It took many years of musical training for me to realize just how bad my singing voice is. I’m a respectable musician when I play a guitar, mandolin or other stringed instrument. But when I open my mouth, a cacophony comes out.
I have tried to get better — pity the vocal teachers who worked to help me. But my voice remains defiantly bad, and I wonder: What is to blame for this selective musical sabotage? Is it my brain, my ear or my vocal cords?
In search of answers, I approach the experts at BRAMS (International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research), the Montreal-based research institute devoted to musical cognition and the complex neurobiology involved in musical aptitude. I present my problem to Sean Hutchins, who spent four years at BRAMS studying the neuroscience of music. (He is now at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.) He ...
