This week, I’m answering Doaa’s question which is “Can anyone sing? Is singing a talent or a skill?“.
Here is my answer:
#1 CAN ANYONE SING?
TONE DEAF & BEAT DEAF
As long as you don’t suffer from amusia or a “two left feet” condition which is a form of amusia itself, you can sing!
Amusia is a musical disorder that prevents you from reading musical notation, from recognizing familiar melodies and wrong or out-of-tune notes… That’s bad!
The “two left feet” or beat-deafness anomaly is some kind of amusia in the sense that you cannot feel the rhythm, dance or sing in time and respect the beat… That’s bad too!
Only 4% of the population suffers from that but it’s already 4 person out of 100.
What you can do:
- sing a simple song to a friend like “Happy Birthday” without the words like “da da daaa da…”, if your friend can recognize the melody and tell you it’s Happy Birthday you sang, then you are NOT tone deaf even if you didn’t sing it like Marilyn Monroe!
- clap to the beat of a song that contains hand clapping like We Will Rock You with a friend and see if you’re completely lost, if you have no clue, ask friends to give you their opinions
MUSIC IN CHILDHOOD & LACK OF PRACTICE
If you can sing Happy Birthday but you think it’s not pretty or if you can clap to the beat of We Will Rock You but it’s not perfect, this doesn’t mean you cannot sing at all.
You just lack practice. You need to learn how to use your instrument because you probably haven’t been training your ear nor your sense of rhythm.
With music, the sooner the better! If you grew up in a musical environment like a music lover family or, even better, that your folks are musicians, then you probably have developed a pretty good ear and you picked up scales and other things without even noticing. Lucky you!
What you can do:
- if you’re a music newbie and singing newbie, you’ve gotta practice!
- if you’ve already developed music skills, practice too! You’ll get even better and you’ll learn how to take care of that vocals.
#2 IS SINGING A TALENT OR A SKILL?
SINGING AND TALENT
OK, so now you know you don’t suffer from amusia or beat-deafness, you’re good to learn how to sing!
But, what about talent? Why do some people sing “well”* without any singing lessons?
Yes, some people have stronger abilities to sing well. They pick up things faster, they know how to use their resonance and all the things that makes a good singer.
That doesn’t mean they don’t need a vocal coach to help them improve or master some kind of vocal gesture. Also a coach will help them taking good habits so they can keep their talent and not ruin it.
It’s like painting! Some are just born with it. Not fair hey? That’s what we call talent.
I’m so bad at drawing. I have no talent for it, that’s for sure! But what I did was I took drawing lessons to learn about proportions, shadows and other things and it slowly started to be good. I may never be a Picasso but I can have fun drawing and I can always improve something I thought I would never be good at. See?
Also, let’s say I choose to paint in shades of blue and my paintings suddenly sells like crazy. Maybe you’re nobody today but you’re gonna famous tomorrow with your music. Who knows?
SINGING AND SKILLS
If you don’t have an amazing talent, you can develop your singing skills.
The more you’ll practice, the more you’ll sing, the better it’s gonna sound!
There are a tons of real life examples of people who started to sing just “average” but who are now able to master and deliver stunning vocal performances. Those people are the ones who wanted it so badly that they never stopped. Each little win was a step toward their dream.
CAN ANYONE SING? IS SINGING A TALENT OR A SKILL?
Let’s be honest, we are not equals but it’s because we are unique and our uniqueness makes us special. So maybe it’s gonna take you more time to reach your singing goals than it’s gonna take a friend or a brother but you will succeed.
Just go for it!
Vahn
*[I’d like to specify what I mean by “singing well” cause it can be just a point of view. What I mean is if the audience loves when you sing and everybody says “Wow, you sing very well!”, it probably means you do “sing well”. Everyone taste is different but even if you don’t like the style of a singer, you can probably say he or she sings well.]
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