So your instrument is a picket fence?

So your instrument is a picket fence?

Who hasn’t sung in their bed, or in the car, or the shower where we think we are safe from judging ears? Surely anyone that has grown up with jump roping, camp songs, or simply the radio can relate private experiences where they hazard to sing.

But you sound like an old picket fence! Jagged, uneven, and never returning to the same note you started on. Or maybe you don’t have that smooth open control of Celine Dion when you are jamming out to your favorite song on the radio.

So you “don’t sing”. Not for anyone. Maybe you know you “don’t sing” or maybe someone told you that you shouldn’t. I am here to tell you. You are wrong. They are wrong. You can sing. And you should. I am going to tell you why your picket fence is perfect.

It is said,

“that which we persist in doing becomes easy to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”

It is often assumed that if you can’t sing you are—tone deaf. There are two problems with this statement. First, singing is a complex physical act, but almost without exception, everyone is capable of singing. Secondly, tone deafness is an American urban term implying that you are incapable of hearing differences of musical pitch accurately.

Lets address the first problem, that you “can’t sing”. The reality is to sing is to play your own musical instrument. This instrument is special to you. No other voice on earth will sound like yours. They can try, but your tone and timbre is specific to you. You have vocal chords and a body making up your sounding box.

The second issue, according to the Liszt Academy a good musician can be summarized as

1.       A well-trained ear

2.       A well-trained intelligence

3.       A well-trained heart

4.       A well-trained hand

All four develop together in equilibrium. So many instrumentalists focus on the development of their hands. I will address that issue in a later post, but the important thing to note is that the ear is trained.

Was there always music in your house growing up? Was your father a passionate violinist organizing chamber music and your mother accompanying on the piano?

Not likely. More likely your family was like the average American home. You listened to the radio, your parents played their favorites, and may have even attempted to fit in some kind of piano lessons into your busy teen or preteen routine.

As a parent, you work very hard to shape your child’s heart. You demand they do their homework and chores before play. You teach respect and responsibility. All of these things do not come easily. They take time and training. What do you do to train your ear? How do you do it? Are you as persistent with training your ear as you are potty training?

Now I am not suggesting that ear training is paramount to the accomplishment of getting your toddler to sleep through the night without a diaper, but I am suggesting that it can take that much effort.

I was told by a professor that not only is “tone deafness” an urban legend, but that it is corrected, sometimes easily, and sometimes with a bit of training and persistence. True story. This same professor gave the example of a man that could trace his “tone deaf lineage back to the Civil War.” Within three months of ear training, this gentleman was singing on pitch.

Would you expect to play perfectly the day you picked up a flute or set of drum sticks? Ridiculous. It is equally ridiculous to think your picket fence voice can be concert hall quality after a few times sung.

So start singing.

And for those musicians out there that are super focused on “playing” and haven’t yet developed their ear, you have a deficiency. Even keyed and fretted instruments come to favor certain notes without an educated ear. Don’t believe me, how much easier is it for you to play in the key of C Major than the key of C Minor? That’s ear training. You need it. We all do.

Check back soon for a post on How to Develop Your Ear.