Are you tonedeaf?
 

About 5% of all people are tonedeaf. Most of these people also have no idea, except maybe a lingering suspicion after friends or family gently tell them they cant sing worth a damn. Music apparently sounds different to them than to the rest of us. For these people, if a note is slightly off, due to a hearing defect, they simply cant tell. That is also why you get these hilariously bad singers on american idol who are convinced they can sing, because to their ears, they are repeating what they heard from the radio.

Here's a couple of tonedeafness tests I found, which also functions as a way to possibly tell if your sense of pitch is above average. If you are near the bottom of the bell curve, you might be tonedeaf. If you have a perfect score, you might (probably not) be one of the rare 1 in 10,000 people with perfect pitch. Where do you score?

I scored 86.1% in the short test, and got 26/30, 27/30 in the longer test. Not excellent, but seems to be decently above average.

I have perfect pitch, actually. From a very early age, if somebody played a note on a piano without me looking I could tell them which note it was and in what octave.

Since I became trained in music, I could tell the difference between temperaments on early keyboard instruments versus regular equal temperament tuning on most pianos. I've gotten so people can sit on the piano and I can name all the notes from bottom to top that are being played. For mostly diatonic music (pop, rock, some jazz, anything that's in a main key or mode) I can name the key and tell you the modulations.

Let me tell you, chicks dig it.

I have perfect pitch and that test was annoying. I couldn't get through the second part. WAY too long.

Furthermore, that test, IMO, was about relative pitch and memory. All of the motifs started in the same key. They generally moved a note by a semitone to create "confusion".

Personally, I don't think this test can determine the ability to determine pitch.

As a matter of fact, pick 10 songs out of your iTunes catalog, then tell me what key they're in.

Then, we can talk. :D

I just took the test. I totally agree. Not worth it.

By the way, if I ever make it out to California I'm going to go to your house and we'll settle this like gentlemen. We'll get an objective source and have a perfect pitch-off. I used to do this with a few friends when I went to Eastman, and I would always beat them.

You're on! I'll make sure to have at least 12 of your favorite beers on hand. For the crying part.

:D

I don't have perfect pitch. I scored 100% on that test.

Someone get that man a beer.

You have the patience of Moses.

They really should call that a memory/pitch test

Oh, I know some games we can play if alcohol is involved. Set up 12 varieties of liquor or beer. Each variety corresponds to one of the 12 tones in a scale. Then you play some 12-tone stuff by Schoenberg, Boulez, or one of those guys. For every half step you miss on each of the notes, you take a drink of that particular substance. It was never a problem for me, but a lot of guys would get drunk pretty ****ing quickly if they screwed up one note and off-set the rest of the row.

Sounds like fun! What instrument would you like to use for this test? Double bass? Cello? Mini-Moog?

Piano would be all too easy. :D

I figure it would just be a CD recording of an orchestra. But realistically it could be anything.

I am a bitch. I got 83.3%

Nope. Benn playing and writing music since age 10.

I have no musical training and a memory deficit

That test was ****ing reeruned. I made it through 4 pairs and couldn't take it any more.

I had a friend with perfect pitch in college, and for her, there was no screwing up of any notes because nothing was subjective. A note was concrete, like reading it on a page - there wasn't any "I think that's an Ab". She could listen to very complex musical passages and name every note perfectly - it was wild. That's my understanding of perfect pitch, and that if someone really has it, they won't be wrong. It's something they were born with, not something they learned.

People with really good relative pitch can almost fake having perfect pitch, but they aren't always right, and it takes a lot more effort than someone with true perfect pitch.

It's possible I have some misconceptions due to only knowing one person with perfect pitch, but your quote caught me as odd...

This. While there is some pitch involved in some of the samples, it certainly is not all about pitch.

I have tar pitch.

And I almost got run over once, too.

FAX

Yep. I've also known two people with true perfect pitch back in my conservatory days. Frankly, I don't believe either one of these guys. I'd probably believe good or very good relative pitch, but perfect pitch... no, I just don't buy it. The two that I knew, you could name a note and they could sing it, no hesitation, and be dead on, every single time. There's no "half step" off, ever.

Dane doesn't lie

Try me. When I was at Eastman and we had sight-singing exams, I got all the melodies, but I had trouble with singing in solfegg (do re mi fa sol) because a note wasn't a "do" or a "ti" but it was a B or an Eb. That's how I thought of each note, and going out of my way to make the conversion to solfegg was a complete drag.

The only time I've gotten pitches incorrect was when somebody played a random glob on the piano and I might have confused a D in one octave with another in the upper or lower octave. These were 20-note clusters, so the mistake is understandable.

They need some sort of a meter for lyrics comprehension. Because, I can tell you, I'm wrong about lyrics about 90% of the time. I have no idea what it is, but I am the classic buffoon who gets the lyrics wrong to any given song. I wish I could remember a full compendium of the more hilarious mistakes I've made; one I CAN remember is a recent song from The White Stripes. After an argument and an ensuing Google search, I realized I was wrong. The lyrics are:
I've been waiting for the doorbell, when ya gonna ring it, (when ya gonna ring it?)

I thought it was-- and I'm completely serious about this-- I've been waiting for the gold, man, when ya gonna bring it (When ya gonna bring it?)

Well, I do NOT have perfect pitch, and I got 9 out 10 sight-singing exams, and probably 8 out of 10 solfège (which is a complete drag; on that, we agree :D).

28/30, 28/30 vOv

Always thought I was decentish at um, whatever this is measuring. But yeah, I barely even realize there are lyrics sometimes.

This is so fascinating.

I have little musical aptitude, but I certainly know that my singing absolutely sucks. I hear the song, try to repeat it, and go "wow, dude, I suck." So I think I'm good on the tonedeaf thing. :D

It's also what shocks me when I watch people suck it up on American Idol. I mean, I'm terrible, but i KNOW I'm terrible. These people genuinely seem to have no clue how bad they are. WTF?

Oh **** that. I did part 1...and now I have to do 30 more tones? **** THAT!

No kidding.

I exited, with prejudice. And to that note (pun intended) I also think that this test isn't testing perfect pitch, nor relative pitch. It's a short term memory test. And mine is horrible, especially when the notes are a-tonal and seemingly random.

I have decent relative pitch. But I can't just pick out a note and tell you what it is. Not really anyway. What I CAN do, is imagine a song I know well, like "Hotel California" and imagine the color of the top b in the first chord and then derive whatever note I hear based on the interval from that note. It's weird. But that's pretty much the only I can do it.

Like, as I was typing this, I was hearing the bass line to "Ain't No Sunshine" in my head. A---E-G-A-------. I can "hear" those notes, but only if they're in context with the song. Maybe I just never worked on it. Weird. I also hear them in the octaves of the guitar much easier, since that's my instrument.

Yeah, same here... eff that noise.

I'm pretty sure my best friend in college was tone deaf. It really blew my mind how he could be singing along in the car and the singer would go up and his pitch would go down...... he had no idea how off he was.

I'm pretty sure that's me, too. I never sing though, because it's too embarrassing even when there's no one around.

/sigh

That's a bummer. Did you ever take piano lessons? Personally, I think that should be a mandatory requirement for children, whether they like it or not. IMO, it's just as important as mathematics and reading at a young age because music is not only math, it's repetition, which is good training for young minds.

Totally agree, but I'd add that music includes math (durations, fractions), language (written music is essentially a foreign language), technical aspects (embouchure and fingerings)... experts say it's the only thing in school that uses both sides of the brain.

Nope, I can't read music or anything. I just pretty much listen to it. To be fair, I did hear differences in the test that the OP linked, but I didn't feel like going further after the first 30. But yeah, music is a huge weakness for me.

Am I tone deaf? Yes.
Am I a god damned board certified crotch rocking stadium filling shower singing sensation? You bet your sweet, sugary tits my bald headed friend.