Musical / Listening tests
This site (tonemetric) is well worth a half hour of your time. These tests are developed to assess how we listen, our musical memory, how alert we are when enjoying music. You can take the tests using a laptop & cans, or through a desktop hifi. After each test, anonymous data is requested (age, any musical training, sex), after which your results are provided.
You can then go on to look at graphs showing how other members of the public did, although it's all anonymous (no email addresses or names are requested).
I thoroughly enjoyed wasting an hour on this site, which seems to have a point to it and some proper expertise behind it.
It's worth taking the 'Tonedeaf' test first, as each successive test will ask you for your score on this one. This is what the man behind it, Jake Mandell, has to say about this particular test:
You can then go on to look at graphs showing how other members of the public did, although it's all anonymous (no email addresses or names are requested).
I thoroughly enjoyed wasting an hour on this site, which seems to have a point to it and some proper expertise behind it.
It's worth taking the 'Tonedeaf' test first, as each successive test will ask you for your score on this one. This is what the man behind it, Jake Mandell, has to say about this particular test:
The original tonedeaf test, taken by over one million people. I created
this test while working at the music and neuroimaging lab at Beth
Israel/Harvard Medical School during medical school. In our research, we
were looking for neuro-anatomical correlates of tonedeafness and we
used this test as a quick screening test to see if subjects might be
suitable for our study. After you take this test you can compare your
results to tens of thousands of other subjects to see how "tonedeaf" (or
"musical") you really are.
Comments
My results:
All great fun, and at the end of the day it tells us nothing at all. Just a fun waste of time, but I enjoyed the challenge.
Post your results too!
Or...
I think I'm Mr. average...
Adaptive pitch test: Accurately measure your pitch perception abilities 59th percentile
How well can you distinguish subtle differences in rhythm?: 64.0% Correct (for some reason it didn't offer a percentile rating, and I didn't note my adaptive pitch frequency).
Tone deaf 77.8% Correct 57th centile
Musical-visual intelligence: Total Score: 85% (Again no percentile was offered.)
Annoyingly, I seem to have recorded some my scores differently to Alan. Being a competitive tit, I always look for the percentile (and often wish I hadn't). Looks like I am ever so slightly less (well within the error margin I'm sure) tone deaf than Mr. Brown, but that he bettered my musical-visual intelligence. This I can put down to the extra LSD tabs that he has consumed. @-)
Some of the pitch and tone deaf tests reminded me of a Grade 5 music exam (unpleasant), whilst the rhythm tests put me in mind of the 1991 rave scene (pleasant).
Anyway, I'm just pleased and relieved that the objectivists are now not merely able to measure how enjoyable our kit is, but how well our brains enjoy music.
:P