If someone is singing badly we always say they’re flat, but at least some of the time (to my ear) they are actually singing sharp.
Why do we always say someone is singing flat, is it just convenient or is there a music theory reason for it?
In: Other
Full time musician here. I agree with the previous comments and would add that in my experience this happens because a lot of musical terms (especially around singing) are conflated, used hyperbolically, or used synonymously (confused in meaning and switched, extremely exaggerated, or used to mean the same thing as another term) in English, especially amongst non-professionals. I think this is partly because of the nuance required to hear such subtle phenomena accurately, and often because of a lack of formal music education. In the US for example, many people don’t get any music education unless they pursue it privately, and if they do it’s at a very young age, focusing on more broad concepts.
In this case, “flat” is often used as a catch-all to simply mean “out of tune” or “pitchy” when it may actually be flat, sharp, lacking energy, or even just a dull sound (if the tone is too dark/not enough high frequencies cutting through).
Other examples of this are *octave* as in “You’re singing too low, take it up a few octaves and you’ll be on pitch”. Most untrained people can only sing 2-3 octaves comfortably so this is definitely an overstatement.
Use your *diaphragm* is kind of a catch-all meaning anything from sing with more power to breathe more deeply etc.
*Tone-Deaf* is a big one as well. Many people struggle to sing in tune (on the correct pitch at the correct time) and call themselves tone-deaf, but actual tone-deafness affects max 2-3% of people globally if memory serves. What’s usually happening is actually just someone who struggles to sing in tune because they don’t understand how to coordinate their voice with their breathing, maybe their voice isn’t warmed up, or maybe they’re listening for tone/color of the sound instead of pitch etc.
Hope that helps! Happy to clarify anything if needed; this is some pretty complex and confusing information and I can get overexcited talking about it. 😉
Latest Answers