A question for people who can’t sing….

I can't sing and I'm very aware of it. I can hear middle c (or any other note) when played (and recognise most of them). I can hear a note in my head (e.g. in my imagination) but I can't make my voice make that sound. What comes out bears no relation to what I'm attempting to sing or know I should be singing.

I have an awful singing voice and as the notes leave my mouth I can hear that they sound dreadful. It's easier just to mouth the words, especially when I can hear people around me with lovely voices.

I just sing as if I’m talking. I don’t know what any note looks, sounds or feel like. I don’t have a clue.

I wish I could sing but wasn’t made to.

Wish my bloke could hear that he can't sing but he definitely doesn't hear it. He's very musical, plays a lot of instruments really well, but his voice just can't make the right sounds. This does not stop him from recording songs and releasing them online though. Hearing him practice is painful to my ears. That said, I also cannot sing and that doesn't stop me singing all the time, was even in the choir at school! But I'm very sure I'm not as bad as him, and I would not subject the world at large to my voice, only my poor children and whoever is in the car with me while I sing along to the radio.

related question: can anybody learn to sign well through training? Or will some people always be out of tune?

Nope. Most people can improve, but it's rare someone can go from awful to brilliant. Like most things - the people who are really good have a natural talent for it which they can work hard at to get succeed but the base level of talent remains. I find this is the case for most things though - you can go from truly awful to verging on mediocre but not from horrendous to fantastic. Whether that's cooking, singing, sport or anything else. Lots of people who find they are very good at something tend not to have tried it before to know they have a base level of talent. Singing is something most people do at some point, even if just in the car!

I can't sing and I have always been very aware that what comes out of my mouth is not what I'm aiming for. My voice just cannot do it I think I have no range and singing actually hurts after a while.

I don't care. Went to a gig abd sang my heart out

But I think I would be crap on ISIHAC. It would be fun and I might get within a gnats crotchet of the song when it restarted

The medical term for true tone-deafness is amusia (specifically congenital or acquired amusia). It is a cognitive deficit or processing disorder in the brain that makes it hard or impossible to distinguish differences in musical pitch, recognize familiar melodies, or tell when a note is out of tune.

I'm tone deaf but sometimes think I'm the next Julie Andrews 😂

I don't have perfect pitch, but can sing, and am in a choir,. I'm an alto, which means I'm often singing the harmony to the melody.

I’m a (music) teacher and I’ve noticed a pattern: very acute pitch perfection and very bad pitch perception are both linked to autism. I nearly made this my research project when I did my Psychology masters.

Basically, pitch perception sits in a spectrum and is either very over- or under-developed in neurodivergent people. (Is my hypothesis!).

Most singers don’t have perfect pitch but they can still sing. I can sing but not Ariana Grands level & I don’t know a middle C

When people say “in tune” do they simply mean that the song would be recognisable to someone listening ie the notes you make up and down in the right places etc?

Because I can do that, but I am under no illusion, what comes out of my mouth still doesn’t pass as good singing 🤣

Yes, there are two parts to this- the control of muscles and physiology which produces nice vocal sounds, and knowing what pitch you need to make. I'm generally quite good at getting the pitch right, but my muscles don't always do what I want them to!

Similar in art, my sister just used to say, just draw what you see - and I was like, I'm trying, this is it. My hand won't recreate what I can see, whereas hers could without even trying. My drawings are no better than a 5 year old.

I asked my friend (Royal College of Music, multiple instruments, professional orchestra, perfect pitch). She says she cannot sing at all, but knows the sounds are strangled.

I’m not the worst singer but I’m not good, I hear the music but I couldn’t tell you what note a sound is in, I can hear differences between notes on a piano of course and if you played a note I could probably copy it immediately but couldn’t do so later and definitely couldn’t pick notes out of a proper song. When people talk about the key music is in I don’t understand what that means or how they can tell, genuinely baffles me.

When I sing I can copy the basic lyrics and tune of the song but I have no idea if I am getting every individual note right and certainly couldn’t tell you if I’m getting the ‘key’ right, mostly when I’m singing the tune sounds right to me but maybe it wouldn’t to someone who knows every exact note. Sometimes as well I know I am getting something wrong, such as not singing as high as it should be, but my voice just won’t produce the sound needed for the song to be replicated by the artists.

I have it with faces too! (I do have other skills, I promise. I'm not a total lost cause)

I'm also pretty good with languages, so it's a different brain pathway for me.

@HesterLeggatt I don't think you realise quite how musical you are. Being able to hear a tune, and then copy it exactly isnt typical.

I can play musically, but cant sing. I can hear i am off pitch if there is someone next to me, if a solo i can be miles out and not know.

I can't sing a note, doesn't stop me from belting out a song or 2 at work though. Luckily no-one can hear me above the noise of the machinery.

I can play the piano, I can hear a piece of music and replicate it on the piano.

If someone plays a note wrong or can't sing I can hear immediately.

But when I sing I sound in tune to me, but I am completely out of tune when listening to a recording of me.

Depressing.

I have worked as a professional singer but due to dyspraxia I can’t play any instruments and wouldn’t describe myself as musical.

A good friend sings really badly but happily and I really enjoy hearing her because of the fun she’s having.

Whichever I’m singing along to 😆 I do an EPIC Leona hand in the car, can do every single part of every single spice girls song, and some people have been known to think The Sugababes live in our en-suite…

snort Exactly this 😆

Can play the violin well but can’t sing. No matter how hard I try to make my voice hit a note, it just doesn’t produce that sound. Certain songs are easier to sing along too, mainly male singers, but I just don’t have that vocal range and I often end up going croaky.

I want to add - although haven’t read the full thread yet so don’t know if it’s come up - I also can’t do accents either. I think I’m missing some sort of gene that means I can’t make different types of noise 😆