Writer hires a vocal coach to understand his tone deafness
Journalist loves music but can’t sing. So he enrols in singing lessons and explores the science behind his musical shortfalls
Torontonian Tim Falconer adores The Clash. Yet, when he sings along to their songs, he hits a sour note. Many, in fact. And so the author of That Good Night and Drive has turned his journalistic skills inward with Bad Singer.
In a bid to understand why he sings as badly as he does and to find out whether he can somehow change his fate, Falconer relentlessly pursues the science behind tone deafness, known scientifically as amusia. To remedy his musical shortcoming, Falconer enrols in singing lessons.
The book started out as a 2012 magazine feature for Montreal’s urban glossy, Maisonneuve Magazine. Falconer’s “Face the Music” feature earned him a National Magazine Award. The journalist then de- veloped the article into a radio documentary for CBC’s Ideas program.
And so, with this book, in an Internet-saturated era where long-form journalism has taken on the same quaint status as oil painting, Falconer, a Ryerson university instructor, embraced this exhaustive project with the intensity of a wellfunded grad student. Even so, Bad Singer is aimed at a general audience, exploring everything you always wanted to know about amusia but were afraid to ask.
Falconer is old school in his traditional approach to journalism. He conducts lengthy interviews and fluidly articulates complex scientific concepts. He’s the protagonist yet he doesn’t digress into selfindulgence. The result is fresh, intelligent prose.
No sonic path is left unexplored as he investigates every angle on his own amu- sia. Falconer soon learns that only 2.5 per cent of the population is truly tone deaf.
Since Falconer is self-conscious about his amusia, he’s concerned that his neurological disability affects his musical taste. To his credit (in this reviewer’s opinion), Falconer rejects the omnipres- ent Beatles in favour of The Clash, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams and Neko Case.
The best sections of the book are Falconer’s intense encounters with his patient vocal coach, Micah Barnes.
As a final test of his skills, Falconer rounds out the book with a dramatic finale as he belts out — in front of a crowd of 45 guests — an adequate version of Joe Strummer’s “Silver and Gold” and, ironically, The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”
Falconer’s sobering lesson is that he can only make incremental improvements. While he may be a bad singer, he’s a thorough researcher and gifted raconteur. What Falconer lacks in pitch he makes up for in curiosity and passion. Patricia Dawn Robertson, an alto, was a preteen choir member at Holy Trinity Anglican Church.