Neuropsychology

What do you and Pavarotti have in common?

“Mon cher Michel, c’est à ton tour de te laisser parler d’amour.” Most anglophone Quebecers are familiar with this little tune sung heartily to the tune of Quebec icon Gille Vigneault’s Gens du pays in lieu of Happy birthday to you…

Behind Université de Montréal doctoral student Jean-François Giguère’s microphone, 62 people chosen randomly in various public places or in his laboratory belt out this little ditty. Conclusion? “The average person has a surprising knack for carrying a tune. In fact, these men and women seem to have an instinctive ability to produce melody with precision and stability, not to mention a great sense of rhythm,” explains Mr. Giguère, a clinical psychologist at the Centre Hospitalier Robert-Giffard de Québec.

The world is therefore not divided into those who can sing and those who can’t. “Our findings reveal that singing is a natural human activity accessible to all. After all, singing has been a part of every chapter of human history and every culture,” says Mr. Giguère. In fact, the average Joe has no reason to be jealous of the song’s composer himself who agreed to take part in Mr. Giguère’s research project last spring¹. Vigneault’s performances, which are not flawless, do not make the poet from Natashquan a bad singer. “To the contrary, many popular singers have a reputation of singing off-key, like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, to name just a few. Closer to home, Jean Leloup and Richard Desjardins would probably fail the audition to get into music school,” explains Mr. Giguère.

Mr. Giguère points out that he does not test every element that contributes to the beauty of a song, such as style and poetic value. In this regard, Gilles Vigneault is clearly the best voice for his music. The work being done by Jean-François Giguère and Simone Dalla Bella, under the direction of Isabelle Peretz at the Laboratoire de neuropsychologie de la musique et de la cognition auditive (neuropsychology of music and cognitive audition laboratory), is of particular importance since it examines a topic not widely explored at the moment, that is, singing among non-musicians. Mr. Giguère firmly believes that, aside from the 4% or 5% of amusical individuals (those who have tremendous difficulties with musical perception and production) within the population, everyone has the ability to sing.

“Music is not the preserve of an elite. We often hear people say, ‘I can’t sing’ or ‘I sing off-key.’ Our research shows that in reality amateurs are a lot more talented than they think.” Of course, there is some nuance. A professional singer and someone who sings in the shower don’t have the same mastery of vocal technique. The four professionals who took part in the study clearly demonstrated this. The research was used to develop the first-ever software to objectively analyze a singer’s performance, which is much more accurate than current measurement tools,” explains Mr. Giguère. “When we take a closer look, ordinary people don’t sing as well as the pros. They’re less accurate in terms of range, and they tend to sing at a faster tempo,” admits Mr. Giguère.

¹ You can listen to Gilles Vigneault’s recording. Click here. (WMA windows media player format)