You Are Better at Singing Than You Think

By Amelia Kondor

“Whether you have the voice of a songbird or sound like some ball-bearings in a blender, singing can have some remarkably positive effects.” (Keating). In their article about why singing can improve mood and health, Keating begins by making a crack about people being bad at singing. Normally, this would slip under my radar as a throwaway joke, but in researching this article, I have begun paying more attention to the way people talk about singing, and what I have noticed is that it’s almost always negative. This led me to wonder why singing started, and why so many people hate their voices.

Trying to determine where singing comes from isn’t easy. Singing has existed for thousands of years. Tablets have been found containing songs from well over five thousand years ago that originated in Greece and Mesopotamia (“Why do we sing?”). Many Indigenous communities have different types of music, but due to colonization, the most well-documented history of singing comes from Europe, starting in the fourth century, with choral singing (ABC Classic). This type of singing stems from religion and religious gatherings, and its origins can be traced back to around 400 CE (“Why do we sing?”). After this era, different styles of singing are more well-documented.

Singing styles have fluctuated since the origins of choral singing. As opposed to there being a more unified style of singing, “Before the 18th Century, people more or less sung as they spoke” (Gorvett). After this point, though, distinct styles of singing became more popular and accepted, including things like the ability to “enunciate in certain ways” (Gorvett). The styles emerging shared one large common thread: amplification. The carbon microphone wasn’t invented until the 1870s, and didn’t become incredibly advanced and popular until the 1920s, so people had to be loud to be heard (Gorvett). The carbon microphone again changed the style in which people sung, transforming the emphasis placed on volume to a new emphasis based on techniques that showcased personality, as opposed to volume. The creation of the microphone was also the first step in introducing us to the amount of music we listen to today.

We are exposed to music from many outlets. Radios are constantly blaring, and because of media-sharing platforms like tiktok and instagram, finding music from smaller creators is easier than ever. Because of this, we have way more opportunities to compare ourselves to other people singing than in the past, when we were limited to things like singing in a church, an environment full of amateurs. When hearing a perfect soundbite on the internet, what isn’t heard is the manipulation to make it sound as perfect as it does. One thing that has impacted modern music more than anything, perhaps even more than the thousands of years of subtle societal preferences, is the creation of autotune.

Singing has never been perfect. The creator of autotune says that before his invention, “studios would do pitch correction by having the singer repeat a phrase over and over and over. They would do 100 takes and then patch them together to make one piece of music that sounded in tune” (Prisco). But now, “Auto-Tune does all that at the push of a button” (Prisco). We have been listening to edited and corrected music since long before the invention of autotune. But now, fixing minor slip-ups is easier than ever. Autotune is often used stylistically to create robotic and electric effects, but is also working silently in a lot of music, doing what the name implies: tuning. Because of this, any music we are surrounded by sounds perfect, and we are surrounded by a lot of music.

A study done in the United States about downloading music found that “Adults listen to music for an average of 18 hours a week,” and that “Music is heard between 44% and 68% of people’s waking hours, accompanying a range of activities such as travel, eating, exercise, work and study”(Sanfilippo). While this initially seems absurd, many students listen to music constantly while doing homework, and music is generally pumped through stores to create a more pleasant shopping experience. Cars have built in radios and CD players, and many modern ones even connect to phones for music to be played directly from them. So not only do we absorb an incredible amount of music, all of it is tuned and edited to be technically flawless.

With all of these factors in play, it makes sense that people would be so self conscious and unhappy singing. As I wrote this article, I asked my friends whether or not they liked singing, and if they thought they sounded good. Most people said that they didn’t enjoy singing, and thought they sounded bad. At most, people were indifferent about their abilities, or liked singing, but thought they sounded bad. It makes sense that people think they sound bad after being surrounded by perfection for such a large portion of their waking hours. This is sad, because singing is something that everyone can and deserves to do, and it is actually very good for you. As an excercise, the physical act of singing can cause your body to release endorphins, which create a feeling of happiness (Keating). Group singing can be even more powerful, as it “enhances our sense of empathy and social connection” (Keating). Singing is a very simple act. At its core, it is just speaking on a pitch and in time. Anyone can do it, and whether you’ve arrived at the assumption that you can’t from people telling you you can’t, or from comparing yourself to professionals, you can sing. And you’re better than you think.

Works Cited

Gorvett, Zorvia. “How modern singing was invented.” BBC, May 11, 2023. www.bbc.com/future/article/20230511-how-singing-has-changed-over-the-centuries. Accessed Feb. 05, 2024.

Keating, Sarah. “The world's most accessible stress reliever.” BBC, May 18, 2020. www.bbc.com/future/article/20200518-why-singing-can-make-you-feel-better-in-lockdo wn. Accessed Feb. 05 2024.

Prisco, Jacopo, and Andrew Stewart. “The invention that changed music forever.” CNN, May 27, 2015. www.cnn.com/2015/05/26/tech/autotune-inventor-mci/index.html. Accessed Feb. 23 2024.

Sanfilippo, Katie Rose M. et al. “Do the shuffle: Exploring reasons for music listening through shuffled play.” PLOS, Feb. 06, 2020. National Library of Medicine, Feb. 06, 2020. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004375/. Accessed Apr. 06, 2024.

“Why do we sing?” ABC, Nov. 22, 2020. www.abc.net.au/listen/classic/read-and-watch/music-reads/ask-russell-why-do-we-sing/1 2897220. Accessed April 09, 2024.