Jake Mandell, the developer of the test, is a musician and medical-school graduate. He's the developer of several tests, including the one I took today. According to the Website:
While working at the music and neuroimaging lab at Beth Israel/Harvard Medical School in Boston, I developed a quick online way to screen for the tonedeafness. It actually turned out to be a pretty good test to check for overall pitch perception ability. The test is purposefully made very hard, so excellent musicians rarely score above 80% correct. Give it a try!The test was very simple. There were 36 sets of musical phrases. For each set you had to decide if the phrases were the same or different. Some of the sets were played by single instruments and some had a more orchestral feel. Each set began immediately upon the completion of the last, so you really had to pay close attention.. At one point during the test my phone rang. As much as I tried to ignore it, I couldn't, so I'm pretty sure I got all of those phrases incorrect.
My score wasn't even close to that of an excellent musician! However, I did score above the "Possible pitch perception or memory deficit" category.
I only got 44% - I've had many years of music lessons, but I always suspected I was tone deaf. I could play many instruments due to my photographic memory, but I can't hold a note in a bucket.
ReplyDeleteOK, I know this will sound crazy, but I scored 83.3%, and I have never had any musical training at all. Really. Is this for real?
ReplyDeleteSydney, at least you know your limitations.
ReplyDeleteEmom, maybe a new a new avocation is in order?