When the singer can't sing any more.

[LBS-bass]

It's common for the perception of pitch to change as people get older, sometimes by more than 2 or 3 half steps. This would affect both singing and improvisational instrument playing because it affects the ability to accurately match your performance to reference notes.

Because it's neurological in nature the person often isn't aware of the difference and there really isn't any practical solution to the problem.

It's not possible to determine if this is the cause of your bandmates problem without a legitimate diagnosis by a medical professional.


Edit: Some medications can cause changes in pitch perception. Carbamazepine is one of these. It's a neurological medication used to control epilepsy.

I get a proximity effect when I wear headphones that changes the pitch of what I hear, but I am still capable of intonating to match what I hear. When I record and play it back through speakers, everything sounds a little more flat than it did when I had the headphones on, but nothing sounds out of tune to the music itself.

I would think that someone with a problem like you describe would still be able to hear that their voice is no longer pitch matching the instruments when they hear a recording.

 

[ArtechnikA]

I would think that someone with a problem like you describe would still be able to hear that their voice is no longer pitch matching the instruments when they hear a recording.

And that is one of the challenges of slide guitar. I can't think of very many artists who simultaneously sing and play slide. Usually it's sing a phrase, answer on slide. Even then, if they're both off, together, they'll be okay to the performer and suck in the mix.
It's one reason why I can't sing and play fretless bass -- i can keep one or the other in tune, or I can keep them in tune with each other, but I can't keep them both in tune at once compared to an external pitch reference.

 

[hbarcat]

I would think that someone with a problem like you describe would still be able to hear that their voice is no longer pitch matching the instruments when they hear a recording.

The neurologist, Oliver Sacks, wrote a book called "Musiciphilia" which describes numerous case studies of neurological disorders and other auditory anomalies that affect the ability of people to hear and process music.

I read it years ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but there was a section on how pitch perception sometimes changes with age. I do remember that it wasn't a noticable problem for those affected, unless they were experienced musicians, in which case they lost their ability to accurately match pitches and they could no longer perform.

I think it had something to do with the fact that it wasn't linear. Lower frequencies were unaffected, but the shift started to appear with middle frequencies, which might be off by a half step. The shift increased progressively until it was as much as three half steps off in the upper ranges.

 

[LBS-bass]

The neurologist, Oliver Sacks, wrote a book called "Musiciphilia" which describes numerous case studies of neurological disorders and other auditory anomalies that affect the ability of people to hear and process music.

I read it years ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but there was a section on how pitch perception sometimes changes with age. I do remember that it wasn't a noticable problem for those affected, unless they were experienced musicians, in which case they lost their ability to accurately match pitches and they could no longer perform.

I think it had something to do with the fact that it wasn't linear. Lower frequencies were unaffected, but the shift started to appear with middle frequencies, which might be off by a half step. The shift increased progressively until it was as much as three half steps off in the upper ranges.

I had a bad ear infection once that took forever to heal up; there was a scab on my eardrum, I guess, for a couple of weeks. During that period of time, nothing sounded right in that ear. The best way to describe it was as though every sound was an atonal chord, not a single pitch. Drove me nuts, but it cleared up. Luckily, I was not working in music at that time.

 

[Blazer]

These days, Paul Stanley got a lot of flak about using voice tracks live. But this clip, showing how much his voice deteriorated over the years, makes a very valid point on why he resorted to that.


Here's Barry Gibb, showcasing that his famous falsetto has gotten away from him.

 

[pepj]

I'm trying to get our singer to take it easy whilst he recovers from ear inection and general seasonal bugs. He doesn't need the money but he can't sit still and so is running himself low on the tank.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I got involved with a singer who is rebuilding a band he had until 2017 or so. He recorded three CDs between 2012 and 2016 and his voice sounds good on the recordings. But, during recent rehearsals, his vocal intonation is all over the place. So is his slide guitar playing. When I comment about the latter, he sheepishly says "I know - I'll focus better." He's 73 years old, wears hearing aids and uses a Shure headphone/mic combo.

He has 3 gigs booked beginning in early June. As an audience member, I would walk out of a performance if someone sang this badly. As I've gotten older, that sort of thing has only become more irritating, so I can't envision being a member of a band and having to put up with it.

How do you tell someone they need to do something drastic, like:
1) Work on the technology you own and see if it helps. Do it by next week.
2) Give up singing and end the band.

I'm open to other solutions. I could just walk away, but rehearsals are in the middle of nowhere, so it's practically impossible for him to attract players.

Immediately demote your singer to "backup" singer where he can focus on playing better and be quieter in the mix. Then immediately hire a new lead singer. Older people often become unaware they're not as good as in their youth. They see and hear with their memory. I know -- I'm getting older.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Sure BB lost some of it later on, but was still a going concern at least a year or 2 before his death when I saw him. He still had a voice, and I would have considered the ticket well worth it for just one of those BB notes on the guitar with the vibrato that make the hair on your neck stand on end. Sure I would have loved to have seen him in the 70s, but I'm still glad I did in the 2000s.

But yeah I played with an older sax player who couldn't keep time or pitch and a singer that did the same. Eventually bailed.

I'd post Sick Boy's Unifying Theory of Life from trainspotting, but it has Anglo Saxon words in that tend to offend delicate ears around here ...

I heard BB King at his concert in Mountain View, CA about 1998. His singing was awful. The price wasn't worth the nostalgia. I wanted my money back.

 

[Marko 1]

I'm intimately familiar with that... namely me, lol...

My voice is kinda thin, good for slow Country, ballads, soul, and I helped with backups.

Fortunately I'm with two singers who cover vocals/harmonies very well.

I only would sing lead on one song per set, but I could sense that at least one of them wasn't happy with that. I kinda felt that they love to sing and were just being hoggish about it, but I happily conceded to just stop singing any leads without being told anything, then just stopped setting up my mic stand.

One missed a bit of my backup, but I didn't feel it was worth the extra stand in my way just for that, so they manage without me.

I'm sure age is a factor, smoking in my case, lol... plus not singing regularly definitely takes its toll.

 

[pepj]

The most we ask of a singer is 2hrs of lead vox.
It doesnt work if the 2nd 'lead' is weak by comparison as people notice this and it reflects on the band as a sub standard song/performance.

Filler is filler, whether it is filler vox or filler songs.

Around here, out of maybe 100 bands nominally on the circuit, maybe 5 have outstanding lead vocals.
Thats without all the Civod wannabe startups....which is another thing entirely.

The chances of a band having 2 outstanding vox is very very slim indeed.
Not a fan of glibbly handing out vox duties except in emergencies...

Recently did a gig with poorly singer...it did us no favours as we had to drastically alter the set.
We should have cancelled as it would have been an easier position to recover from than the sub standard gig we went ahead with...