Amusia is the scientific name for tone deafness.  Amusia as a diagnosis has interested me greatly since I discovered the diagnosis while teaching a course on the psychology of music many years ago.  Having taught music for over two decades, I was surprised by this new information.  Over the years I have examined some studies and pages devoted to researching the disorder. Here is a resource:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8755656/

This journal article isn’t an easy read, as it covers structures of the brain and other neurological processes.  If you read it, have google handy.

Amusia in short is a processing problem within the brain that prevents the subject from processing musical structures logically.  The diagnosis of amusia is not very common.  It may affect 1.5 to 4% of the population depending on the source.  Recent studies suggest that the lower number of the two is probably more accurate.  Amusia is not a disease.  The condition lasts a lifetime, as there is no cure for it.  The condition may have some genetic causes due to the deletion of a chromosome in some cases, but for the most part the genetics have been ruled out.  

Other possible causes for amusia include microlesions, a lack of gray matter (neurological wiring,)  or concurrent with dyslexia.  The amusia diagnosis does not affect intelligence or language acquisition.  It does not affect social development at the basic level, but it may prevent the subject from attending functions that incorporate music as part of their structure.  I personally feel that children that maybe are amusical will react negatively to the stimuli and may cause discipline issues or find avoidance behavioral strategies (bathroom or nurse) to avoid music class.  This is just a theory as amusia is not a cognitive disorder that can easily be diagnosed.  There is no data suggesting amusia occurs in subjects exposed to trauma or poverty conditions.  

Imagine being an elementary music teacher that works with 500 children multiple times per week.  If the math from the studies above is correct that could mean there are seven to eight children who may suffer from amusia in an undiagnosed state.  Is it possible that one or more of these children will try to avoid music class at all cost?  It is possible.  Amusical people don’t hear music in the traditional sense.  They hear it as unpleasant noise.  Going to music class would be the equivalent of attending a 45 minute class of white noise.  Singing would sound like shouting.  The bad grades received in music would be punishment for an issue they have no control over.   

I can only imagine how many children over my first two decades of teaching that were tortured by me in music class over an undiagnosed condition.  I honestly feel bad.  I tortured these children who are now adults…  Neither of us knew what was going on, especially the student…   They still may not know what is going on…

Famous amusical people include Charles Darwin, John Dewey, Pope Francis, Ulysses S. Grant, and  Theodore Roosevelt.  What is interesting about this group of people is their intelligence and social/emotional maturity.  John Dewey for instance was one of the greatest education philosophers of the 20th century.  I’m more impressed with him as he wrote chapters on Arts Educations important place within our democracy.  Grant and Roosevelt were presidents at a particularly important time in the history of the United States.  Then we have Pope Francis. It is hard to imagine the leader of the Catholic Church being amusical.  The Catholic Church is responsible for the development of our modern music notational system.  Music is a key component of the religious liturgy, so having a pope that is amusical comes as a surprise.  Despite being amusical there was nothing wrong with any of these gentlemen.  It is probably the only place you will find Darwin and a Pope together in any list though.

Acquired Amusia is not the same as the amusia mentioned previously.  Acquired amusia comes from a traumatic brain injury.  This could be a stroke or cranial trauma that damages the brain in some way.  The composer Maurice Ravel is rumored to have suffered from acquired amusia after a car accident.  Compositions that he started prior to the accident were left unfinished or needed to be finished by colleagues.  Despite the injury Ravel lived a relatively normal life despite some aphasia and forgetfulness.

I feel my field of music education has failed to recognize this cognitive disorder as a challenge to teaching music.  If 1.5% of a student body in a school is walking around with an undiagnosed case of amusia I feel we are setting up the young teacher and the student for failure.  From the perspective of the student, they will see the music teacher as an enemy.  The music teacher is someone who is to be hated or despised for punishing them with noise every other day.  From the teacher’s perspective this child is unwilling to learn or try, and they may have a discipline problem with that child. In this case the child is simply unable to learn music based on a biological crap shoot.

Since amusia is not curable.  There is no magic fix for a neurological problem in the brain. The more we can communicate or understand this issue the more we can help future music educators and administrators with problems that may arise in the music classroom.  We also need to consider exploring how trauma (mental) and poverty may contribute to the wiring issues in the brain that cause the disorder through collaborative research between neurologists and music education scholars.  I would be game to contribute if a secondary education institution could grant me access to all of the research periodicals.  I would be happy to apply for a grant through Phi Kappa Phi as well to fund this kind of research.      

Thank you for reading another chapter in my diverse interest in music and musical processing.  Music has been a life saver for me in many ways.  I can only imagine what someone with amusia experiences around me or my classroom.  I feel the best way to understand a problem is to become an expert in that problem…   …so it goes…