As I attended the Promise of Music Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music last month, I sat intently listening to the movers and shakers in the music education world. Many of them had accomplished great things, founded music education programs (i.e. El Sistema, Hamilton Philharmonic, etc.), fu…
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The first edition of MTC Live was a success. It was held last Wednesday
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Can people really be tone-deaf?
At the recent Promise of Music Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the question above was posed to Dr. Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University (and best-selling author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music"). Dr. Levitin's response was in…
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Can people really be tone-deaf?
Posted November 14, 2009
At the recent Promise of Music Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the question above was posed to Dr. Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University (and best-selling author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music"). Dr. Levitin's response was interesting.
This is a paraphrase: Lack of exposure to music in utero or before age 8-10 can shut down the music circuitry in the brain. This, however, is extremely rare. Perhaps, 1 in 500? A person with true tone-deafness would find it difficult to differentiate between different voices, since the same perception measures pitch and tone quality! End of paraphrase.
So, although you may think that you are tone-deaf, you are more likely a member of the large group of people in need of training to develop and fine-tune your sense of pitch. If you get a chance to do so, you won't regret it!
Comments
Very interesting topic. I once had a student whose mother kept telling me she (the student/daughter) was tone-deaf. Then one day, the student told me excitedly that THIS part of her piano piece was just like THIS one, 15 pages later in the book.
I think the mother had probably been told to go to the back of the elementary school chorus and just mouth the words. That sort of thing sticks.
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