Read more of our Music Special Issue:
Are animals naturally musical?
The illusion of music – don’t believe everything you hear
Flexible scales and immutable octaves
Singing in the brain – music can change the way you think
Web exclusive – hear five great auditory illusions
CAN anyone learn to sing? It’s a question that haunted me as I was writing my most recent book . My research had persuaded me that musicality is deeply embedded in the human genome, with far more ancient evolutionary roots than spoken language. Yet here I was, unable to carry a tune or match a rhythm. Friends and academic colleagues claimed this was simply because I had been “turned off” from music as a child and if only I took a few lessons I would find my voice. Maybe they were right. So humiliated was I by music teachers who made me “sing” alone in front of the class that I dropped music at the first opportunity and haven’t participated in anything musical for over 35 years. Perhaps I could learn to sing.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised that here was an opportunity not to be missed. As well as testing whether I could improve my tone, pitch and rhythm, perhaps I could also find out what was happening inside my brain as I tried to learn how to sing. I had recently read an article by researcher , UK, entitled “The song system of the human brain”, and then met him at a conference. With the help of functional MRI he had begun to identify which areas…
