I have this (or a similar?) problem sometimes - trouble following words when there's background noise. I hear the sounds but they don't mean anything, or I can't distinguish the consonants.
It seems to get dramatically worse when I am struggling with depression. I've never been able to sort out whether it actually is worse, because I don't go out as much when I'm depressed, and because of course when I'm depressed everything seems worse anyway.
FWIW I've been a musician all my life, including lots of singing of alto parts, and so far have not had this problem interfere with part-singing; whatever happens to the words, pitch still seems to be okay for me, maybe it's a different part of the brain, or maybe it's just because I've had so much practise at listening across. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I think if you've always sung soprano and 'picked out a melody' then you were probably doing that by ear; picking out an alto line by ear is going to be harder, but not impossible. Learning to read music to the point of being able to look at the line and know what it sounds like, at least to some degree, would be extremely useful. I don't think it's ever too late to learn that but I don't know how much time you want to put in.
Re: sing on!
I have this (or a similar?) problem sometimes - trouble following words when there's background noise. I hear the sounds but they don't mean anything, or I can't distinguish the consonants.
It seems to get dramatically worse when I am struggling with depression. I've never been able to sort out whether it actually is worse, because I don't go out as much when I'm depressed, and because of course when I'm depressed everything seems worse anyway.
FWIW I've been a musician all my life, including lots of singing of alto parts, and so far have not had this problem interfere with part-singing; whatever happens to the words, pitch still seems to be okay for me, maybe it's a different part of the brain, or maybe it's just because I've had so much practise at listening across. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I think if you've always sung soprano and 'picked out a melody' then you were probably doing that by ear; picking out an alto line by ear is going to be harder, but not impossible. Learning to read music to the point of being able to look at the line and know what it sounds like, at least to some degree, would be extremely useful. I don't think it's ever too late to learn that but I don't know how much time you want to put in.