What happens in the brains of bad singers?

All of us can recognize bad singing whether we are musically trained or not. At the same time, musicians who play instruments sometimes, cannot sing, despite having the musical aptitude. This article talks about the complex phenomenon of singing.

“The majority of self-diagnosed bad singers aren’t quite as inept as they think. Even though nearly all of us are equipped with the biological hardware to produce a broad range of notes, bad singing is rampant. Singing is a complex expression. The majority of people, around 60 percent, have a difficult time with it. Some people with musical aptitude struggle to carry a tune.”

What is bad singing and what causes it?

“Bad singing has a scientific definition. It involves a deficiency in three areas: pitch accuracy, the ability to keep time and note memory (remembering the words and how long a note is sustained). Most people, regardless of musical training, are quite good at two of the three elements: timing and note memory. That’s why we can still recognize the song someone is trying to sing, even though we might regret hearing it.

The usual cause of bad singing is a problem with pitch accuracy, also called intonation. Being off by more than a half semitone (50 cents) is considered weak singing.

Most people really cannot carry a tune. Bad singers just have bad vocal cords (more accurately, vocal “folds”). The muscles in their throats were not to blame, and they were all physically capable of hitting a note.

Bad singing could also, be a matter of perception: Maybe people weren’t hearing the notes correctly, to begin with. Or it could be a difficulty with motor control — bad singers couldn’t control their vocal cords enough to duplicate what they heard. Error correction — the brain’s ability to compare its output against a target and adjust its activity in response — was at the root of the problem.

Our brains have the potential to signal the voice to produce the correct note but have mapped out the wrong output to match a perceived note. Our brains are quite good at perception, which is why so many of us enjoy listening to music without being great musicians. But those same brains give our vocal cords faulty instructions. The term for this error is the imitative deficit. The brains of bad singers associate a note we hear with the wrong muscle movement in the voice. The wires are crossed. Our ear knows better, which is why we cringe when we hear ourselves, but we cannot quickly reprogram our brain.”

So, what is the solution? The age old wisdom: consistent and persistent hard work.

“Remapping the brain is possible, but for adults it can be a very laborious task, requiring practice every day for years. Practice, practice, practice. A good vocal teacher and patience will help.”

Reputation management for musicians

When you establish your personal brand as a musician, here are a couple of things to keep in mind. 

1. More is not always better - Do not overload your audience's newsfeed by feeding irrelevant content that can potentially harm your brand.

“Human behavior tells us that this is a more permanent effect than we realize. Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn’t free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit.”

2. The single best way to maintain your reputation is to do things you're proud of - Your reputation is something that you will have to live with in the long term. Therefore, live the life you have taught people to expect from you.  

“The most important step you can take when entering a new circle, a new field or a new network is to take vivid steps to establish a reputation. This is the new kid who stands up to bully the first day of school or a musician who holds off on a first single until she’s got something to say.”

[UPDATE]

So, what exactly constitutes a brand value and what does not? 

“A brand is expectations and promises, That’s what’s of value.
When somebody stands for something or an organization stands for something, we expect something. They have a brand value.
So the way a human does that is not by social grooming, updating their Twitter account, making sure their Linkedin page is accurate.
Your Linkedin page is a signpost, it’s not a brand.
Your brand is when you walk into the room, what should people expect?
The root of sales is removing fear, social network grooming is hiding, and everybody should blog daily.”

New practical function of music

I came across this article on Medium that talks about the evolution of our relationship with music. I was able to resonate with many aspects mentioned including how music always had context and function. While the traditional functions of music such as spiritual, social, and identity building still exist, there is also, another useful function that music is serving us at the moment due to its ubiquitous nature and that is, the activity we are engaged in. 

“The introduction of the iPod started transforming music consumption into a private experience which allowed people to try out new music genres without worrying about their social image.

We are living the age of “I love this music, but at the right moment,” we see the creation of a generation of eclectics that use music in very practical ways, a generation where the mood related to an activity is more important than genre. Need to study? Downtempo or classical. Going to the gym? EDM or hip-hop. Time for cooking? Indie folk or jazz. Going to a party? Techno or trap. In other words, the experience is not in the music itself, but in what we do while-while listening to it.

No, it is not music that creates the experience. Music is the background that helps to set the mood. The activity which people are engaging in is what connects people (with themselves or others).”

From a personal standpoint, I will have to agree with this new function of music. I choose my playlists mindfully, and that includes both music and podcasts. For example, if I am working out in the gym, I usually listen to new songs, podcasts, and audiobooks as I can pay attention to what I am hearing amidst a monotonous yet significant activity. If I am writing, blogging, or working, I listen to music and podcasts that are already familiar to me. In this case, I don't want to pay too much attention to what I am hearing so I can focus on my work. 

“For music fans, it’s an essential part of how they live their day-to-day lives.

Finding the songs and melodies that speak to them directly and reflect their unique personas isn’t so much a desire, but a need.

Music for new generations is not about reflecting their individual personas, but a mirror of the activity he or she is performing. Music was once a question of loyalty and identity. Today it’s a good consumed according to moments. So the musical preferences of these listeners are much more flexible and no longer the reflection of their identities.”

Here's how some music businesses have leveraged this idea. 

“If the tasks we perform during the day are what are going to define what we will listen, and not our musical preference for a particular genre, then we can say that today, Last.fm does not present the musical preferences of its users, but a list of the activities they engage the most in.

Spotify’s user experience is built around these two elements because the company understood that its users do not solely use the service for contemplation, but use music as a fuel for another activity.”

What does this mean for the future of music? 

“Whether this new perspective is something wrong or right for music is not up to me (or especially to this article) to say. What is important here is that this revolution cannot be stopped. It is a continuous process of gradual transformation where the individual is in charge.

We should analyze it from an evolutionary standpoint where the listener is the conversion agent in a radical change in the human consumption relations.

Technology can change people’s behavior, but only if it is the right time for it, in the right context. When technology changes people, it is often not in the ways one might expect. Technology changed the way we listen to music and as a result, we changed the way we feel about it. We should start considering that people are no longer loving music, but that they just like it. Or are even just using it. But what is more important is that only when we understand these changes, will the music industry be able to create services, products and business models that are in tune with this new listener.”

An ode to minimalism

Ever since I got introduced to the idea of minimalism, my perspective on life has changed. That's why the lyrics of the song, Every Little Thing by Peter Doran resonated with me completely. Here're the song's video and lyrics. Hope it resonates with you as well. 

We brought the wonderful Peter Doran alongside the equally wonderful Colm Lynch on backing duties to Martin Fennelly Antiques on francis street to shoot this session. We'd been talking to Peter for a few weeks about a possible location for this session and we all thought an antique would really suit the feel of this song.

“Every little thing, you think that you need
Every little thing, you think that you need
Every little thing that’s just feeding your greed
Oh, I bet that you’d be fine without it

Every little thing that you’ve gotta have
Every little thing that you’ve gotta have
That you’ve got to reach for and you’ve got to grab
Oh, I bet that you’d be fine without it

So tear your eyes away, oh tear your eyes away

Every little thing that sparkles and shines
Every little thing that sparkles and shines
It’s driving you sweetly out of your mind
But I bet that you’d be fine without it

So tear your eyes away, oh tear your eyes away

Every little thing that you’re lusting for
Every little thing that you’re lusting for
How did you ever get along before
Oh, I bet that you were fine without it

So tear your eyes away, oh tear your eyes away

Before you’re tripping over junk that’s lying scattered on your floor
The dusty and discarded toys that don’t shine any more
Every one you had to have, every one you swore
Would satisfy your greedy heart for now and evermore

Every little thing that catches your eye
Every little thing that catches your eye
Gets under your skin and it won’t be denied
Oh, I bet that you’d be fine without it

Oh, I bet that you’d be fine without it”

— Peter Doran

Music in formative years

Doli Sajake Rakhna (DSR) was the first cassette I bought with my pocket money. I must have listened to that entire album around zillion times. I guess I was in the 9th grade then. This album influenced my musical tastes significantly. 

During those days I used to live in a rented house in Trivandrum with my family. I still remember the then me wearing the brown salwar uniform of Chinmaya Vidyalaya who used to look forward to coming home from school just to listen to the DSR album again. 

Adolescence is when we slowly start developing our own character, perception, and opinions on certain things in life. The parents' influence start getting less. As I look back, I realize that the kind of music we classify as 'evergreen,' 'old is gold,' and 'timeless' were because we heard them during our formative years. Several beautiful friendships and teenage love lives had developed around these songs. There is definitely a correlation between our inherent music tastes and the music we grew up listening to in our formative years. 

That could be a reason why many bands go play at college fests in India. It's easier to influence the younger minds with a new type of music.

On that note, here is DSR jukebox for you.  

Doli Saja Ke Rakhna is a 1998 Bollywood romance film directed by Priyadarshan with Akshaye Khanna and Jyothika in lead roles. The plot is adapted from the Malayalam film Aniyathipraavu. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman.

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