Amusia Emma Lee

Amusia

Next door’s radio, she sings along loudly. Absence of resonance means she's out of tune. I don’t know how to modify her pitch. An X-Factor contestant is called tone deaf, but the cause more likely to be lack of training, nerves, poor pitch memory, picking a favourite song in the wrong key, lack of discipline, breathing too quickly.

I answer the phone, my ear transmits the voice to my brain's audio store. It will never make a match. I listen for a word choice, catchphrase, that identifies the speaker. If my husband ever changed the rhythm when he'd said "It's me," I wouldn’t know him.