skills.

I have no idea how middle C sounds. If I heard it then I wouldn’t remember what it sounds like. I can’t replicate a tune. I guess I am tone deaf.

I'm musical in that I used to play instruments and can read music, but I have a flat singing voice with very limited range. I really thought I sounded OK until an ex boyfriend and I taped ourselves (I am that old) doing a 1950s songs medley (me singing, him playing the guitar) and it was truly awful - so bad my mum couldn't stop laughing. Hurtful at the time, but actually completely justified.

Also, I hear songs in my head constantly, love to sing, and have a great memory for lyrics. But the 'music' I hear in my head is just the vocals, I have no ability to remember and imagine musical notes. I do recognise songs I know from the intro, I'm not tone deaf, but I couldnt hear it in my head or hum it. I've just realised that things like theme tunes - eastenders or the simpsons, I can hear in my head, but only as my voice going 'Dum dum dum dum' not as the actual music.

This is interesting, I've never given it this much thought before!

I also can’t identify accents. Or voices on the phone. Nice know I’m not alone.

I know what middle c is - I had piano lessons for years - I was no good because I'm not very dextrous or co-ordinated but if I hear something I can, through trial and error, replicate it by picking it out on a keyboard.

It's just that my voice doesn't connect with the thing in my brain that can replay and recognise musical notes.

I can sing competently, and I could give you an approximation of a middle C, but it wouldn't be accurate. When sight reading, I sing by interval (if the first note is a C, and the next an F, if you give me the C, I can get the F right). Having perfect pitch and being able to sing are definitely different things.

I'm a singer, have been for 30 years. I always used to think that singing in tune could be taught to everyone. I do now know someone who has had private singing lessons for a couple of years and they still struggle to come close to hitting the right notes. They know they are wrong but can't correct it. It's an interesting concept to me because I've always been able to sing well. I'm from a very musical family and learned several instruments, but reading here, there doesn't appear to be a correlation there.

I am not musical but I know how to sing in tune. I used to learn the piano and melodic repetition (or echo singing) in the ABRSM aural tests was one of my strongest suits. I sucked at most other things.

My husband cannot sing but he thinks he sings great. It sets my teeth on edge and curls my hair. So he is banned from singing in my presence. Especially in the car.

Exactly.

I did several grades of piano. I know how something should sound. I can not physically make it come out of my mouth. Which was why I always got terrible marks in the aural
part of the piano exam which annoyed me as I wasn’t there to sing!!

I’m not tone deaf. I can hear them all and love music.

But my voice doesn’t do those things.

I can’t match the sound in my head to what comes out of my mouth. I can’t match notes either - I can play very basic guitar (and piano, and bagpipes) but I can’t tune an instrument as I can’t tell if the note I’m playing matches the one on the tuner. I don’t even know if I’m meant to tune higher or lower as can’t hear what way the notes are going. Ds has perfect pitch and is very good at accents.

When I think I'm in tune, I'm actually a little off, according to musical friends, but I also can't always produce the note I want to and end up very off, I can tell I'm off then but can't correct it.

I can hear music very well and could guess notes etc but I can’t make my voice replicate it!

I can’t sing a note, and I wouldn’t know a middle C from a bowl of porridge.

I have long since stoped inflicting my attempts at singing on others ; no karaoke for me, thank you. When I’m singing along to Radiohead in the car I know
I sound awful but it’s just me so who cares.

People say I have a nice voice when I sing and it’s in tune but I couldn’t tell you what each note is called.

I played instruments growing up and could read music then but I’ve forgotten it all sadly.

I couldn’t tell you what middle C should sound like but could replicate it if you played it. Does that mean I’m at least a little bit musical? 😁

In my head I can hear a middle C on a piano. But I just can’t understand how I would make that same noise. I used to play the flute and couldn’t tune that either - whether it was the teacher using the piano or the oboe in the orchestra - as, to my mind, the sound my flute makes is a totally different sound to the piano or the oboe.
I am also rubbish with accents. I might not even realise someone has a strong accent. If I do realise, I can’t place it. To my mind, someone from NZ, Australia, Canada & South Africa all sound the same. On the other hand, I do sometimes inadvertently mimic someone. An Irish lady has joined my team about a month ago and I have realised I am using a couple of her typically Irish turns of phrase and am now really concentrating on not doing some sort of bizarre hash of her accent without meaning to.
I strongly suspect I am AuDHD and wonder if that is linked to it somehow.

Interesting that people are mentioning accents. I'm not bad at accents, I can do quite a few. I can also do decent impressions of celebrities.

It really does seem for me to be an isolated 'missing connection' between my brain and my voice when trying to sing, that doesn't affect other things needing aural skills.

Whether it's relevant, even if I were in tune, my voice itself is either hoarse sounding or squeaky. I'm just not meant to sing!

I forgot to mention earlier that as well as singing in the car where I can't be heard, I do make up little songs and sing them to my cats, because they don't give a shit 😂

I know what a middle C is. I can hear it in my head. I can recognise it on sheet music. I can locate it on a piano/keyboard.
Can't replicate it vocally though.

I can hear when things are in or out of tune. I just can’t sing in tune - which means when I sing I can hear how bad I am. I never sing . I have had people say that anyone can be taught to sing but I don’t agree. My piano teacher who had to get me through aural exams would also disageee. She told me I was tone dumb