Eli5: Why do a group of bad to average singers sound much better when singing together?
In: Other
In big groups, the sound all blends together into a more cohesive sound to our brain.. and the worst singers in the group are often drowned out, unless they are significantly louder.
Your brain wants to find the correct melody, so I think it automatically focuses in on the better singers.
Also: the worse singers can follow the better ones, and it gets them more in line with where they should be. When bad singers can sing along with the radio or another competent singer, they do better.
people perform better in a group when it comes to biking, running, lifting, lots of other activities. Peer pressure, the group pushes them to be better.
I was in high school choir, and some of the other guys in the group were absolutely tone deaf.. but the teacher worked with what she had.
As an average singer, it is at least partially because I get much much better at singing when surrounded by other singers.
I am bad at sight reading, don’t have anything close to perfect pitch, and have to rely on muscle memory when singing alone, but I can very easily match the pitch of someone singing next to me. It’s not like I need to adjust every note, either, once matching it’s easier to know the next note due to intervals etc.
There’s also an effect where it’s hard to find the exact right pitch when singing alone, especially without accompaniment. However, when you sing with harmony and get it right there is a sense of the chord “locking in” which let’s you know, and then you just have to remember/repeat that the next time.
This only helps with being in tune, of course. If you have a grating voice, your tone is bad, your rhythm is off, etc, then it can’t help as much.
And another reason related to the locking in I mentioned: practice. If someone is in a group, there’s a very good chance they’ve rehearsed with that group. If a random person is alone, who can say if they’ve spent time practicing.
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