Your voice is music to my ears, honey

Ummm, yeah. Maybe literally. From Yahoo!News today: Men do have trouble hearing women, scientists say

LONDON (AFP) - Men who are accused of never listening by women now have an excuse -- women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to than other men's, a report said.

NeuroImage, said researchers at Sheffield university in northern England discovered startling differences in the way the brain responds to male and female sounds.

Men deciphered female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engaged a simpler mechanism, it said.

The Mail quoted researcher Michael Hunter as saying, "The female voice is actually more complex than the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx between men and women, and also due to women having greater natural 'melody' in their voices.

"This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male voice."

The findings may help explain why people suffering hallucinations usually hear male voices, the report added, as the brain may find it much harder to conjure up a false female voice accurately than a false male voice.

I've often wondered, too, what some of the relationships are between an individual's gender and their listening preferences. For example, would most women prefer to listen to male singers and men to female singers, or vice versa? I'm kind-of picky and critical of female vocalists more so than male, but I always thought that was because I'm a musician and a female. I'm highly critical of my own voice, too, so it's not a "I'm better than they are" sort of thing. My own voice sounds thin and pale, at least when I hear myself played back when they record us up in the sound booth at church, and I've pretty much settled into the opinion that I'm second-stringer at best in comparison to the other vocalists. Nevermind that, though. What are YOUR preferences? And whose voice do you enjoy listening to?

Me? I enjoy a wide range of vocalists, from Placido Domingo to John Mayer. The Switchfoot lead singer has a cool voice, kind-of funky and very flexible. The king of flexible voices has got to be Kevin Max from dcTalk -- what an exotic sound he has! It's like a musical instrument unto itself. As for female singers, I almost always switch the radio station when one comes on. The only one I will listen to is Nichole Nordeman, and I think it's because there seems to be some substance to her -- not only voice, but in lyrics and just general talent. She's not mousy, she's not ear-candy bubblegum, and she's not butchy. I also like Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer, but mainly because her voice is very unusual (I like the lead singer from Benjamin Gate for the same reason -- very unusual voice). Other than that, I hardly ever enjoy girl singers.