Tone deafness is the lack of relative pitch, or the inability to distinguish between musical notes that is not due to the lack of musical training or education. Tone deafness is the congenital form of amusia. It is also known as tune deafness, "tin ear", dysmelodia and dysmusia.
The ability to hear and reproduce relative pitch, as with other musical abilities, is present in all societies and in most humans. Tone deafness appears to be genetically influenced although it can also be a result from brain damage. Someone who is unable to reproduce pitches because of a lack of musical training would not be considered tone deaf in a medical sense. Tone deafness affects the ability to hear relative pitch changes produced by a musical instrument.
Tone deaf people seem to be disabled only when it comes to music as they can fully interpret the prosody or intonation of human speech. Tone deafness has a strong negative correlation with belonging to societies with tonal languages. This could be evidence that the ability to reproduce and distinguish between notes may be a learned skill; conversely, it may suggest that the genetic predisposition towards accurate pitch discrimination may influence the linguistic development of a population towards tonality. A correlation between allele frequencies and linguistic typological features has been recently discovered, supporting the latter hypothesis.
Tone Deaf! I Can't Play An Instrument
Tone Deaf! I Can't Even Sing
Tone Deaf! I Have To Wear Ear Plugs
The Noise Makes My Ears Ring
They Told Me When I Ws Eleven
"You Shouldn't Even Bother To Try.
You've Got No Musical Ability."
And They Weren't Telling A Lie
Tone Deaf! I've Got No Rhythm
Tone Deaf! I've Got No Pitch
Tone Deaf! I Couldn't Hit An Octave
If It Meant That I'd Get Rich
All I Can Do Is Shout
Louder And Faster Than Most
That's What I Do For A Living
Traveling Coast To Coast
Tone Deaf! I Don't Have Good Meter
Tone Deaf! I Dan't Sing Tremolo
Tone Deaf! I've Got Poor Register
You Won't Hear Me Sing Falsetto
No, I Can't Hit Those High Notes
And I Can't Go Real Low
All In All, I'm Tone Deaf
And Everyone Tells Me So
Tone Deaf!