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Check to see if you're tone deaf!

jakemandell.com — Greater than 90% = world-class musical abilities

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  • Chicagoland, on 10/12/2007, -24/+7Hey this is great.

    I got eighty percent of the questions correct, that makes me feel good because i have zero professional training.
    • radu79, on 10/12/2007, -34/+1I am using Opera 9, and all I can see there are some google ads at the bottom...
    • r2builder, on 10/12/2007, -39/+10firefox firefox firefox.
    • lib24, on 10/12/2007, -10/+138Beethoven would fail.
    • plarp, on 10/12/2007, -5/+79Service Temporarily Unavailable

      i must be tone deaf
    • LR2_, on 10/12/2007, -2/+71I got a hold of the swf and uploaded it to sendspace. You can find it here. http://www.sendspace.com/file/ktfu25

      I tried to put it on imageshack but they have a 1.5mb maximum. Also, sorry for hijacking this comment.

      .enjoy.
    • SkeletaLlama, on 10/12/2007, -31/+7Wouldn't this give wildly inaccurate results because everyone's different speaker and headphones?
    • IcerC, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I got 75 and I am horrible with keeping a tune.. this is really different, this is just compare and contrasting.
      Here is the swf.

      http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v300/IcerC/?action=view¤t=OnlineScreen.swf&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1
    • lightyear, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15@SkeletaLlama

      No. The distortions would affect both samples equally.
    • mage1129, on 10/12/2007, -6/+106@lib24

      Of course Beethoven would fail, he is dead.
    • jhendrix86, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Pitch is natural my man...yes you can do ear training, but everything is natural. If you're naturally tone deaf, you're mostly screwed. So it doesn't matter if you've never had training.
    • JoeCool1986, on 10/12/2007, -2/+59I'm a music major and this test seems to only show if you're actually tone deaf, in other words, you REALLY can't tell between two pitches at all. And I think actually only about 1% of the population cannot match pitch at all. If you can match pitch (i.e. 99% of the people taking this test on here most likely), this is more of a memory/pattern test than anything...
    • achacha, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1@lib24

      Of course Beethoven would fail, became deaf in the 30s... but still wrote tons of music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethoven
    • dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1280.6% here. I play guitar and used to play piano.

      "Pitch is natural my man...yes you can do ear training, but everything is natural. If you're naturally tone deaf, you're mostly screwed. So it doesn't matter if you've never had training."

      Not true. Ask any singing instructor, and they'll tell you that you can teach *anyone* to sing well. There's no reason to be condemned to being "naturally tone deaf."
    • Thater, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7damn, I got 88.9% So close to world-class musical abilities! I suppose it's not important that I can't really play any musical instruments.
    • Soniti, on 10/12/2007, -4/+880.6 as well-

      Interesting test. I suck at music, but wish I could play the guitar.. I have one, and don't pick it up because I'm self conscious lol..


      ~Soniti
    • MusicalGenius, on 10/12/2007, -44/+7You are all morons. I have perfect pitch and I am a rythm expert. This is the worst made test I've ever heard.

      A test meant for testing and a test meant for confusing. Which is this?

      There were times that the volume was the only difference. I wasn't sure what THE TEST wanted, I could state every difference and similarity. I could remember every note which came out of my speakers(which are BOSE by the way, :).. ) But still, the test doesn't comprehend, this is why it is bad. A computer cannot test what a brain can achieve. It was poorly made. Good idea, poorly executed...
    • aquax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32@MusicalGenius
      I wouldn't go around calling myself a "musical genius" if my big claim to fame was a Bose system. Any moderate audiophile knows that Bose is mostly hype, and very little substance.
    • taylorhayward, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I got a 66% but I'm a composer. :-
      here's my music. http://taylorhayward.org. 33% crap?
    • MrSidnet, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Taylor

      Just listening to your 5 tracks you posted, and so far, I'm hearing 100% good. I was expecting only 66% good.
      Nice work.
    • shitthisfook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I am one of the few people here to get a 91 on the tonedeaf test and a 28/30 on the delosi test (below). But I don't think I have perfect pitch... I just happen to make music a lot. Like another poster said, this does come off as more of a memory test than a tone test.

  • kreed, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I got 83.3 and I've always been crap at music.
    • hoowahman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+383.3 here as well..
    • raindogmx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Yoohoo 83.3 too!

      I guess I had some wrongs because I doubted and pushed the red button.
    • dizzydigg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+986.1 - I'm a music teacher....
    • nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -14/+591.7 % bitches.
    • duality, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9I also got 86.1%, and I have perfect pitch.

      I found I had to rely heavily on my perfect pitch to make things easier. For complex phrases, I close my eyes and try to visualize the proper keys on a piano keyboard lighting up at the same time, thus translating sound memory into visual memory. (It works most of the time, but not always.)

      Also, one major difficulty was trying to identify whether chords were the same or different. Two chords next to each other is easy, but it's not so straightforward when you have two chords embedded in similar phrases where some note other than the highest one is most likely to be different.

      In general, I also gravitated toward the "different" option when I wasn't completely sure.
    • KruseyJohn, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12You don't have perfect pitch
    • SuckMyDigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+283.3% and i accidentally clicked the wrong button on one (would've been higher).. I've never practiced an instrument for more than 5 minutes without getting pissed off and quitting.
    • rockorager, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@duality
      If you had perfect pitch you wouldn't have to try to visualize the notes on the piano...you would just know what they were...you probably have near-perfect relative pitch, like Eddie Van Halen
    • SunsOnFire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+183.3% here too. I play the guitar a little bit but don't have the ability to find the right fret while trying to find the notes to a song myself. I have some friends who have that natural ability though.
      I was pretty excited to get 83.3 because I wasn't sure about my choices for some of the notes.

      Question for guitar players/music experts:
      I have pretty thick fingers -- not stubby, but long and thick : ^ )
      Result :
      My fingers keep touching adjacent strings, which is annoying while playing chords.I use a guitar with reasonably well spaced strings. To top it all, I'm super skinny !
      Any suggestions on how to tackle my 'fat finger' situation?

      Thanks
    • SourSlurpee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@suns
      Arch your hand more to get more "on top" of the string, see where that gets you
  • mike626, on 10/12/2007, -3/+383.3 here as well, and I can't carry a tune.
    • apsudraconis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I think the test is just crap at describing what it means by "excellent musical abilities". I think this is supposed to be more about your ear's keenness for telling apart musical tones than describing your ability to produce them.
    • fohf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+383.3 for me too... I thought i was better than that.
  • SupaFupa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+58 i got 86.1%. If anything, Id say its more of a memory test than a musical ability test.
    • JJanetC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I agree. I only got 77.6% but I can read and play music on the trombone quite well. I could never memorize though... oh well.
    • Capta1nA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I go to music school and i got a 75.5%. I've always had problems in ear training when they use annoying sounds from Reason. I think everyone would score better with just sine waves or a piano.
    • dstz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sup 86.1% kamarat. I guess making music helps a little, somehow.
  • floridiot, on 10/12/2007, -97/+2Check to see if my tone deaf what? Please complete the thought.
    • Instrumental, on 10/12/2007, -3/+46you're = you are
    • pardonmedoug, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13How Bad Memes are Spread, Vol. I

      Thanks for being the first entry!
    • mercurysquad, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5flor-idiot.
    • floridiot, on 10/12/2007, -36/+2No ***** guys. I was making a joke, it was "your tone deaf". It got changed, thanks.
    • PhantomBantam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Perhaps it would have been understood if the submitter used "u r" instead. Priceless.
  • Mexrocker, on 10/12/2007, -6/+134 diggs and already down :(
    • BurtCokain, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4Hey, This is taken (probably without permission) from:

      http://musicianbrain.com/amusia_screen/OnlineScreen_content.html

      The real site doesn't go down easy as hell!
    • Amything, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Musicbrain.com thing is a spam trap I think, asks for email and no results shown.
    • Filksinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The website originally posted, www.jakemandell.com, is owned by Jake Mandell. He states he is former student at the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and, according to him, the creator of the test.

      Musicbrain.com is the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. It is not a spam trap, unless prestigious medical educational facilities have started spamming people. It lists Jake Mandell as a former member, as is claimed on his website.

      Now it is possible that this test was created at a school Jake Mandell formerly attended, but not by him, and was subsequently taken without permission by him from said school, altered to claim that it was copyrighted by him, and released on his website, with links back to the original source website. But I doubt it. More likely, the lack of results is due to it being Dugg.
    • Filksinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The last sentence of my previous message should read, "As far as the lack of response from www.musicbrain.com goes, it is probably due to being Dugg." Sorry about any confusion.
    • Filksinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0OK, OK. Musicianbrain.com is the correct website. Musicbrain.com probably is a spam trap. My error.
  • aaarrrgh, on 10/12/2007, -34/+5remove / digg down pls.
  • oxyrubber, on 10/12/2007, -35/+4If I'm expected to Digg an article, shouldn't I at least expect the submitter to spell check and GRAMMAR CHECK the article's title before submitting?
    s/your/you're/

    LOL - after I submitted my comment, the submitter changed the article title (to the correct grammar).
    • narduk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I believe the title to be grammatically correct.
    • milarepa, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4did oxy's precious eyes get hurt by the big bad grammar? boo grammar.
    • TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15you can't change the article title...
    • floridiot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Well it got changed somehow.
  • Volred, on 10/12/2007, -54/+16http://www.diggmirror.com

    First time posting a digg mirror link. Hope it works
  • racazip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Well, that one seems dead by all accounts... here's something similar. :)

    http://www.delosis.com/listening/measure.html
    • jayhawk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1130 pairs? come on, we have lives to live here.
    • SnowBladerX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I got 27 out of 30 right, or 90% on this one since the other link is down, I have very little musical experience too, but I do listen to ALOT of music, not sure if that makes a difference.
    • Renork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thank you for your participation. You scored 28 out of 30.

      A score of 30 is a perfect score; if you were randomly guessing you would get a score of around 15. Most people score somewhere in between. Depending on your score, we may wish to invite you to participate in further testing in the future.

      Please supply us with the folowing details, if you would be interested in taking part in our research please ensure that you supply an email address.


      I think I know what ones I got wrong too, I thought there was something wrong on the first tone and I thought it was a dirty trick to ***** you on the first one. I guess I was wrong and they were fine.
    • SaintFatMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+127 out of 30. Very strange because i cant sing worth ***** and have never played an instrument.
    • DownIsTheNewUp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+319 out of 30...that can't be good.
    • Renork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Did either of you get an invite for further research?




      Dear Daniel xxxxx
      We are delighted to say that over 45,000 people have taken the Musical Listening Test that was first posted on the BBC website. Thank you very much for your participation - you scored 28 out of 30.

      We have now selected a group of you, across the whole range of scores, to participate in the next stage of the research.

      Followed by information for a log in.
    • foshizol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I tried the Delois website. I scored 28 out of 30, which is weird for me. I've been playing guitar for 22 years, and I've never been able to pick up anything by ear, it's kind of a bummer because it kept me out of bands even though I used to be pretty good, everything I've learned on guitar someone taught me or, it was from reading tabs. I thought I would score a lot lower.

      How reliable are these tests?
    • barius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I managed 29/30, but I've played the piano since I was 5.

      I still didn't get an offer to help in their research :(
    • professorChaos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+127 out of 30
    • InternetUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+329/30 and an invite. 91.6% on the main one. too easy! oh and I make music in my spare time :)
    • pbryanw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+430/30 I can't believe it - I'm usually rubbish at surveys I find on Digg. The only way I can explain it is that I played guitar for three years and that may have helped.
    • pyropatti, on 10/12/2007, -1/+030/30 on delosis.com. 83.3 on the originally posted one. I vote for the delosis site!
  • speedfoot, on 10/12/2007, -15/+1why don't you check your grammar first. he used you're -> you are. sorry oxy...
    • bobbourland, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Are you talking? I think you're retarded.
  • Beaver6813, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah.. because the duggmirror is working brilliantly with that site...
  • weprin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+44Ha! I scored 503. Oh... wait...
  • troberts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31Is one of the questions "Are you Kevin Federline?"
  • Aleman360, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I know people who can listen to a note and tell you exactly how sharp or flat it is. I can't even tell what note it is. Guess that's why I never made it as a saxophone player.
    • Durinthal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Perfect pitch can be both a blessing and a curse.. I like to throw off my friends that have it by going microtones sharp or flat on specific pitches.
    • antique, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3that is not very impressive and different from perfect pitch.
    • wolfzombie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@Durinthal
      Perfect pitch is definitely a curse. You end up getting annoyed at every little noise you hear in real life. More things make you cringe like normal people would to nails on a chalkboard.
    • t0ken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I've met some people that can tell you what note a car door makes when it slams, its nuts (of course I wouldn't know if he was just making it up)... :|
    • rtfx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm pretty convinced that while there's perfect pitch, there's also timbre identification - the ability to name specific sounds, played a specific way on a specific instrument, exactly - and music teachers like my old trumpet instructor would confuse the two because when they tested for perfect pitch, they would be the ones playing the note, the way they ALWAYS demonstrate that note. Stands to reason that indentifying it by timbre would be a snap.

      I'm convinced this ability has to exist, and be more commonplace, because while I can do *that* kind of pitch identification, I become easily confused with other instruments(particularly when they are playing chords) and if I'm trying to transcribe the notes by ear, and don't have the same instrument available as what was recorded, sometimes I will be completely unable to figure out what the right notes are. With better interval training I might, but I definitely don't have perfect pitch.
  • CaptRage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow, all of these links are not working...people must really want to know if they are tone deaf or not.
  • ihaveduff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2ummm i don't NEED a website to tell me i'm tone deaf
  • deBSefyer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You scored 28 out of 30.
    Oh man, I'm great!!! :)
  • F1234K, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i got 29 out of 30 on that delosis one
    • SmokedL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Same here. Rather gratifying to someone that just likes to hum along to favorite songs :)
  • geekymonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Arg, I only got 28 out of 30. But I'm at work, so I had to listen by turning my speaker down and holding it up to my ear. :-)
  • chiapet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+225 out of 30 some get tricky
  • itisme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0thats a very simplistic musical ability test.

    Look at Monet's painting or Kurt Cobain's guitar for example, skewed representations but artistically beautiful. There are computer programs that could analyse and compare all musical phrases and return perfect comparisons.

    Creativity is a difficult thing to measure, if most people have a 50-60% perception rate on a musical phrase tests perhaps perfect pitch is an overrated skill in a musician.
  • chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+394.4

    I couldn't play an instrument if my life depended on it.
  • HelloNavi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+366%

    The test is definitely screwed though. There's no way being able to tell the difference between tones is a valid way to test musical aptitude.

    Appriciation/perception =/= ability to reproduce.
  • IcerC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I put it here.

    http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v300/IcerC/?action=view¤t=OnlineScreen.swf&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1
  • LEDDY, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6there is no such thing as "tone deaf"
    • HelloNavi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The test is apparently for tone perception deficit. Which does exist.

      Tone deaf isn't a proper word... er phrase... though.
  • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The dog howls when I sing, do I *really* need this test? :P
  • Tbab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I got 30/30, must be all that progressive metal I listen to. ^_^

    But seriously, all you have to do is listen for a discordant note in the second tune of each pair to tell if they're different. I found that usually there is a note that just doesn't sound "right," maybe it doesn't harmonize? I don't know what it is technically, but it sounds funky. Listen for that and you're golden, try not to depend so much on memory.
    • barius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I agree, the delosi test was kinda easy, not because the sequences are short, but because they follow a melody/rythm. If the sounds were more random I'd have much more trouble hearing differences.
  • obrysii, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I got a 54%. Whoo, I'm tone-deaf.
  • geoffoliver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I got a 73. I guess all those music lessons really paid off.
  • sheikmibouti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+288.3% and I took 4 semesters of Aural Skills and Music Theory
  • Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hmm.. one of those sounded like it was from FF 7 :D

    Makes me wanna pull out my PS one
  • milye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3When I was elementary school, in order to be in band, we had take a test by listening to the band teacher play one note and then comparing it with the second note. We were supposed to rate if it was the same, higher, or lower. I think that is probably more "scientific" than playing one melody and comparing it to the next because you can hear discord, or the part in the melody that makes you cringe, in the second one.

    Also, in the delosis test, they should have shuffled the order of which melody sounded "right" and which melody sounded "wrong."
  • PhillipL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+191.7 apparently i'm in the wrong business. I think i'll go for my dreams now, this test has convinced me because it seems so scientifically sound!
  • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -1/+172.2% Correct
  • Peynis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1got 80% right, but I think it's harder to remember the melodies than to notice the differences between them
  • sc0ticus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+194.4% Wohoo! This was pretty fun.
    • ebunton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Same here. I play piano and compose as a hobby
  • paulface12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't even know what I got... but this test is bogus. It tests memory. Now, if they wanted me to press the button when I heard something that sounded like musical feces, I think I would have aced it.
  • DJNewStyle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Here's a better test:

    Step 1: Play some house music.

    If you find that you enjoy the audio, congratulations: you are tone deaf.
    • Peynis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1how original, you could say the same about any other music genre
  • OmniMe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+175% correct
    never played a musical instrument in my life
  • TwinkieTheKid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+260% but my audiologist said I'd be deaf by 27 with my current rate of hearing loss.
  • writeman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Oh for crissakes. This is "purposely" made hard? It's a joke, right?

    95%. And only that because my headphones cut out during a couple of the tracks.
    • RandomGuySteve, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It's purposely made hard by being annoyingly easy, annoyingly long, and annoyingly thrown together in flash.

      36 x 2 tracks = Me saying "fark it, I'm not spending 20 minutes on a memory game...".
  • Intangir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1how do yall have yalls graded already? when i finished it, it told me to email an address
    a hotmail address...
  • autocracy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Perhaps many people here need to consider that it's very possible that 80% could be average and 90% could be stellar. Distribution doesn't have to fall on a 0-100 curve.
  • prgmctan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I got a 30/30. Then they had me retake it and I scored another perfect. I wonder how far they go with this. Has anyone else gotten similar results?
    • pyropatti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was asked to take a second test too after scoring 30/30 on the first one. Second test was 30/30 too. No email yet. I think I'm too far from London in that I could not participate in a study? Though if they offer to fly me there, I'm in!
  • Intangir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1hrm the version from the original site tells you to email, but the one the guy uploaded seperate worked and gave me a score

    i got 86.1%

    i couldnt tell if it was my imagination or what some differences were quite obvious but some were so subtely i wasnt sure if i was just 'hearing things' (pun intended)


  • dizzytaz00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+266.7% Correct
    Some of those tones Want to make me throw something across the room & my girlfriends says I'm deaf. Hmmmm???
  • brandonch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have perfect pitch and I only got a 28. This test is bogus, its only based on memorization. They would have to revise the experiment, shortening the duration while making the notes harder to distinguish. THAT shows if you're really tone deaf or not
    • jguerry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i agree brandon. i did well, though i didn't try too hard.

      i was expecting some colorful chords, but nothing like it should have been to test tone-deafness.
  • jguerry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+175%, though i'm sure i would do better with headphones and a quiet computer. damn cooling fan.
  • an0nim0us, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i got an 88.9%, though i was expecting a 90. aww well, 88.9 is close enough.
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