Can’t Sing, Won’t Sing

Admit it: you sing along tunelessly to your favourite CDs at full volume in the car. No-one can hear you. But imagine what it is like if you can’t recognise a familiar song, such as Happy Birthday, or determine what the right notes should be. Some people have a little-known condition called ‘amusia’, meaning they cannot perceive or reproduce music. For them, music is at best pointless, but much worse, it can isolate them socially. It is not the same as being tone deaf. People who are tone deaf can hear the music perfectly well, but cannot sing it. For amusic people, all music sounds the same – and pretty irritating and unpleasant at that.

Consider how nerve-wracking parties or pubs would be where music is playing. Short of eliminating themselves from social occasions, an amusic person will just have to put up with it. It is really difficult to avoid music – in shops, restaurants, at home watching television.

Dr Lauren Stewart from Goldsmith's College, London has been studying amusia and will tell us what she has found out. Professor Graham Welch from the Institute of Education in London believes genuine amusia is very rare indeed and that music is hard-wired into the brain. Anne Barker, who took part in Lauren's research will describe the profound impact that not being able to understand music or rhythm has had on her life and of being terrified to go to dances. Her sister, Carmel Keating, is a violinist, so despite both growing up in a musically enriched environment, their experiences of music could not be more different.

Event organised by:
The European Dana Alliance for the Brain and Goldmith’s College

Speakers

Anne Barker who is ‘amusic’ and her musical sister, Carmel Keating,
Lauren Stewart, Goldsmith’s College, London
Graham Welch, Institute of Education, London

Chair
Peter Evans, Presenter of BBC Radio 4, Frontiers