Background - 10 years of trombone, stopped 6 years ago

Adaptive - 6 Hz, 84th percentile

Rythm - 68%, 31st percentile, might explain why that jazz career didn't work out.

Tonedeaf - 83%, 79th percentile

Also, I got bored with the last two halfway through each.

God that was depressing... when I was a kid, I could tune a violin by ear. I scored 66.1% correct on the tonedeafness test, and 1.95 Hz the first time, 2.1 Hz (42nd percentile!) the second time on the adaptive pitch test.

6hz, 72% rhythm, 80.6% (not) tonedeaf.

But then I did the pitch thing again and got 3.9hz, and the rhythm one and got 84%.

2: 2.1Hz is quite good on the pitch test and tuning a violin by ear isn't all that difficult. I tune my guitar by ear all the time, and my pitch test was 3.2Hz, which is fairly mediocre. I'd have a lot of trouble tuning a piano, though.

The tonedeaf test is more about melodic memory than pitch. I got a 91.7% on that one.

I still can't get the rhythm one to load.

I think I may be too Becks-style to do this properly.

Either that or I need to seriously clean the wax out of my ears. Also, B is a giant chicken.

The *really* interesting experiment will be to try again tomorrow and see how I do when I'm sober.

And then ... 3.6 Hz! Still not so good.

4: you're sure right that the tonedeaf one is about melodic memory. And the rhythm one is about rhythmic memory. In both I would say the methodology is flawed (and for me, got boring too quickly to finish).

Adaptive pitch: 0.6375 Hz

The tonedeaf one has been around for a while, right? I think the first time I saw it I did much better.

1.8Hz.
68% on the rhythm. Lots of trouble with this one.
72.2% correct.

on the tonedeaf one.

It's a wonder I can distinguish the spoken word, apparently. I only took the adaptive, and I was Low-Normal.

Damn, what's wrong with me with the pitch test? I'm not even close to your scores.

I think I'm the anomaly with the good pitch but the weak other areas. I haven't played music in (gulp) six years, but damn.

I was semi-reliably distinguishing below 1 Hz difference. My experience was that at this level, one tone would seem lower or higher but I wouldn't say I could hear the difference.

Just took it again and got a 1.5, but I don't think laptop speakers are really up to the job.

Exactly what do you think you'll win here, ogged?

That remark should be directed at Ben. My pitch score was high enough that I was slightly concerned about my hearing, and it didn't accord with my experience that I tend to be pretty sensitive to differences in sound, so I took it again, you envious little gaylord.

I got only 3.5 hz on the pitch, but I got 84% on the rhythm the first time (and I think I would have gotten over 90% if I hadn't been listening too hard for differences on a couple of the first ones because I didn't know how big the differences would be). I got 84% on the tonedeafness.

I'm a pianist, and took lessons for about 11 years, and still play difficult pieces regularly.

15: I agree; it just "felt" higher or lower.

16: I had to use headphones to break 1.5.

15: Yeah, that's what it felt like for me. I could tell it was off, and I could sort of predict which way it was off around .75Hz, but I couldn't hear it.

I found the teachers' edition and am going to cheat.

I'm going to say it's my crappy speakers that are holding me back.

Adaptive pitch: 3hz
Rythm: 84%
Tonedeaf: 69.4%

Tim doesn't like being low-normal, but he does like to project.

I took the pitch one again and got 2.5 hz. Doubt I could get any better than that.

25: I did it again and got 1.2 Hz. Sniff the glove, my friend.

only did the first one, 1.275Hz

8 years of tuba, haven't picked up one in 8 or 10 years. But I'm using a decent pair of headphones, Sennheiser 485's, so that probably helps.

76% rhythm. I gave up on the other one--it made me sad. (The rhythm one also seemed like a memory test; weren't the phrases sort of long?)

Lessee, pitch I can reliably distinguish at about 3.3, which they say is 28th percentile; rhythm, I got 76%, which is the 58th percentile; and 77.8% on the tone deaf, which is in the 57th percentile.

Pretty good for an old white lady, no?

I bet I could do better if I actually paid attention to the first few samples; my attention span tended to get better once I realized that the differences were going to be pretty slight. Duh.

Also if Ben weren't chattering at me during the rhythm test.

Also if Ben weren't chattering at me during the rhythm test.

Ben doesn't exist unless he's commenting.

I'm like Antaeus that way.

I scored in the 0.0% percentile in the pitch difference test the first time I took it. Careful retaking of of the test pulls me up to the 14% percentile.

With laptop speakers, no retakes, and after a couple beers:

Tone: 4.5hz, 16th percentile.
Rhythm: 72 percent correct, 44th percentile.
Tonedeaf: 66.7 percent, 18th percentile.

So I'm a musical retard. On the other hand, I also know that there's considerable selection bias on this thread on one or all of the stages of (a) taking the test at all, (b) completing it and (c) reporting the results. Thirty-odd responses and we've seen a bunch of 60s to mid-80s and even some >90 percentiles. And yet me and Joeo are the first people to report a percentile score anywhere in the bottom half the distribution. Unfogged, where all the men are Iranian, all the women are nubile lifeguards, and all the commenters (except Joeo & me) are above the median.

4.8 on pitch, 68% on rhythm, 72.2% on tonedeafness.

me and Joeo are the first people to report a percentile score anywhere in the bottom half the distribution

Is that right? Your scores look a lot like other people's scores.

4.5 pitch; I got a 7.8 at first, w-lfs-n got a 6.

72 rhythm; B got a 76, Cala got a 68.

66.7 tone; I got that too, 69.4 for sam k, 72.2 for Cala.

Is that right? Your scores look a lot like other people's scores.

Without knowing the standard deviation, that tells you nothing, though. The absolute difference can be very small while the relative one is huge.

Don't math me, people. Anyway, some of his scores were better than people other than Joeo.

38: Actually you're right -- looking again I see many people just reporting percentages which I thought were percentiles as I skimmed the thread. And the first couple of comments have sub-50th percentile scores.

So I'm an illiterate musical retard. Great.

At least you have beer.

There's none left. I drank it.

Though given my scores I might as well Bang on a Can now.

With the pitch one, a lower percentile rank is better, no? You want a low score, and the percentile is the percent of people who scored beneath you.

Yeah I noticed that when I took the test. A bass ackwards way of reporting the results given that what you really want to know (with the percentile score) is how many people were able to make finer tone discriminations than you.

46: Actually, I think you want the opposite.

Depends what you want to use the information for.

Well, since one is just 100% minus the other, it doesn't make a huge difference.

Actually, I think you want the opposite.

Nah, seeing as I score in the two two or three percentiles on all tests I take* it's easier to find out who scored higher than me because it's a much smaller number.

*Excluding tests of musical ability, simple reading comprehension, mathematics, driving, analytical writing, art history, Iranian music and orthography of female characters from King Lear.

I'm tired and quite hungover, but:

tonedeaf 63.9%
adaptive pitch 3.3hz
rhythm 64%

All disappointingly low. I did the tonedeaf one before and got a rather better score.

Ironically, when given an actual instrument to play, I have a pretty good melodic memory and pitching and (not bragging) I'm a pretty good rhythm guitar player (much better than I am as a lead player). Also, I actually can't listen to some people sing or play music because they are just to far ahead of (usually) the beat.

The tone-deafness test is, imho, too long. I was totally bored and not paying attention by about halfway through.

77.1% tonedeaf (just like B!)
distinguish 2.1 Hz.

I am a guitarist-pianist-master-of-none, player of unfamous rock music.

And I should go read a book now.

Everybody knows that Iranians have rhythm.

OT: I was just clicking around this site and discovered that there's a comment feed. Now I'm trying to get my head around that idea.

A comment feed. At Unfogged.

The mind boggles.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

Damn, what's wrong with me with the pitch test? I'm not even close to your scores.

I just took it three times in a row. I got 31hz, 9hz, and 49hz. By certain lights, you did well.

I just got an 88% on the rhytmn, though. Some consolation that I'm not all terrible.

Adaptive pitch: 0.9 MHz
Rhythm: 80%
Tonedeaf test: 94.4% correct

Not bad considering I haven't played in years.

"0.9 MHz" s/b "0.9 Hz" obvs.

Pitch: 0.9, rhythm 76%, tonedeaf 88%. But I'm supposed to do this for a living (play music, not take tests online) so I spent last evening trying to not stress about the ones I missed. Any one else get questioned about menstrual cycles? For a scientific study it's strange they left out the option of "post-partum and therefore not having a cycle", whatever the word for that actually is.

59 was Penny, forgot to sign, sorry.

I accidentally entered my gender as female on one of the test and got the menstrual cycles question. Thought that was a little weird.

I had managed to convince myself that difficulty with the relative pitch of semitones was normal. You people are ruining my life.

I got 1.35Hz, and only 63% on the tonedeaf quiz, but I don't buy that. I KNOW I was right on more than that.

Maybe I'm not understanding the instructions. Were we supposed to mark them different for differences in timbre or harmony? Or just the main melody?

Finally got the rhythm to load and ended up with an 84%.

I retook the pitch test just for giggles and discovered the replay button! I never used it on my first try. That made a huge difference. I ended up scoring a 1.875Hz this time.

For reference, I've been playing guitar (classical) for nearly 30 years and singing since about when I could talk, still in practice and performing but not as my primary occupation. I'm a serviceable player on various drums and percussion instruments, have done some choral conducting, a novice at piano/keyboard and will attempt to play any musical instrument poorly on command.

63: I was listening for differences in both harmony and melody. I didn't notice many variations based just on timbre.

I'm most disappointed by my rhythm score. I'd discovered the replay button by then (hadn't noticed it on the pitch test) but still only managed 80%. Guess there's a reason I was never a rhythm section player.

This morning, on real speakers, I scored .975hz (74th percentile) on the adaptive pitch test, but exactly the same on the tonedeafness test.

But I am totally using this:

"C'mon, why don't you want to dance?"
"It's not me, it's my cerebellum."

I hadn't noticed the replay button at all.

weird. i don't think of myself as musical. but i got 77.8% on tonedeafness, 88.0% on rhythm (which is close to "world class performance"), and can apparently reliably distinguish tones that are 1.05Hz apart.

i'm weirded out by this.

it's weird.

now i have to think up some other reason for why i can't sing. all right then.

It's because you've neglected your talent, all these years.

6Hz on the adaptive pitch test, but I'm blaming hangover and laptop speakers.

Don't remember my exact numbers on the other two, but it was about 84% on rhythm and 83% on tone.

63: The identical ones are identical; the different ones are different in melody and/or harmony, which can lead to perceived difference in timbre, but they aren't different solely in timbre.

I think.

And that's before I swabbed out my earwax, brethren and sistren.

On retest, 1.125 Hz.

/strut

I'm loving how this became a contest.

1.35 hz
68 percent on the rhythm
91.7 th percentile on the melody

.375 Hz, bitches. But then again, I have perfect pitch, so.

77: It's not a contest. But just so everyone knows, I did my tests wearing earmuffs and with only one speaker, while chugging straight whiskey with my right hand. So hah.

69: mmf!, do you not play music *at all*? Sing in the shower, anything?

81: i used to play the clarinet as a child. some piano as a little kid, 6-10 or so. and i grew up listening to classical music.

sometimes my boyfriend and i play around when we're cooking or hanging out domestically together by singing phrases of music or snatches of nonsense sounds at the other one and letting them answer it. as a kid, he was a boy soprano who recorded cds on a major record label. so, i have always felt slightly sheepish in these moments because i am not a Trained Singer. now maybe i will feel less sheepish. think of all that Wasted Talent!

In my experience singing is an independent skill. I can hear, reliably, when an instrument is out of tune and can hear when other singers are out of tune but can't sing reliably in tune myself [I have a truly awful singing voice].

80: You used speakers?! That's practically cheating!

Woo-hoo! I got 3.9 Hz, 28th percentile. Tuning violins pays off.

Years of music training have definitely paid off.

0.168 Hz, 99.7%
83.3% right on tone
72% right on rhythm

F?

OK, if we're going to go all stock-ticker-ish with the single letters, dibs on X. Man of steel.

I thought the pitch test was good, but I got board with both the rhythm test and the tone deaf test and bailed out (0th percentile for patience).

I got board

Obviously you were made for a life of carpentering, not taking musicy tests on the nets.

(Which one of Joy, Bobby and Calvin are you?)

I got a weird gap between my pitch and rhythm scores and my tonedeafness score.

Pitch: 2.4 hz, 42nd percentile
Rhythm: 72% correct , 44th percentile
Tonedeafness/melody: 83.3%, 79th percentile.

Music has always been very important to me, but something I didn't understand much and wasn't very good at. I've always felt sheepish for finding so much importance in something that I knew so little about.

90: I am Bobby. I have dreams that Calvin will grow to be a great musician. Not like his dad... I am a crummy musician, though I do enjoy what little skill I have.

I'm a half decent carpenter, though...

84: Well, when I say "speaker," it was only a piece of cardboard with a woofer drawn on it...

I've taken up the harmonica.

Let's hear it.

Oh, you silly.

text arrives in the west.

My dad visited the set of that movie but was too shy to talk to any of the actors.

Bronson's pretty talented. It's hard to hit those flat notes.