Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music [Hardcover]

Author and journalist Tim Falconer  a self-confessed bad singer  is one of only 2.5 percent of the population that has been afflicted with amusia, ie: he is scientifically tone-deaf.Bad Singerchronicles his quest to understand the brain science behind tone-deafness and to search for ways to retrain the adult brain. He is tested by numerous scientists who are as fascinated with him as he is with them. He also investigates why we love music and deconstructs what we are really hearing when we listen to it. Throughout this journey of scientific and psychological discovery, he puts theory to practice by taking voice and breathing lessons with a voice coach in order to achieve his personal goal: a public display of his singing abilities. A work of scientific discovery, musicology, and personal odyssey,Bad Singeris a fascinating, insightful, and highly entertaining account from an award-winning journalist and author.

In his journey to understand why, exactly, he can't hold a tune  while having the ears and taste to appreciate great singing and songwriting  Tim Falconer takes us on a deeply absorbing journey into the worlds of brain science, singing coaches, music psychologists, ethnomusicologists, and into his own keening, music-loving heart.Bad Singeris a fun, fascinating, beautifully written, and strangely moving tale of a melodically-challenged man who yearned to sing. And it has much to say about the mystery of how music moves all of us, good and bad singers alike.  John Colapinto, author ofUndone

Bad Singerdeftly combines a memoir of Falconer's personal musical history with a scientific look into how humans hear music. Maclean's

an engaging, step-by-step look into how scientists study tone deafness... an essential tale about how human beings, even those of us with tin ears, can't help but be drawn to music...Over the last decade there have been a number of books published about thel1