If by "singing" you mean some sort of non-speaking approach resulting in some sort of melodic sound that can at the very least be described as "singing" ......then ok.
I don't mean that. But it may be on the road to singing.
If you mean singing that recreates the main melody of a song closely......ok.
This is more in the ball park of what I meant. Most people I've ever heard sing are more in this category.
However......if you're referring to singing that is "professional" or meant to be accurate or enjoyable for the most part...........then I have to respectfully disagree.
My particular point specifically recognized that most people that "sing" have no reason to work on their voices. I mean, unless you are going to sing professionally or in a church or a choir or home record or some kind of performance type situation, then there's no point in putting oneself through the hassle of breathing exercises, training muscles, controlling pitch beyond the average way many of us sing and all the other things that enable us to make a pleasing sound that is actually enjoyable for the most part. So most simply don't.
This may be a poor analogy but I would say that if push came to shove, most adults can keep children entertained in a goofy, fun way. But the overwhelming majority of adults don't. It's not because we are all incapable of this, it's just that there is no reason for most adults to do this. Some are more gifted in that vein and some are more practiced in it. Most might turn it on for a few minutes when meeting a nephew/niece/friend's child/pupil/patient ~ but most can't be bothered to hone that. Why should they ?
There are many people who sing off pitch....even if it's well in their range. There are many people who sing out of tempo
Well, that's true. I know many a singer that rarely misses pitch but struggles with tempo and those that can catch the nuances of virtually any tempo or time signature in the funkiest of modes, yet have more pitch issues than a one armed baseballer.
But that's not a matter of something that is so innate that it can't be dealt with.
For some.....training can be helpful it seems.......but not for most. You often cannot train away what the person actually hears in his or her own brain
You can certainly train someone to listen to what they need to replicate. Their response is key {no pun intended}.
The only part of what you say that I disagree with actually, is the word 'most'. I think that what you have been saying applies to the minority rather than the majority.
I'll stress again, I'm not saying that every human being is a closet Aretha Franklin on the sly. Singing is not really some secret magical art open only to the blessed and gifted few. There are, without a doubt, those that are gifted beyond the average {or those that have honed their skills to beyond the average}. But the average {most of us in the human race} does exist.
....and trust me......that may not be what you and I hear. Mentally we all interpret our singing pitch and tempo as part of an internal set of stimulus and reason
I agree. However, fortunately, systems have been worked out in just about every culture and time period that codify some kind of order. A C# is a C# and an E is an E {or whatever code of notes has been worked out}, regardless of what someone else's brain might dictate.
Like you, I've had that problem with singers that just can't hear a note that I can hear and reproduce clearly. It's at that point that patience must demonstrate its sterling qualities before I explode. Sometimes, I've just had to give up. But in every one of those situations, if I was prepared to spend hours on it, it would have been cracked. And I'll tell you, the attitude of the singer in every one of those instances down the years was the defining arbiter in the matter. Not one of them housed an "OK, I'm going to work on this until I get it" outlook.
And these were people who
could sing !
how many times....even in this forum....have you had people with pitch and tempo problems ask what you think of their singing? If they are not able to hear tempo and or pitch problems in their own playback.......they may never be able to
I think most people are lazy singers. I don't mean lazy in a derogatory sense, just in the sense that for the most part, we tend to be our own audience so it really doesn't matter if there are tempo and pitch problems.
The very fact that people are asking what is thought of their singing shows that they've gone beyond the stage where they are just singing to themselves and are perhaps beginning to recognize that if they are going to step out into the arena where others will hear them, they need to up their game.
That, plus the incessant need some people have for validation !
My wife...who is a mental health professional...has explained that how our brains hear pitch and tempo are interpreted by our brain and are not a given ability for everyone.
This is a very nuanced topic.
But remember, we are talking about most people, not every person.
Some of the top artists in history had problems with tempo and some of them were rhythm guitarists {John Lennon} and drummers {Bill Ward} !
I frequently laughed when I read Miles Davis' autobiography because he was critical of so many of the people he worked with {and loads that he didn't work with} and most of his criticism was musical. I was surprised at those that came in for his savage tongue lashing. Some of the jazz greats. True, it was only his opinion, but I'd never heard the same criticisms applied to any of them by anyone else.
But part of what has made so much modern music {ie, from the mid 1940s onwards} so interesting is the vast array of differing sensibilities of the players and singers that have clashed and collided in the making of their art.