Comments on: Measure your pitch perception abilities in 3 minutes!

by: John Fischer

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 05:11:29 +0000

Hi and thanks for posting these wonderful tests! I took the Tonedeaf and the Pitch perception tests. I believe the result of the Tonedeaf test could be considered better “science” than the Pitch differences test. Although, that said, I like the approach to the Pitch test better and believe it’s measurements, results and ultimate conclusions on a broad basis would be more accurate if each subject had a better controlled environment. For me, I had many uncontrolled contributions to the sound field, thus as the pitch tests differential became tighter the ambient sounds (i.e.: kids, wife, computer fan, etc.) became an absolute impediment in drawing a conclusion. All I really mean by that is perhaps suggest they take that test while wearing headphones. Of course, to be more precise, a comfortable db level should be consistent among all subjects. Obviously, that would be nearly impossible to control but it can be reasonably assumed that it would be listened to at a comfortable level. Nonetheless, however, the test process is brilliant and I wish you great success in your studies of this intersting science!

by: Betty

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:39:14 +0000

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take the pitch test and the tone deaf test. I have always had difficulty differentiating between people’s voices on the telephone, and I only appreciate the lyrics in music, because the sounds don’t seem to mean much to me. Now I know why.

by: T

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:47:08 +0000

I found this test quite self-informative. I have a meningioma brain tumor that impinges on my auditory nerve. I have minor deafness and tinnitus but I had hoped that I might still be able to discern pitch and tone. Maybe I didn’t have the ability before the tumor!

by: Victoria

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:19:27 +0000

I couldn’t see my score either, just demographic questions.

Although the lowest I could get to was .1875

by: vocalist

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 06:58:01 +0000

Seems that quality of the speakers affects to the results. With headset at work I score 3 - 1 hz but at home the it’s always easy to get under 1 hz…

by: Stephen

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:06:46 +0000

Did you chande the kind of tone used for adaptive pitch test on the 8th April? I took the test in March and it sounded as a different tone was used, less noise was heard with the tone before and more noise now. If that is in fact so, please switch the tone back to the old one, it sounded way better and was easier with the test.

by: Daniel Hawkins

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:47:34 +0000

Practicing helps, and missing one by accident early on greatly affects the score, which is probably what the person who commented above me experienced. I first got around 0.85, then brought it down to 0.265. I’ll keep working at it. Interestingly, sometimes at the really small differences I can tell immediately and with great certainty that I’m right, and other times it takes me many, many retries and I may still end up wrong.

by: Conor

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:02:28 +0000

Tara — the two tones will become very close together, much closer than the standard Western half-step, but will never be _exactly_ the same. If you can’t tell the difference, it means you’ve passed the threshold where your ear isn’t quite sensitive enough to differentiate between the pitches. The whole point of the test is to determine where that threshold is.

First try I got 1.2 Hz. Second try I turned the volume up a bit and used the “replay” button a little more. I spent a lot of time in the 0.09375 Hz area, and even pushed it down to 0.046875 Hz briefly. The final result shown was .95625 Hz.

No complaints there, but I can’t help but wonder about this result, because A) I seemed to be holding pretty steady at 0.09375 Hz, yet the end result was ten times higher; and B) .95625 Hz was not actually a frequency that was tested. Any enlightenment?

by: Tara

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:41:41 +0000

I was enjoying the test until I had a tone sample with two of the same notes. There is no same button, only lower or higher. I clicked higher to get to the next tone and I knew I was wrong. A few tones later, I came across the same sample. Both tones were the same, no change. I clicked lower, knowing I was wrong, again.

If you’re going to put up a sample of two notes that are the same, there should be a same option, not just lower or higher. Or better yet, if you’re not going to give a ’same’ option, don’t put the example on there in the first place. Otherwise, all of us that are taking the test are never going to get 100% and your results will be skewed!!

by: thom

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:43:39 +0000

very nice tests but there should be more of a pause in the pitch test cause now the click of the mouse interferce with the pitches