"Car accident during singing" is trending on the Internet! Is singing out of tune a disease? It turns out that it is really...

Recently, many music variety shows have become popular. First, there was the program that publicly played the singers' original a cappella performances, and then there was the music variety show that became a hot topic with its live performance format without any sound editing or backing music. Of course, there was also the "car accident scene" that became a hot topic because of off-tune singing.

After watching the show, many netizens expressed their opinions, such as "Why do other people sing out of tune, but I always sing out of tune!" "Can't you tell that I'm out of tune?" "Can you sing out of tune? Can you pretend that you didn't hear it?"

Do you have such a person around you? He sings out of tune but loves to sing. If you ask him, "Do you know that you are out of tune?", you will probably get three answers: "I am not out of tune!" "I sang well, right?" "I am in tune this time!". It is really hard to know how to answer this!

However, this is not because they are narcissistic or care about face, but because they are "born" unable to distinguish the pitch differences between notes. This situation is actually a disease, and there is a special term for it called "amasmicness", and the group of people who sing out of tune are called "amasmics".

Why does this happen? Since it is a disease, can it be cured? How to treat it? Can it be cured? Don't worry, today, let's get to know them together.

PART.01 Let’s start with pitch

What is intonation?

Pitch refers to the pitch produced in singing and playing musical instruments, which can match the pitch of a certain law. Some musical instruments have pitch requirements when they are manufactured or tuned. In the process of singing and playing musical instruments, the pitch must be controlled by the singer and the performer at any time. The acquisition of pitch depends on keen hearing, excellent musical instruments, superb skills and a suitable performance environment. When singing, playing, chorus, or ensemble, it is often necessary to deviate from the equal temperament and approach the pure temperament or the fifth temperament to achieve the pitch requirements.

Pitch sense can be divided into absolute pitch sense and relative pitch sense. Absolute pitch sense refers to the ability to accurately judge the pitch of the sound heard without any auxiliary reference. The most intuitive manifestation is the ability to accurately judge which key on the piano the sound corresponds to. For example, those who have absolute pitch sense will often accurately tell the pitch of the sound when they hear the bird singing outside the window or the friction sound of the floor in the house.

If you can hear the pitch correctly, will you be able to sing without being out of tune?

Of course not! "Listening" and "singing" are two completely different actions.

Although the ability to control the pitch of singing is related to the auditory sense of pitch, it does not mean that people with a sense of pitch can sing more accurately. The process of singing includes many links, and auditory perception is only a small part of it. This can also explain why some musicians with absolute pitch can also sing out of tune.

The sound sources we hear are mainly transmitted through teeth and bones, while external sounds are transmitted to the human auditory nerves through air, water, etc. Whether the differences in sound transmission pathways are related to differences in pitch judgment remains to be proven.

PART.02What causes out-of-tune?

In the previous article, we have mentioned pitch. If pitch cannot be held solely responsible for being out of tune, then why does being out of tune still happen? It seems that the matter is not that simple!

"Amusia"

Just as language disorders are called "aphasia", there are also disorders in the perception of music, which is medically called "amusia". The study of amusia-related lesions has a long history. As early as 1825, there were studies on the differences in human music perception. It was not until 1890 that German doctor Knoblock established a cognitive model of music processing and defined amusia for the first time.

Later, more and more scholars began to study the field of amusia, and the physiological differences of people who sing out of tune gradually became clear.

Currently, academia believes that amusia is a type of aphasia, caused by abnormal development of functional areas related to the dominant hemisphere of the brain or secondary to other lesions.

There are three main causes of amusia:

1. Congenital amusia is caused by congenital abnormal development of functional areas of the brain.

2. Acquired amusia refers to some diseases that affect the brain's language center and music processing function area, such as brain inflammation, hemorrhage, trauma, infarction, tumor, etc.

3. "Pseudo" amusia may be caused by sudden reversible causes of stress.

Why do people suffer from "loss of song"?

Statistics show that 10% of people are born tone-deaf and sing out of tune, and 4% of them are born with insensitivity to fine pitch recognition. Professor Bill Thompson of Macquarie University in Australia has done a lot of research on "Amusia", and the results show that "Amusia" patients have four main manifestations:

1. Hearing, intelligence and memory are normal, but lack musical perception;

2. Misjudging the singing voice and not knowing that one is out of tune;

3. Polarized reactions to rhythm;

4. Most patients are confused about music, and a few are extremely uncomfortable. In addition, patients with amusia may also have communication difficulties, such as being unable to discern the true emotions of the person they are talking to, and being unable to understand the "hidden meaning" of the other person's tone of voice.

This explains why people who sing out of tune don't know they are out of tune.

After scanning the brains of amusics, some scholars found that about 50% of amusics have rhythm recognition disorders . The right hemisphere of the human brain is responsible for music, rhythm, imagination, color, etc. Many factors, including abnormal genetic factors, can lead to music perception disorders.

Studies have also shown that amusia is also related to the left cerebral hemisphere: when the anterior left temporal lobe is damaged, the patient's ability to recognize notes, sing and play, and even appreciate music may be partially or completely lost, which manifests as a car accident scene where "other people sing for money but I sing to my life."

Damage to different brain functional areas results in different manifestations of amusia:

1. Expressive amusia: Impairment of the ability to sing, whistle, and hum due to damage to the right frontal and temporal lobes;

2. Receptive amusia: Impairment of the ability to distinguish different melodies due to bilateral or unilateral (left or right) temporal and parietal lesions;

3. Amnesia Amusia: Impairment in the ability to recognize familiar melodies (the existence of this condition is still controversial)

4. Musical alexia: impairment of the ability to write music due to damage to the left occipital and temporal lobes;

5. Musical alexia with agraphia: impaired ability to read and write musical notation, due to damage to the left angular gyrus;

6. Musical agraphia: impaired ability to write musical notation, due to lesions near the left intraparietal sulcus;

7. Instrumental Amusia: Impairment of the ability to play a musical instrument during music training due to damage to different areas.

PART.03 How to save yourself from being out of tune?

Now, we know that singing out of tune is a disease. Since it is a disease, it can be treated. So how can it be treated?

In fact, if a person knows what note he should sing (perception function), trains himself to be able to sing that note (expression function), and can remember the entire melody (memory function), then he will not be out of tune.

How should we train? Wang Liguang, Chairman of the Global Music Education Alliance and President of the China Conservatory of Music, gave the answer.

However, there are some people who do everything but are still out of tune. This may be due to congenital abnormal development of functional areas of the brain.

But don't worry, the great musician Beethoven still made a significant contribution to the field of music even though he was deaf.

Art is fair to everyone. It does not reject anyone's appreciation, nor will it forbid you from singing out of tune. So even if you cannot correct your out-of-tune singing, it cannot stop your love for music!

So, enjoy your music!