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Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music
In the tradition of Daniel Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music and Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia , Bad Singer follows the delightful journey of Tim Falconer as he tries to overcome tone deafness ― and along the way discovers what we’re really hearing when we listen to music. Tim Falconer, a self-confessed “bad singer,” always wanted to make music, but soon after he starts singing lessons, he discovers that he’s part of only 2.5 percent of the population afflicted with amusia ― in other words, he is scientifically tone-deaf. Bad Singer chronicles his quest to understand human evolution and music, the brain science behind tone-deafness, his search for ways to retrain the adult brain, and his investigation into what we really hear when we listen to music. In an effort to learn more about his brain disorder, he goes to a series of labs where the scientists who test him are as fascinated with him as he is with them. He also sets out to understand why we love music and deconstructs what we really hear when we listen to it. And he unlocks the secret that helps explain why music has such emotional power over us.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 2016
9 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Tim Falconer
8 books19 followersTim Falconer’s latest book, Windfall: Viola MacMillan and Her Notorious Mining Scandal, came out in February 2025. A prospector and mine developer, MacMillan had it all: success, money and respect. Influence, even. But in 1964, after three decades in the mining industry, one of the most fascinating women in Canadian business history was the central character in one of the country’s most famous stock scandals.
Fakconer is the author of five previous non-fiction books. Klondikers: Dawson City's Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey tells the story of an unlikely team of dreamers and their audacious journey from the Yukon to Ottawa to play for the Stanley Cup in 1905. Their quest showed how quickly hockey—a niche, regional sport when Lord Stanley donated the trophy a dozen years earlier—had become the national pastime. Klondikers: made the Globe and Mail's Top 100 of 2021 list.
Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music follows Falconer’s quest to overcome tone deafness and sing in tune. Along the way, he learns about human evolution and music, the brain science behind tone-deafness, and what we really hear when we listen to music. Bad Singer made the Globe and Mail's Top 100 of 2016 list and was a finalist for the Lane Anderson Award. The New York Times called it “fascinating and fun.”
Falconer is also the author of That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care, Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile and Watchdogs and Gadflies: Activism from Marginal to Mainstream. And he helped popular parenting guru Dr. Alex Russell write Drop the Worry Ball: How to Parent in the Age of Entitlement.
Fakconer is the author of five previous non-fiction books. Klondikers: Dawson City's Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey tells the story of an unlikely team of dreamers and their audacious journey from the Yukon to Ottawa to play for the Stanley Cup in 1905. Their quest showed how quickly hockey—a niche, regional sport when Lord Stanley donated the trophy a dozen years earlier—had become the national pastime. Klondikers: made the Globe and Mail's Top 100 of 2021 list.
Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music follows Falconer’s quest to overcome tone deafness and sing in tune. Along the way, he learns about human evolution and music, the brain science behind tone-deafness, and what we really hear when we listen to music. Bad Singer made the Globe and Mail's Top 100 of 2016 list and was a finalist for the Lane Anderson Award. The New York Times called it “fascinating and fun.”
Falconer is also the author of That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care, Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile and Watchdogs and Gadflies: Activism from Marginal to Mainstream. And he helped popular parenting guru Dr. Alex Russell write Drop the Worry Ball: How to Parent in the Age of Entitlement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 17, 2022
The author is a Canadian journalist on a quest to be a better singer. This is a chronicle of the things he learned about music on this journey. As a musician, I found it fascinating. Others may find it less so.
One of the things that really interested me was the cultural aspect of music: We used to all sing campfire songs and work songs together. But lately, popular music is too difficult for the layperson to sing, and we’re highly judgmental of others’ singing. Other than karaoke, an Asian import, we don’t really sing together. Asian pop artists create music designed to be easy for karaoke singers, but Western ones don’t. With the rise of more artists (a good thing), we don’t listen to the same music that much anymore (not so good?). I knew very few of the songs the author mentioned in the book.
The poor author does find out he is scientifically tone deaf, yet he enjoys music. There’s more to music than pitch: There’s rhythm and lyrics and timbre and movement and all kinds of things. Music engages the entire brain (playing music is the only activity to use both halves of the brain simultaneously) and body, heart and soul.
Being truly, physiologically tone deaf is kind of like dyslexia—it’s hard-wired into the brain. But very few people who believe they are tone deaf actually are. They just need practice. I teach kids music, and I cringe when they tell me they have to practice in the garage. We got to let people enjoy music and be bad at it. No one starts off good.
I applied a lot of the book to myself (okay to skip):
I am a bad singer myself. I play six instruments but can’t carry a tune. I can’t sing on-key, but I can hear how out of tune it is, so it’s torture to hear myself. According to the book, it’s probably from weakness in the muscles used for singing. Also, I have unrealistic expectations. I expect myself to sing in tune without warming up and without an instrument to guide the pitch. I don’t expect to play an instrument well without warming up yet I expect to when singing.
I’ve always resisted moving around when playing music because it is frowned upon in classical musicians. But this week I let my body move with the music when I practiced the piano, and I enjoyed the music much more. I think this explains why I find the action of bowing on the violin so satisfying. So I’m not going to restrain myself anymore in that aspect, at least when practicing.
When I was a kid, I was functionally tone deaf but after years of listening, I can hear when a note is barely out of tune. This does make any non-professional performance of music painful for me but does show how adaptable the brain is.
Clean content
One of the things that really interested me was the cultural aspect of music: We used to all sing campfire songs and work songs together. But lately, popular music is too difficult for the layperson to sing, and we’re highly judgmental of others’ singing. Other than karaoke, an Asian import, we don’t really sing together. Asian pop artists create music designed to be easy for karaoke singers, but Western ones don’t. With the rise of more artists (a good thing), we don’t listen to the same music that much anymore (not so good?). I knew very few of the songs the author mentioned in the book.
The poor author does find out he is scientifically tone deaf, yet he enjoys music. There’s more to music than pitch: There’s rhythm and lyrics and timbre and movement and all kinds of things. Music engages the entire brain (playing music is the only activity to use both halves of the brain simultaneously) and body, heart and soul.
Being truly, physiologically tone deaf is kind of like dyslexia—it’s hard-wired into the brain. But very few people who believe they are tone deaf actually are. They just need practice. I teach kids music, and I cringe when they tell me they have to practice in the garage. We got to let people enjoy music and be bad at it. No one starts off good.
I applied a lot of the book to myself (okay to skip):
I am a bad singer myself. I play six instruments but can’t carry a tune. I can’t sing on-key, but I can hear how out of tune it is, so it’s torture to hear myself. According to the book, it’s probably from weakness in the muscles used for singing. Also, I have unrealistic expectations. I expect myself to sing in tune without warming up and without an instrument to guide the pitch. I don’t expect to play an instrument well without warming up yet I expect to when singing.
I’ve always resisted moving around when playing music because it is frowned upon in classical musicians. But this week I let my body move with the music when I practiced the piano, and I enjoyed the music much more. I think this explains why I find the action of bowing on the violin so satisfying. So I’m not going to restrain myself anymore in that aspect, at least when practicing.
When I was a kid, I was functionally tone deaf but after years of listening, I can hear when a note is barely out of tune. This does make any non-professional performance of music painful for me but does show how adaptable the brain is.
Clean content
January 20, 2018
I'm someone who has had 'pitch problems' but longed to be able to sing, and in fact took lessons for that purpose, but I still have a lot of insecurity around it. So I was certainly curious to read about Tim Falconer's efforts to explore why he's a "bad singer" and attempt to cure it. It's a meandery, affable book about much more than tone deafness: I learned about experimental science involving what the brain does with music, ethnomusicology, timbre, lots of stuff, in the midst of Falconer's account of his music lessons. He doesn't discover a cure and it's not a how-to book, but it's interesting and inspiring.
September 10, 2017
This is a really wonderful book. Well written and entertaining. A man who is diagnosed with tone deafness takes voice lessons because he loves to sing. Then this leads to more in depth studies of music and how we hear it, what we enjoy about it, what music is all about. A really great story.
July 15, 2022
An endearing look at the author’s path towards singing in public despite being tone deaf. There are some interesting excursions down various scientific side paths and his taste in music is very interesting. It’s a bit long for all that it is though; it would have made a better magazine article than a book IMO. Having said that I did feel there was something missing. We have an in depth look at how his amusia (tone deafness) affects his singing but it would have been interesting to see him channel his musical interest towards an instrument and see if that experience was similarly challenging.
March 21, 2017
My life story! So well written and the kind of inspired that cries out: "don't try this at home!"
December 11, 2018
Super interesting and engaging the whole way through. I couldn’t stop telling people about “the book i was reading” the whole time.
February 9, 2018
Journalist Tim Falconer loves music. He glories in concerts and plays albums on repeat until the neighbors complain. Unfortunately, like most of us, he’s pretty sure he’s a bad singer. Falconer decides to do something about that by signing up for singing lessons, and then learns the truth: he’s not just a bad singer, he’s diagnosed as tone deaf.
As Falconer explains in the book, “tone deafness” is not really a thing, but there’s a real diagnosis behind it: “amusia”. Only about 2% of folks are amusic, with some people struggling with hearing small shifts in pitch to “beat deafness” to those who primarily struggle with re-creating the sounds they hear. Amusics typically find that their condition leaves them ambivalent to music. Falconer himself is particularly unusual in that, unlike most amusics, he adores music.
I found this book enormously interesting, if a bit long. Falconer balances his ongoing struggle with music lessons both before and after his diagnosis with discussions of the science of tone deafness. He is quick to laugh at himself in his personal narrative, and does a great job of keeping science at the popular writing level.
This book is an ode to singing. It’s a call to arms (throats?). There’s a wonderful chapter in the beginning that points out that people have become quite reluctant to sing. Young children sing loudly with very little prompting and ample gusto. But somewhere between 8-10, most people are told they “can’t sing”, and give up singing in public. (Witness this particularly awful example.)
We now are steeped in the voices of well-trained singers (and those who get a bit of a technical boost) almost from birth. The radio, television, and now the internet mean that we see the end result of experts but not the early stages when they were learning. The result is that we’re no longer willing to listen to unpolished, untrained voices. Singers who might have once been “the best in the church choir” are no longer being compared against the congregation, they’re being weighed against Ariana Grande and other radio stars, and found wanting.
The magic of making music has been pulled into the realm of the professional and people are no longer willing to do it badly, a lesson I am taking to heart these days since I am learning a musical instrument for the first time.
Fun fact: pop culture’s most famous “bad singer” William Hung was actually singing “She Bangs” on pitch on the first try on American Idol, a phenomenal feat. But, as Falconer explains, pitch isn’t the only thing that made his performance the butt of countless jokes.
Bad Singer is an engaging, and quick read. If it doesn’t convince you to sign up for singing lessons, it might inspire a karaoke outing with friends.
As Falconer explains in the book, “tone deafness” is not really a thing, but there’s a real diagnosis behind it: “amusia”. Only about 2% of folks are amusic, with some people struggling with hearing small shifts in pitch to “beat deafness” to those who primarily struggle with re-creating the sounds they hear. Amusics typically find that their condition leaves them ambivalent to music. Falconer himself is particularly unusual in that, unlike most amusics, he adores music.
I found this book enormously interesting, if a bit long. Falconer balances his ongoing struggle with music lessons both before and after his diagnosis with discussions of the science of tone deafness. He is quick to laugh at himself in his personal narrative, and does a great job of keeping science at the popular writing level.
This book is an ode to singing. It’s a call to arms (throats?). There’s a wonderful chapter in the beginning that points out that people have become quite reluctant to sing. Young children sing loudly with very little prompting and ample gusto. But somewhere between 8-10, most people are told they “can’t sing”, and give up singing in public. (Witness this particularly awful example.)
We now are steeped in the voices of well-trained singers (and those who get a bit of a technical boost) almost from birth. The radio, television, and now the internet mean that we see the end result of experts but not the early stages when they were learning. The result is that we’re no longer willing to listen to unpolished, untrained voices. Singers who might have once been “the best in the church choir” are no longer being compared against the congregation, they’re being weighed against Ariana Grande and other radio stars, and found wanting.
The magic of making music has been pulled into the realm of the professional and people are no longer willing to do it badly, a lesson I am taking to heart these days since I am learning a musical instrument for the first time.
Fun fact: pop culture’s most famous “bad singer” William Hung was actually singing “She Bangs” on pitch on the first try on American Idol, a phenomenal feat. But, as Falconer explains, pitch isn’t the only thing that made his performance the butt of countless jokes.
Bad Singer is an engaging, and quick read. If it doesn’t convince you to sign up for singing lessons, it might inspire a karaoke outing with friends.
Read
September 8, 2021Tim Falconer, author of Bad Singer (House of Anansi Press, 2016), loves music. He cherishes fantasies of singing his favorite songs before adoring fans. There’s just one problem: he’s a bad singer. In this bittersweet yet entertaining autobiography, Falconer’s love of music confronts his adult diagnosis with amusia, or tone deafness.
From weekly lessons with a voice teacher to clinical studies at the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, Falconer struggles to understand how he can find music so moving, and yet, apparently, not fully comprehend what he hears. He’s good at rhythm, passable at recognizing melodic contour, but downright awful at matching pitch. In fact, his bad singing is often not a matter of wrong notes but of singing the right tune in the wrong key.
I recommend Bad Singer to anyone who mumbles the national anthem at ball games, to any musician who’s ever been baffled by a bad performance, and to all parents who wonder whether paying for Junior’s music lessons is really worth it. As far as Falconer is concerned, any money spent on music is money well spent—even if you’re a bad singer.
Recommended and reviewed by University Libraries' Karen Olson
From weekly lessons with a voice teacher to clinical studies at the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, Falconer struggles to understand how he can find music so moving, and yet, apparently, not fully comprehend what he hears. He’s good at rhythm, passable at recognizing melodic contour, but downright awful at matching pitch. In fact, his bad singing is often not a matter of wrong notes but of singing the right tune in the wrong key.
I recommend Bad Singer to anyone who mumbles the national anthem at ball games, to any musician who’s ever been baffled by a bad performance, and to all parents who wonder whether paying for Junior’s music lessons is really worth it. As far as Falconer is concerned, any money spent on music is money well spent—even if you’re a bad singer.
Recommended and reviewed by University Libraries' Karen Olson
August 28, 2019
This book is a fabulous read. It is heartfelt, honest, and well-researched, with a myriad of great anecdotes interspersed with actual science. Falconer's love and understanding of music comes through loud and clear and totally in key, and you find yourself rooting for him in his quest to discover the truth about his singing ability. A word to the wise - don't ever EVER tell someone they can't sing.
August 9, 2019
Three and a half stars. An entertaining book about the science of music perception, focussing on how the brain perceives music and written from the point of view of a rare “amusic”, who has a brain deficit in pitch perception. Tim Falconer explores his love of music and his quest to learn to sing, despite being completely tone deaf, and intersperses his personal story with much of the science of music perception. I would have preferred a bit more of the science and a bit less about Tim’s taste in music, but it was still a fascinating and very readable book.
August 27, 2019
Fun and informative! Personally, fascinated by the fact that I have so many things yet to learn and understand about brain and ear.
January 10, 2022
A nice and light read about singing and the author's quest to improve. He nicely brings in the science to support the points that he is making.
September 1, 2017
I gained a lot of understanding and empathy for my ex-husband who's tone deafness always mystified me. I also gained some real knowledge on singing processes that are so second nature, I've never thought to consider the wonder of it all. It gave me pause as to how our musical tastes are created; by exposure, by identifying with a singer or a genre of music. The very singers he likes are the ones I don't particularly care for but now I at least understand peoples' preferences who are different than my own.
March 27, 2017
Fun read that provides a layman's summary of research into "amusia" - a condition where the person has difficulty discerning and/or producing accurate pitch. Falconer is one such person. He's a writer, so this is a personal journey, which makes it much more engaging and real: he loves music, really wants to be a singer, but is simply bad at it - you feel his pain. The book recounts his journey to learn how to sing, with the help of a very patient voice coach, and his in-depth testing and consulting with multiple researchers along the way. It ends with a nice capstone experience, which I'll not spoil.
March 13, 2016
The way the book is presented, I was hoping to get some explanations, or maybe even a solution about how to change anybody in a decent singer. Alas, no. You get huge lists of names, this person who worked for the Beatles, this one for the Clash, etc, and they have all turned into music teachers for bad singers.
You are promised revelations about the way the brain deals with music, I'm still looking for them.
Finally, the author sang two songs in front of 35 persons, after years of training. Were the songs well sung? I don't know...
I belong to the people who cannot sing. I've always known it, since I was 6 or 7, meaning when you can hear the difference, I know a couple of things, like the importance of paroles which make it easier to be in a decent pitch. Surprisingly, the author hardly speaks of it. I gave up around 10. If it is impossible, no use spending so much energy for no results.
I hoped finding some answers here, but sadly, nothing.
You are promised revelations about the way the brain deals with music, I'm still looking for them.
Finally, the author sang two songs in front of 35 persons, after years of training. Were the songs well sung? I don't know...
I belong to the people who cannot sing. I've always known it, since I was 6 or 7, meaning when you can hear the difference, I know a couple of things, like the importance of paroles which make it easier to be in a decent pitch. Surprisingly, the author hardly speaks of it. I gave up around 10. If it is impossible, no use spending so much energy for no results.
I hoped finding some answers here, but sadly, nothing.
May 18, 2016
I enjoyed this book very much. I'm not sure if I'm actually tone-deaf, but I do know that I can't sing, no matter how hard I try....I'm always off key. I can hear that I'm off, but I don't seem able to fix it. I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences and feelings about being tone-deaf, and there was a lot of educational material in the book. I felt I learned a lot from it, and the topic was interesting. Recommended!
August 1, 2018
This is an amazing book. It's written in a journalist's low key style, so the complex ideas are made easy to understand. The language is pretty ordinary and makes for a quick and satisfying read. It is remarkable how this book addresses my own insecurities as a musician and singer. There are a number of useful insights for anyone. Whether you sing well or don't,there is something here for you. I enjoyed just observing his progress. Well done.
July 28, 2016
"Bad singer: The surprising science of tone deafness and how we hear music" by Tim Falconer was great. I had no idea people studied tone deafness. I loved how Tim Falconer with great enthusiasm attempts to learn how to sing. All the music teachers he sees say it can be done. Apparently they haven't really met someone like him. A tone deaf person. Good science writing.
December 8, 2016
Also recommend listening to the podcast of the documentary: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-bal.... Most of what is in the documentary is also in the book, and while the book has more information, you can hear exactly how bad a singer he is. Fascinating stuff for music teachers like myself!
April 30, 2018
I enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. First, I enjoy singing, but I am one of those people who was always rejected for my primary school choir, so I sympathize with Mr. Falconer’s plight. Of course, I don’t think I’m tone deaf. Anyways, this is a fun romp through the science of singing and listening, made more relatable and sympathetic by the author’s quest to improve his own singing.
November 16, 2018
Loved this. Any book that references David Byrne's How Music Works repeatedly has my undivided attention, and I enjoyed the combination of science, personal journey, and connection to music (Falconer has exquisite musical taste!). A perfect complement to This Is Your Brain on Music, Byrne's book, and some similar nonfiction books about why and how we listen to and create music.
August 20, 2016
This was a great read and I learnt a lot about how we hear music. It was a little painful to read about the author's persistence with singing lessons but kudos to him! A must read for anyone interested in music. I won this book from the publisher as part of the Goodreads giveaways program.
February 28, 2017
An interesting look how we perceive music. Brains are weird and fascinating, as per usual. I did the BRAMS amusia test online and aced it (I wasn't worried I was tone deaf).
February 7, 2017
Grabbed this off the library shelf. Fascinating, and entertaining, too.
February 16, 2018
Interesting and enlightening.
So many layers of perception, whether appreciating, playing, or remembering music.
So many layers of perception, whether appreciating, playing, or remembering music.
March 15, 2020
As a singer (Not tone deaf I would hope), this book resonated heavily! I loved the research portion of this. It's so engaging and sucks you into the likable author's story with ease.
December 27, 2020
A combination of diary, research review, and music lesson, this book is a window into the way singing is perceived by most people...a mysterious gift.
December 20, 2019
This is the story of the author's attempt to understand his inability to sing, his attempts to understand it through testing and his attempts to overcome it through singing lessons. He is apparently amusical: a deficit in fine-grained pitch discrimination suffered by 4% of the population.
Much of the book is made up of descriptions of his testing which show little other than he is largely tone deaf, of his singing lessons and of descriptions of his music collection. None of this provides any substantial results, making it repetitive.
Falconer's big question is that why, if he is amusical, does he enjoy music so much. The author consults various persons about this.
Gillian Turnbull, a Ph.D. ethnomusicologist suggests "To me, it's totally strange that tone deafness is even a thing, because there is so little emphasis placed on pitch in any popular music today."
Frank Russo, a professor of Psychology at Ryerson University, says "We think our experience of music is about sound and it's about pitch, but we're wrong. Music is this mushy signal that is deeply moving, but we don't really know what it is, what it's trying to convey."
Falconer plays with the idea that he is listening more to the lyrics than the music, but rejects that. In the end he comes across the idea of timbre in music (hadn't he done any reading?) and concludes that his enjoyment of music is due to the tone color as opposed to the melody or harmony.
Much of the book is made up of descriptions of his testing which show little other than he is largely tone deaf, of his singing lessons and of descriptions of his music collection. None of this provides any substantial results, making it repetitive.
Falconer's big question is that why, if he is amusical, does he enjoy music so much. The author consults various persons about this.
Gillian Turnbull, a Ph.D. ethnomusicologist suggests "To me, it's totally strange that tone deafness is even a thing, because there is so little emphasis placed on pitch in any popular music today."
Frank Russo, a professor of Psychology at Ryerson University, says "We think our experience of music is about sound and it's about pitch, but we're wrong. Music is this mushy signal that is deeply moving, but we don't really know what it is, what it's trying to convey."
Falconer plays with the idea that he is listening more to the lyrics than the music, but rejects that. In the end he comes across the idea of timbre in music (hadn't he done any reading?) and concludes that his enjoyment of music is due to the tone color as opposed to the melody or harmony.
April 8, 2022
Probably around 2.5-ish, really. There are pretty interesting things in this book about the actual science behind tone deafness. But as a musician, I found myself growing increasingly annoyed at how little actual *musical* research he seemed to do. For instance, rhythm, meter, beat, and "timing" are not interchangeable terms, but he uses them as such. And it's insulting to hear scientists and psychologists state as if it's fact that music schools don't teach their students to perform with emotion and that no one cares about timbre. And it's also insulting to see in print, more than once, that "virtuosic," trained voices don't have any character. There's also a very clear sense that he's trying to impress us all with his musical taste, like "look at how many different bands and songs I know, aren't I cool?" Dude, it's not really *relevant.* And I also don't care.
So yeah, this is a solid "eh, it's okay I guess."
So yeah, this is a solid "eh, it's okay I guess."
January 4, 2022
This book was so much fun. It was not only very informative about the different shapes of music but it was also a lot of fun hearing about Tim's journey to figure it out. There was a lot of discussion about timbre and it made a lot of sense to me. I looked u further descriptions and the person explained that there are all different varieties of apples (taste, colour, texture) but they are all still apples. I loved the phrase that something like maybe I can't sing but I still sing ....love it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews