Poor Singers Research Articles

Improvisation is a novel tool to study musicality

Humans spontaneously invent songs from an early age. Here, we exploit this natural inclination to probe implicit musical knowledge in 33 untrained and poor singers (amusia). Each sang 28 long improvisations as a response to a verbal prompt or a continuation of a melodic stem. To assess the extent to which each improvisation reflects tonality, which has been proposed to be a core organizational principle of musicality and which is present within most music traditions, we developed a new algorithm that compares a sung excerpt to a probability density function representing the tonal hierarchy of Western music. The results show signatures of tonality in both nonmusicians and individuals with congenital amusia, who have notorious difficulty performing musical tasks that require explicit responses and memory. The findings are a proof of concept that improvisation can serve as a novel, even enjoyable method for systematically measuring hidden aspects of musicality across the spectrum of musical ability.

Singing accuracy across the lifespan.

Although singing is a nearly universal human behavior, many adults consider themselves poor singers and avoid singing based on self-assessment of pitch matching accuracy during singing (here referred to as singing accuracy), in contrast to the uninhibited singing exhibited by children. In this article, I report results that shed light on how singing accuracy changes across the lifespan, using data from a large online sample, including participants ranging from 6 to 99 years old. Results suggest that singing accuracy improves dramatically from childhood to young adulthood, unperturbed by voice changes during adolescence, and remain at a similarly high level for the remainder of life, exhibiting no strong tendency toward age-related decline. Vocal or instrumental musical training has significant positive effects on singing accuracy, particularly in childhood, though there was no evidence for gender differences. Finally, pitch discrimination varied with age similarly to singing accuracy, in support of views that singing accuracy reflects sensorimotor learning. Taken together, these results are consistent with the view that singing accuracy is a learned motor skill that benefits from engagement and can remain a fruitful endeavor into old age.

Memory disorders and vocal performance

The ability to carry a tune, natural for the majority, is underpinned by a complex functional system (i.e., the vocal sensorimotor loop, VSL). The VSL involves various components, including perceptual mechanisms, auditory-motor mapping, motor control, and memory. The malfunction of one of these components can bring about poor-pitch singing. So far, disturbed perception and deficient sensorimotor mapping have been treated as important causes of poor singing. Yet, memory has been paid relatively little attention. Here, we review results obtained from both occasional singers and individuals suffering from congenital amusia, who were asked to produce from memory or imitate a well-known melody under conditions with different memory loads. The findings point to memory as a relevant source of impairment in poor-pitch singing and to imitation as a useful aid for poor singers.

Pitch-Matching in Poor Singers: Human Model Advantage

Previous studies on action imitation have shown an advantage for biological stimuli compared with nonbiological stimuli, possibly because of the role played by the mirror system. By contrast, little is known on whether such an advantage also takes place in the auditory domain, related to voice imitation. In this study, we wanted to test the hypothesis that auditory stimuli could be more accurately reproduced when the timbre is human than when the timbre is synthetic. Eighteen participants judged as poor singers and 14 controls were presented with vocal and synthetic singing models and had to reproduce them. Results showed that poor singers were significantly helped by the human model. This effect of the human model on production might be linked to the preactivation of motor representations (auditory mirror system) during voice perception, which may in turn facilitate the imitative vocal gesture.

Singing proficiency in congenital amusia: Imitation helps

Singing out of tune characterizes congenital amusia. Here, we examine whether an aid to memory improves singing by studying vocal imitation in 11 amusic adults and 11 matched controls. Participants sang a highly familiar melody on the original lyrics and on the syllable /la/ in three conditions. First, they sang the melody from memory. Second, they sang it after hearing a model, and third, they sang in unison with the model. Results show that amusic individuals benefit from singing by imitation, whether singing after the model or in unison with the model. The amusics who were the most impaired in memory benefited most, particularly when singing on the syllable /la/. Nevertheless, singing remains poor on the pitch dimension; rhythm was intact and unaffected by imitation. These results point to memory as a source of impairment in poor singing, and to imitation as a possible aid for poor singers.

Singing Proficiency in the Majority

Recent evidence indicates that the majority of occasional singers can carry a tune. For example, when asked to sing a well-known song (e.g., "Happy Birthday"), nonmusicians performing at a slow tempo are as proficient as professional singers. Yet, some occasional singers are poor singers, mostly in the pitch domain, and sometimes despite not having impoverished perception. Poor singing is not a monolithic deficit, but is likely to be characterized by a diversity of singing "phenotypes." Here we systematically examined singing proficiency in a group of occasional singers, with the goal of characterizing the different patterns of poor singing. Participants sang three well-known melodies (e.g., "Jingle Bells") at a natural tempo and at a slow tempo, as indicated by a metronome. For each rendition, we computed objective measures of pitch and time accuracy with an acoustical method. The results confirmed previous observations that the majority of occasional singers can sing in tune and in time. Moreover, singing at a slow tempo after the target melody to be imitated was presented with a metronome improved pitch and time accuracy. In general, poor singers were mostly impaired on the pitch dimension, although various patterns of impairment emerged. Pitch accuracy or time accuracy could be selectively impaired; moreover, absolute measures of singing proficiency (pitch or tempo transposition) dissociated from relative measures of proficiency (pitch intervals, relative duration). These patterns of dissociations point to a multicomponent system underlying proficient singing that fractionates as a result of a developmental anomaly.

Singing in congenital amusia

Congenital amusia is a musical disorder characterized by impaired pitch perception. To examine to what extent this perceptual pitch deficit may compromise singing, 11 amusic individuals and 11 matched controls were asked to sing a familiar tune with lyrics and on the syllable /la/. Acoustical analysis of sung renditions yielded measures of pitch accuracy (e.g., number of pitch errors) and time accuracy (e.g., number of time errors). The results revealed that 9 out of 11 amusics were poor singers, mostly on the pitch dimension. Poor singers made an anomalously high number of pitch interval and contour errors, produced pitch intervals largely deviating from the score, and lacked pitch stability; however, more than half of the amusics sang in-time. Amusics' variability in singing proficiency was related to their residual pitch perceptual ability. Thus, their singing deficiency might be a consequence of their perceptual deficit. Nevertheless, there were notable exceptions. Two amusic individuals, despite their impoverished perception, sang proficiently. The latter findings are consistent with the existence of separate neural pathways for auditory perception and action.

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review

Many believe that the majority of people are unable to carry a tune. Yet, this widespread idea underestimates the singing abilities of the layman. Most occasional singers can sing in tune and in time, provided that they perform at a slow tempo. Here we characterize proficient singing in the general population and identify its neuronal underpinnings by reviewing behavioral and neuroimaging studies. In addition, poor singing resulting from a brain injury or neurogenetic disorder (i.e., tone deafness or congenital amusia) is examined. Different lines of evidence converge in indicating that poor singing is not a monolithic deficit. A variety of poor-singing "phenotypes" are described, with or without concurrent perceptual deficits. In addition, particular attention is paid to the dissociations between specific abilities in poor singers (e.g., production of absolute vs. relative pitch, pitch vs. time accuracy). Such diversity of impairments in poor singers can be traced to different faulty mechanisms within the vocal sensorimotor loop, such as pitch perception and sensorimotor integration.

Does song reflect age and viability? A comparison between two populations of the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus

Song complexity is often regarded as a sexually selected trait that reflects the overall quality of a male. In many passerine species, old males possess larger song repertoires than younger males. This may be either because individual males improve their performance as they get older (longitudinal increase) or because poor singers have reduced viability and, hence, are underrepresented in old age classes (cross-sectional increase). We studied the age dependence of repertoire size and other song traits in a German and a Swedish great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) population. We found marked differences between longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches, as well as between the two study populations. In the German population, we found that syllable switching, a measure of immediate versatility and strophe length, increased with age in a cross-sectional analysis. This was not because birds improved with age (longitudinally) but because syllable switching was positively correlated with male longevity. However, in Sweden, syllable switching seemed to be unrelated to age and longevity. In the Swedish population, individual males increased their repertoire size as they got older (longitudinal increase), but this did not happen in the German population. Hence, two populations, even when belonging to the same subspecies, may differ in whether or not they show delayed song maturation.

Singing Activity of the Bonin Islands Honeyeater Apalopteron familiare(Passeriformes, Meliphagidae).

The Bonin Islands Honeyeater Apalopteron familiare is a passerine species endemic to the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, 1, 000km south of the Japanese mainland. The male Bonin Islands Honeyeater has been thought to sing rarely, even in the breeding season. To determine whether or not males were poor singers, I examined the diurnal rhythm of singing activity and the distribution of singing males in Hahajima in early June 1991.Two supposedly paired males showed a remarkable diurnal rhythm of singing activity. They sang actively between 0400h and 0430h in the morning, but then virtually ceased to sing, singing only sporadically in the daytime. Between 91 and 94 songs were delivered between 0400h and 0430h, accounting for 93.8% (91/97) and 71.2% (94/132) of the total songs in one day. Singing males were well recorded in the Okimura village between 0400h and 0500h, but rarely recorded between 0500h and 0700h in the mornings of June 3 to 8. Singing males were infrequently recorded in the daytime, even though they were widely distributed on Hahajima.

Face-Saving as Affected by Subjects' Sex, Audiences' Sex and Audience Expertise

Twenty males and 20 females were asked to sing a ballad before an audience of male or female evaluators. Subjects, preselected for poor singing voices, received incompetent singing evaluations prior to singing publicly. Facesaving, defined as sacrificing tangible (monetary) rewards to keep a deficiency from public visibility, was measured by singing time before the audience. (Longer singing time increased earnings.) Face-saving was greater among females than males but was pronounced among females facing a female audience. In a second experiment, 20 females sang before an audience of females who were excellent or poor singers. Face-saving was greater before excellent singers. The results are discussed in terms of the need to prevent deficiencies from becoming visible to others.