In the tradition of Daniel Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music and Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia, Bad Singer follows the delightful journey of Tim Falconer as he tries to overcome tone deafness — and along the way discovers what we’re really hearing when we listen to music.

Tim Falconer, a self-confessed “bad singer,” always wanted to make music, but soon after he starts singing lessons, he discovers that he’s part of only 2.5 percent of the population afflicted with amusia — in other words, he is scientifically tone-deaf.

Bad Singer chronicles his quest to understand human evolution and music, the brain science behind tone-deafness, his search for ways to retrain the adult brain, and his investigation into what we really hear when we listen to music. In an effort to learn more about his brain disorder, he goes to a series of labs where the scientists who test him are as fascinated with him as he is with them. He also sets out to understand why we love music and deconstructs what we really hear when we listen to it. And he unlocks the secret that helps explain why music has such emotional power over us.

TIM FALCONER is the author of Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music, which the Globe and Mail named to The Globe 100 Best Books of 2016. He’s also written books on activism, our love-hate relationship with the car, end-of-life ethics, and parenting. Falconer teaches creative nonfiction at the University of King’s College in Halifax, is a faculty editor in the literary journalism program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and taught magazine journalism at Toronto’s Ryerson University for two decades. A former writer-in-residence at Berton House in Dawson City, he returns to the Yukon as often as he can, but lives in Toronto.

Tim Falconer's profile page

Matthew Edison is an actor and writer living in Toronto. The Domino Heart is his first play. He is a graduate of Canterbury Arts High School in Ottawa and the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York City. As an actor, Matthew has worked with Tarragon Theatre (Midnight Sun), Soulpepper Theatre, the Canadian Stage Company, and the Shaw Festival. Recent credits include The Winterâ??s Tale at the National Arts Centre and Proof at CanStage. The Domino Heart was developed by Jack in the Black Theatre led by artistic director Michael Kessler, who directed the co-production. In the fall of 2001 Matthew Edison directed Jacob Richmondâ??s The Qualities of Zero in Tarragon's Extra Space. He received a Dora nomination for direction and the show also received a Dora nomination for outstanding production.

Matthew Edison's profile page

A remarkable story of dogged determination to prove his own body wrong and, as such, is one of the more illuminating cultural studies of modern times.

Globe and Mail

Falconer’s self-deprecating humour keeps Bad Singer’s tone lighthearted and as entertaining as the photos of him hamming it up as a singer on the book cover. Lines like ‘I’m a bad singer. And deep down, it matters’ produce an undercurrent of sorrow, but far more pronounced are his curiosity, vulnerability, and perseverance. It’s a deeply human book, and his most personal.

Quill & Quire

Bad Singer deftly combines a memoir of Falconer’s personal musical history with a scientific look into how humans hear music.

Maclean's

Falconer is old school in his traditional approach to journalism. He conducts lengthy interviews and fluidly articulates complex scientific concepts. He’s the protagonist yet he doesn’t digress into self-indulgence. The result is fresh, intelligent prose. While he may be a bad singer, he’s a thorough researcher and gifted raconteur. What Falconer lacks in pitch he makes up for in curiosity and passion.

Toronto Star

A spirited, even adventurous look at the mysteries of how the human brain perceives and processes sound — and even, on occasion, manages to make beautiful music.

Kirkus Reviews

An engaging, step-by-step look into how scientists study tone deafness . . . an essential tale about how human beings, even those of us with tin ears, can’t help but be drawn to music . . . Over the last decade there have been a number of books published about the science of music — such as Daniel Levitan’s This Is Your Brain on Music, Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia, and David Byrne’s How Music Works — and Bad Singer is a doubly successful effort because it doesn’t retread the same ground of these books, with Falconer couching his subject in a personal journey that’s enjoyable to follow.

National Post

An engaging tale.

Winnipeg Free Press