If you're tone deaf at 6 will you always be tone deaf?

[quail]

My 3 year old sings perfectly in tune, and as far as I can remember always has. My just-turned-six year old occasionally hits the note but mostly doesn't, and can't repeat a sequence of even two notes that I sing to her. It doesn't MATTER, of course, but is she going to be the one the music teacher tells to mime? Has anyone had a tone-deaf 6 year old grow into being able to tell notes apart?

I had singing lessons and am no longer tone deaf. It's kinda like no one had ever really explained it before and I had no idea. Now I get compliments in the car from DP

I find this really interesting. I am 'musical' and DS1 has always been able to sing in tune and key change without a problem. DH is not quite so attuned and DS1 often says, 'no Dad sing it like this'. DH doesn't naturally know whether he is in tune or not, yet DS1 can hear when he isn't. DS2 will be like his Dad I think. Loves singing, but the notes are all over the place

Whether it improves over time I have no idea, but I do think that musical ability is innate to quite a degree, something that I would never have believed before having children.

oh god Yoko I have just replayed Massive Attacks Unfinished Sympathy in my head and it is hideously out of tune. I hear loads of stuff on the radio which makes me cringe. I love reggae and blue beat too, maybe there is a link. My sister has perfect pitch although I have no idea whether I have, I suspect not.

I had one piano lesson as a child and the teacher told my parents there was no point in me having lessons as I was tone deaf.
Fast forward a couple of years and my actually quite severe hearing and tone loss was properly diagnosed for the first time.

Yes, we have!

DS1 and DD sing bang in tune without thinking about it, and get tetchy when others don't.

DS2, on the other hand, used to make an awful, if happy, noise -- somewhere I have a primary school report that says tactfully 'Music: DS2 sings with enthusiasm and some idea of rhythm' (notable for lack of any mention of tunefulness).

Around 11, he became noticeably more tuneful. By 12 his school music teacher was asking if we'd noticed his voice. At 13 he got the treble solo at the start of the school Christmas concert (admittedly more for volume than beauty of voice, I suspect), and at 14 he had the lead tenor role in his school show, to his and our astonishment.

In short: confident, happy miaowling might just see you through better than any amount of gentle tunefulness!

Real tone deafness is really rare. Has your dd qctuqllybbeen properly diagnosed as tone deaf? It's not the same as not being able to carry a tune!

Almost everyone can be taught to intone, religious communities singing plainsong do it. Not everyone ends up singing well, and it is still a question of training the ear and the breathing. But it is possible. Have known it done.

Funnys, it's so interesting, isn't it? I love dance music too, but found clubs way too loud when I was younger and the harsh soundsydtems used to make me really ill...

Yoko I love dance music as well! I only go to the gym and run so that I can listen to really good dance on my iPod. There is nothing better than a well mixed dance track, I love the way beats seem to change and melt into one another. I like identifying sampled tracks just before they become part of the main record. In fact I don't know of anyone else my age (41) who loves dance in the same way. It is just so interesting to listen to. You'll have to let me have some recommendations

My DH is the expert - he's just released an album called Electrospective which has some good tracks (but not all of the ones he wanted due to licensing issues) it's available on Amazon. A great running mix is the LCD Soundsystem one but I always forget its name! I love a bit of sample spotting, too, there are loads of 'Sampled' albums on EMI, I'm always getting into the originals.

Thanks Yoko I'll look them up. Very impressed that you have a DH who releases album's!

Ha it's not that glam, he's a record company bod x