Singing proficiency in congenital amusia: Imitation helps

Abstract

Singing out of tune characterizes congenital amusia. Here, we examine whether an aid to memory improves singing by studying vocal imitation in 11 amusic adults and 11 matched controls. Participants sang a highly familiar melody on the original lyrics and on the syllable /la/ in three conditions. First, they sang the melody from memory. Second, they sang it after hearing a model, and third, they sang in unison with the model. Results show that amusic individuals benefit from singing by imitation, whether singing after the model or in unison with the model. The amusics who were the most impaired in memory benefited most, particularly when singing on the syllable /la/. Nevertheless, singing remains poor on the pitch dimension; rhythm was intact and unaffected by imitation. These results point to memory as a source of impairment in poor singing, and to imitation as a possible aid for poor singers.

Keywords:

• Congenital amusia
• Tone deafness
• Singing
• Memory
• Imitation
• Pitch
• Rhythm

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and a Canada Research Chair to I.P., and by a Grammy Foundation Grant to both I.P. and S.D.B.

Notes

¹ Preliminary analyses showed that there was no effect of gender, nor any interaction with this factor.

² We wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for bringing this possibility to our attention.