Poor at singing and fade out after bum note (4-4)
I believe the answer is:
tone-deaf
'poor at singing' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'fade out after bum note' is the wordplay.
'out' is an anagram indicator (out can mean wrong or inaccurate).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bum' indicates anagramming the letters (bum can mean faulty or wrong).
'fade' is an anagram of 'deaf'.
'note' is an anagram of 'tone'.
'deaf' put after 'tone' is 'TONE-DEAF'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tone-deaf that I've seen before include "Unable to discriminate between musical notes" , "Unable to appreciate music" , "Not able to distinguish pitches" , "Unable to perceive differences of musical pitch" , "Unable to distinguish variations in musical pitch" .)