jonny, 29 days ago

My neighbors are singing Bohemian rhapsody next door and none of them are even close to being on pitch. Like if I focus on just their voices and not the melody they're truly random pitches in like a 4 semitone range. I genuinely dont know what the perceptual experience of being tone deaf is like. To me when im singing, esp if im following a recording, if im off pitch it just sounds like im too low or too high and I go up or down or jump an octave until im not. I dont claim to be a good singer but I can carry a tune, and it seems to be more of a binary can/can't than I would expect of a skill.

I can "dance" and follow a rhythm and learn steps, but I am really really bad at it, so someone who is great at dancing probably thinks something similar "I just know my body is in the wrong shape and I change it until its not." But it feels different to me bc the dancers I know have still had to do exhaustive practice to learn their dances, but singing on pitch (not singing "well," I know singers practice too) is effortless to me (and I imagine other people who can keep a tune).

What does it feel and sound like to be singing along to something and just not know how to sing the same notes? Does it sound like youre singing correctly? Or is it like not being sure how to change your voice to match? Like I can hear an accent and not know how to adjust my articulators to match it, and theres also a varying level of awareness when someone has a really bad fake accent.

I also wanna be clear most of the time singing off key doesnt bother me in the slightest. The ppl I have been close enough to that are tone deaf that theyve been willing to talk to me about it describe a great deal of shame, and so singing for them is painful and embarassing, so the last thing I would want to do is tell someone not to sing bc they cant hear the pitch. I am v much a sonophile generalist in that I just love sounds as a whole, like how camp problematizes "good" and "bad" art, I love me some noise and human energy. Shanties are some of my favorite forms of music because they are often like "just belt it out there and who cares how close you are".