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.

Singing is as natural as speaking for humans. Increasing evidence shows that the layman can carry a tune (e.g., when asked to sing a well-known song or to imitate single pitches, intervals and short melodies). Yet, important individual differences exist in the general population with regard to singing proficiency. Some individuals are particularly inaccurate or imprecise in producing or imitating pitch information (poor-pitch singers), thus showing a variety of singing phenotypes. Unfortunately, so far there is not a standard set of tasks for assessing singing proficiency in the general population, allowing to uncover and characterize individual profiles of poor-pitch singing. Different tasks and analysis methods are typically used in various experiments, making the comparison of the results across studies arduous. To fill this gap we propose here a new tool for assessing singing proficiency (the Sung Performance Battery, SPB). The SPB starts from the assessment of participants' vocal range followed by five tasks: (1) single-pitch matching, (2) pitch-interval matching, (3) novel-melody matching, (4) singing from memory of familiar melodies (with lyrics and on a syllable), and (5) singing of familiar melodies (with lyrics and on a syllable) at a slow tempo indicated by a metronome. Data analysis via acoustical methods provides objective measures of pitch accuracy and precision in terms of absolute and relative pitch. The SPB has been tested in a group of 50 occasional singers. The results indicate that the battery is useful for characterizing proficient singing and for detecting cases of inaccurate and/or imprecise singing.

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 is as natural as speaking for the majority of people. Yet some individuals (i.e., 10–15%) are poor singers, typically performing or imitating pitches and melodies inaccurately. This condition, commonly referred to as “tone deafness,” has been observed both in the presence and absence of deficient pitch perception. In this article we review the existing literature concerning normal singing, poor-pitch singing, and, briefly, the sources of this condition. Considering that pitch plays a prominent role in the structure of both music and speech we also focus on the possibility that speech production (or imitation) is similarly impaired in poor-pitch singers. Preliminary evidence from our laboratory suggests that pitch imitation may be selectively inaccurate in the music domain without being affected in speech. This finding points to separability of mechanisms subserving pitch production in music and language.

In this study we examined the effect of reducing linguistic information on singing proficiency in occasional singers. Thirty-nine occasional singers were asked to sing from memory and to imitate three familiar melodies with lyrics and on the syllable /la/. Performances were analyzed with an acoustically based method yielding objective measures of pitch and temporal accuracy. Results obtained in production and imitation tasks revealed increased accuracy (e.g., fewer pitch interval errors and contour errors) when occasional singers produced melodies on a syllable as compared to singing with lyrics. This effect may be the result of reduced memory load and/or motor entrainment.