Not a proverb, exactly, but ...

Quite a few of my guitar pupils have claimed that they "couldn't sing". How did they know? They'd tried, a long time ago, and parents, teachers, siblings or school friends had urged them to give it up, because they were "tone deaf".   My rehab programme for them started with this limerick:

There was a young fellow from Tring
Who said when they asked him to sing
"You may think it's odd
But I cannot tell God
Save the Weasel from Pop Goes the King!"

If you can recognise the difference between one note and another, you are not tone deaf. If you are not tone deaf, and you can talk, then you can learn to sing – maybe not brilliantly, but at least adequately. It's just a matter of technique – like walking, swimming, or riding a bicycle. Find a good teacher, and work at it.

Listening to great singers is a joy – but so is singing for yourself and your friends. Don't miss out on it for the rest of your life, just because some ill-informed person heard you hit a clinker and told you to give up.

Wassail!