# Test your musical ear... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 22, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445 "2006-11-22T18:11:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/41 "2006-11-23T02:14:06Z")
88.9% here. I played cello when I was in school so this wasn’t surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/42 "2006-11-23T05:33:53Z")
20.2% Not bad considering I don’t have speakers on this computer. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/43 "2006-11-23T06:04:51Z")
88.9% I found it very hard though and am surprised I did that well. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/44 "2006-11-23T06:19:28Z")
I got 77%. My wife, who is a professor of music history and former semi-pro singer, got 94.4%. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/45 "2006-11-23T07:26:35Z")
[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate] 86.1% and I’m willing to be that most of my misses where ones that were the same, but I marked them as different. I think I was trying to listen for much more subtle differences then there really were. [/QUOTE] I think that’s what I did. I also had 86.1% correct. I’m not very musical, but several people I know are “low talkers”. So I’m used to listening very intently. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/46 "2006-11-23T07:30:34Z")
I got an 86.1 but my roommate and I were talking during two of the clips so I guessed on those. I’ll take it again tomorrow and see what I get. I’m a self taught guitarist and I figured a ton of stuff out when I was younger. On the pieces that I could picture the guitar fingerings for I knew pretty much instantly whether the second piece matched or not. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/47 "2006-11-23T09:43:23Z")
91.7% Correct. I’ve played guitar and sang (sort of) for 12 years. ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/48 "2006-11-23T16:40:56Z")
86.1%. I played the trumpet in Junior High (that’s Middle School, for all you youngsters), but otherwise I have no musical training and I don’t listen to that much music. Nor is my hearing that good. Maybe I just got lucky on a few of them. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/49 "2006-11-23T22:33:54Z")
86.1% Correct It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, being that I have perfect pitch. If one could go back and re-listen to the samples at least once I could have probably exceeded 90%. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/50 "2006-11-24T00:51:05Z")
So… pretty much everyone who is listing their results is way above average. I’m not sure if that’s strange or not. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/51 "2006-11-24T02:18:40Z")
80.6% - but I handicapped myself by doing this while my son was blasting drum corps recordings in the next room…and they sound great. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/52 "2006-11-24T03:00:42Z")
88.9 I’ve been into music since I was a kid. A decade or 2 of piano and I do a lot of sound work. On 3 of the questions I got wrong I simply wasn’t paying attention to the first phrase and since you can’t listen again, I guessed. I should have payed closer attention,I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/53 "2006-11-24T03:23:15Z")
77.8% I have had musical training but am not curently playing. Been thinking about guitar. For a little bit I was thinking that they were all different. I found the ones that played multi-part harmony the most dificult. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/54 "2006-11-24T03:51:00Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] So… pretty much everyone who is listing their results is way above average. I’m not sure if that’s strange or not. -FrL- [/QUOTE] Probably a bit self-selecting. If I had gotten, say, a 44%, I probably wouldn’t have returned here to report it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/55 "2006-11-24T04:16:01Z")
I took it twice and both times I scord 75.0. I had always prided myself on my ear so I’m sulking (and probably singing off key.) ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/56 "2006-11-24T13:58:34Z")
77.8%, but I’m very happy with that, because I’ve been told that I’m tone deaf. Obviously the reality is that I while I can’t hold a note, I hear them just fine. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/57 "2006-11-24T15:22:47Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] So… pretty much everyone who is listing their results is way above average. I’m not sure if that’s strange or not. [/QUOTE] I got 72% :eek: and I play guitar and sing, I blame a noisy office and being interrupted part way. I’m pretty sure my ear isn’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/58 "2006-11-24T17:07:01Z")
I also got a below average 72.2. I have no musical training. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/59 "2006-11-24T17:25:21Z")
72.2%, with musical training. After reviewing my scores on individual questions, the ones that I got wrong were completely different than the ones I thought I got wrong… During the test I kept wondering whether the chord structure changed between the first and second examples, but the ones I got wrong only had a single line. I also tended to erroniously call them different: I marked 7 as “different” incorrectly, vs. 3 as “same”. Of course, I’ve always know that my ear is pretty poor. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445/60 "2006-11-24T18:09:56Z")
61.1% I don’t think this says much about my musical ear or memory. I think this just reinforces my theory that I have really, really bad ADD. I kept zoning out halfway through the first tone, so when the second tone came on I was clueless as to whether it matched the first one that I only heard half of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-your-musical-ear/381445.md?page=4)