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I scored 24 out of 30 in this test, that asks you if two melodies consisting of around 8-15 tones are different or exactly alike: http://www.delosis.com/listening/home.html
So I guess I'm only partly tone-deaf.

The article that links to the test: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4655352.stm

And a scientific study about tone-deafness (amusia): http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/125/2/238

Cool test buxtehude! I was getting really annoyed cause I thought the melodies were too complicated and I thought I was doing really badly but then I got a score of 28 out of 30. Go figure! :rolleyes:

Interesting test! I got 25 out of 30.

It says: Sorry the page you are looking for cannot be found.

27/30...

This test will destroy me. haha. I hate things like this because I want to be able to score 30/30 and I'm going to go back and listen to every one of those melodies until i get it right.

25/30...

26/30..

27/30... It says an average person will get somewhere between 15 and 30 so I think the people on this forum are doing quite good!

26/30. not so bad

fun test, i got 30/30 yaaay

Aaarrggghh, 27/30.

When in doubt, click "same". I followed this rule except for with one pair, and I think that's the one I got wrong. (29)

30/30

Wish school had been like that.

Still 29/30 at my second attempt . I should have followed Mark's advice.

You have to copy and paste the link, but you have to make sure you exclude the period on the end of the link, it's not part of it.

http://www.delosis.com/listening/measure.html

I got 29/30 on my 2nd attempt using Mark's advice.

29/30 on my first try! Yay me

I thought I was tonedeaf, but apparently not.

30/30

29/30 on the first try. I guess there is still hope.

Was pretty neat. I got 30/30 as well.

That was interesting...26/30 on the first attempt.

29/30... Im glad i did so good but ****ed because i only mised ONE!!!

wow ****ed is considered a curse? They say it on network television.

Thank you for your participation. You scored 30 out of 30.


This test is really easy though, the differences are very obvious when they happen!

27/30. i think i messed up, got a few wrong answers because I was at first listening for subtle differences in the first 6 or 7 questions. after that, as you say CrashTest, i realized the differences are glaringly obvious.

Jeanne W

27/30 on the first attempt.

To me this is more of memorization/concentration test than tone deaf test. Half way through the test, my mind was already start thinking about other things rather than paying attention to the aweful phrases.

Yes, indeed, but that's the whole point! There are people out there, who would never get more than around 15 right, because they suffer from total tone-deafness, amusia called. They just can't hear these half-note intervals and most music is just noise to them. Read the articles, I linked to!

(And I still have the worst score yet! )

30/30. I did this by listening for the 'wrong' notes - the ones that stuck out from the tonality. I think there are at least 2 ways to tackle this test: pure memorization and comparison, or by identifying the tonality and then spotting the wrong notes, without necessarily memorizing each individual phrase.

Takes insane forever to take lol what patience do you guys have? I couldn't take it after 10.

27/30

28/30. I would listen - think the phrase and then the mistakes seemed fairly obvious. I was doing to with distractions going on as well. I think I'll have some of my 3rd grade students do it. Might be interesting.

26/30

27/30. I thought I was tone deaf but now I feel alot better. These were pretty obvious.

Exactly, when I started the test I was listening like crazy to the melodies trying to compare them, but you don't really have to because all the "different" notes seem to be off key and easy to pick up.

24/30. Can anyone do lower than me :p

I got 30/30.

This was easy for me...30/30 on first try...tone memory is my forte Glad something is!

I'll bet 95% of the questions people are getting wrong are due to false positives. the ones that are different are truly difficult to miss and you don't even need tone memory - I think most of them sound like wrong notes.

28/30

I was just after talking to my friends today. I told them that I might be partially tone deaf, and if I was I would cry.

But thanks for the convinient timing reassurance!

i just took the test without listening to the first melody of each pair, only listening to the second, and guessed "different" if the second one sounded "wrong". I got 27 out of 30.

25/30 - I think I might have done the same thing as Jeanne W - after I got the hang of it - no problem.

It was fun.

25/30.
Damn! I should have been more careful!

Horace, that's interesting. Either you were very lucky, or the test isn't really designed to show what it claims to (as some have indicated).

Actually I agree with Horace - if you listen carefully to just the second melody, some of them sound "wrong" and those are the ones that are different. It's not a matter of trying to remember so much as having a clear mental picture of the key.

Hence the test IS doing what it claims - testing how secure you are within a key, rather than remembering a random series of notes.

You're right of course. I didn't think of that.

Virtually everyone, no matter how tone deaf, if they were raised with western tonal music on the radio, can hear the difference between a wrong note and a right one. The test is just this side of meaningless, IMO.

I don't think they can Horace - not if they are really tone deaf.

Definition of tone deaf:
"insensitive to differences in musical pitch"

29/30. Messed up one early on, because I was listening out for a subtle difference and convinced myself there was one. Once I realised they were glaring errors it was easier. I agree with Horace - the melody just sounded wrong where there was a difference. I'd like to know how completely non-musicians would get on.

However, felt all stressed and sweaty, like I'd regressed 20 years and was sitting the aural part of my music exam - the one where you had to sing the melody back!

I bet the results would be a lot lower if Arnold Schoenberg provided the samples.

Good one!

28/30

Very interesting site. I got 28/30 with the kids yelling at one another and the tv on.

Bill D.

Hi Bill, wellcome. Sounds familiar that with the kids yelling and the tv on!

29/30. I expect the site is trying to find people with extremely low scores. If you look at the contact form it asks how close you live to London. I wonder if you deliberately scored 15 and claimed to live within 20 miles of London if they'd get in touch.

I wondered if that was a trick comment though - the test seems to be from the University of Newcastle - perhaps they'll only get in touch if you're a musical dunce and live >200 miles from London!

28/30

i wonder why'd they asked us those things to fill in

Interesting...I live no where near London, scored 30/30, and they did get in touch with me. They wanted me to do further testing. Jeesh I don't have time for this! The original test was long enough!

Same for me, I missed the fourth one because even though I didn't notice a difference, I thought there might have been one

28 out of 30 for me.

27/30 and I'm very drunk. Still I should have scored 30. (hic) Unforgivable.

They should have sites that give this type of thing where you have to write it down just as fast. That would be helpful.

But you should, Andantina! I'm sure we would all enjoy your reports back from unknown territory.

28/30

And I was born on the National Potato Day in Peru... I wonder if that means something...

they're trying to see if ability to differentiate tones is heritable. So if you get an extremely high score (probably 30/30) or extremely low, they will ask you to do the test again, and also to provide some more information on your family members. Ideally they would like your family members to take the test too. I guess if you live close enough they might bring you in and stick electrodes in you. If you're lucky, that is.

Are you guessing, John?

my first try 27/30... they sent me a questionary.. and asked me to do the test again...

now I got 30/30

I guess the contact is automatic for those who fill the contact fields.....

I'm guessing about which people they ask to take a 2nd test, but not about the contents of the 2nd test and questionnaire.

26/30. Ok with me. But I still don't see how I missed those 4. Bastards!!

30/30.

Chris

Ok, so I gave in. I took the second test, and it was the same as the first! I wondered if there was something different at the end, but John, you were right. All they wanted to know was about my family and they asked me a bunch of questions about my family, like whether my mom and dad can sing in tune and stuff like that. Well it remains to be seen whether they want more out of me.

29/30. I should have read CrashTest's comment before taking the test.

Well, if I cannot get this right then I'm useless as a pianist. I got the idea wrong from the beginning as did others, so when I realized what we were looking for got more correct.Score 23/30.

At first I was listening for what appeared a 'wrong note' harmonically, thinking they were simply repeating the same phrase.

To then, re-listen by going over again was not my way. Mine was a dismal effort.

As some know, I have no formal training nor informal training at playing the piano. And have done for 70 years +

I play by ear and have a good memory for music Jazz , blues and the popular song from which many are based upon.

So a missed opportunity.

This test is a memory test basically. And secondly a intelligence test of reading/understanding the question. Easy, when you know what it is meant to be.

And I think to do the thing twice or more is not a pure test.

I rate my pitch as excellent, as it should be, especially playing along with other groups or soloists on recordings. I think there is no pianist that posts here that is tone deaf in any sense of the term.

Newcastle Uni. should stick to it's idigenous courses like Marine Engineering, not abstract musical matters and geographical distances from the North-East of Britain to the Capital.

Alan.

30 out of 30.

the "different" melodies are always dissonant!

Funny test.

Thank you for your participation. You scored 29 out of 30.

I even know my mistake. I clicked on different while I knew it was the same .

29/30 in my only attempt, and I think exactly wich one I got wrong, the one I listened to while I ate a cream cracker... =(

26/30. Thought I did better. But are the questions different for each participant? I'm certain there was more than one pair of melodies that were different.

I retested and scored 30/30.

Finally managed to download the test.

29/30 first attempt is ok I think

Ragnhild