My son who is 8 has been put on a waiting list to see an ENT specialist as we think he may have glue ear. His isn't a bad case but an inability to hear certain double consonant sounds such as words beginning in dr (draw) or tr etc (he'll be looking for a word starting with a j). He is also unable to sing in tune to an accompaniment or in a group. On his own he can hold the tune beautifully and when he does sing something it's instantly recognisable.

Have any other singing teachers come across this and is the difficulty pitching to an accompaniment linked with glue ear or a separate problem? My instinct tells me that it is linked, but I have never come across a singing pupil with glue ear or serious pitching problems - is pitching a listening skill that some people just don't develop?

I'm going to be doing some research on this myself, but I'd be grateful if any other singing teachers with any experience of this could maybe offer some advice.

Ironically, my son loves singing and at the last school concert was singing his heart out and could be heard clearly- just in a different key to all the others. Luckily, the school teachers haven't made an issue of this and as he is probably the shortest in his class he is always in the front.

Not a very good advert for me as a singing teacher, but I love him to bits anyway

I have a lady student aged 50 who is almost totally deaf in one ear due to persistent infections earlier in life. She has trouble hearing other lines of harmony to her own and sometimes doesn't hear the piano correctly. She has a wonderful digital hearing aid now and it has done wonders for her singing. Her problem was that when she was singing she couldn't hear anything else - accompaniment or other voices. Now she can. She had intermittent pitch problems, but has just passed grade 7, having also passed the aural tests, which used to be a struggle.
Interestingly, last week she forgot to wear her hearing aid, and the pitch problems were back! So yes, I do think impaired hearing, for whatever reason, causes errors of pitch.
Hopefully your boy will be able to have grommets fitted which should solve the problem.

Thanks for the reply AnnC. I feel a bit more optimistic now - my dreams of him being the next Aled Jones may not be dashed That's if I can get his interest away from karate and rugby that is

I have a friend who is partially deaf and although she sings in tune, if a fraction sharp sometimes, she is always very slightly behind everyone else. She knows that she does this but is unable to correct it.

Your son's pitching problem may be nothing to do with his ears, of course, but just due to immaturity. I have a couple of children in my choir with exactly the same problem. In fact I was really worried about one of them, who wanted to sing an unaccompanied solo, but of course it was fine! In fact it was absolutely beautiful, yet when she first arrives at choir she sings about a fifth higher than everyone else. If I work very hard with the whole choir (so they think) on listening and singing the correct note they all get there quite quickly. Also, once they're really well warmed up, just when it's time to go home, the pitching problems have usually disappeared. Schools don't often have the time or inclination to warm up or work for very long on singing in tune.

I also wonder if it's just lack of maturity - he's also behind with other things, but obviously don't know until we've had confirmation if this is because of his hearing or not. I sneakily do aural tests with him every now and then and he is usually pitch perfect and has no problems with rhythm either