Just for fun...

[www.bbc.co.uk]

This is a test designed to find out how musical the population at large is. Don't worry, although it is on the Radio 3 website (BBC's classical station) it is not biased towards classical music.

I had a go a couple of weeks ago. Can't remember my exact scores now (they were not impressive!) For the record, I found out something I had always suspected about myself: I scored very high on musical curiosity and breadth of taste, but the reason I like so many things is that I just don't have a good enough "ear" to be able to tell good from bad! Very depressing, in a way, but on the whole me and my cloth ears like being so un-fussy. Gives me much more to enjoy. However, from now on I shall leave all discussions here about technical quality of music to those who are qualified to judge! (I'd bet Mathijs, for instance, would score very high on this).

but there is no universal good or bad - there's only what you like or don't like.

I write songs, play guitar, bass, harmonica, play around a bit on the piano. Does that count? hehe. I love music! I think everyone should at least try to play an instrument once in their lives.

My cover of 'Working Class Hero'




"Well my heavy throbbers itchin' just to lay a solid rhythm down"

Great test. Nice to do as well. Here are my results and I think they're correct:

enthusiasm for music: LOW (21%)
musical perception: HIGH (99%)
musical curiosity: LOW (1%)
emotional connection: MEDIUM (41%)
social creativity: HIGH (70%)

Any results from others? Just curious.

Edit: percentages added



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-01-26 23:01 by kleermaker.

Here are my scores.

enthusiasm for music: High (99%)
musical perception: High (99%)
musical curiosity: High (90%)
emotional connection: High (100%)
social creativity: High (83%)

It probably looks like I'm some kind of musical genius but I'm nowhere near. I just love it and I love playing my guitar/s. I guess apart from sleeping and eating and my wonderful wife music takes up my world...... I'm studying to be a Chartered Surveyor so go figure.

NickB

You can't always get what you want.....

www.myspace.com/thesonkings

Before my surgery, I was okay on harmonica. Sadly, I'll probably never get back there or even whistle again.

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StonesTod
but there is no universal good or bad - there's only what you like or don't like.

There's also universal good or (and) bad. Thank god.

enthusiasm 83 %
perception 99 %
emotional connection 23% (?)
social creativity 78 %
musical curiosity 65 %
-----------------------------

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kleermaker

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StonesTod
but there is no universal good or bad - there's only what you like or don't like.

There's also universal good or (and) bad. Thank god.

an example being?

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StonesTod

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kleermaker

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StonesTod
but there is no universal good or bad - there's only what you like or don't like.

There's also universal good or (and) bad. Thank god.

an example being?

Tod, I said Thank god. So I meant the 10 commandments of course.

very

I averaged 93 per cent across all catagories and am feeling rather smug!

I'm no schoolboy, but I know what I like..........................

Love music, used to bang on stuff when I was a kid because I wanted to play drums...
I had a plastic set when I was about 10, but realized at the age of 13 that a guitar was cheaper....
Play guitar and piano by ear.
How about this question: when did you discover air guitar? I was pretending to be the Beatles at a very young age....

Reminds me of Bill Wyman's comment in his coffee table book that Brian Jones knew more about music than the rest of the Stones combined. But he was nonetheless dispensable.

Hmmm, I scored 99% across all areas, but looking at some of the results I am skeptical...

I play several stringed instruments with a modicum of proficiency and wail on the harp. I've sung in bands off and on for 35 years.

I can easily take the Bass-job in Stones...

2 1 2 0

Green Lady ,I enjoyed very much doing the test ,it was fun !!

My scores :

Enthusiasm for music: High 76 %
musical perception: medium 81 %
musical curiosity: medium 65%
emotional connection:high 89%
social creativity :low 22%

They say I was very good at the " melody memory " test but obviously,I am not really ready yet to replace Charlie as a drummer



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

How did you get on with sorting out the sound clips?

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kleermaker

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StonesTod

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kleermaker

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StonesTod
but there is no universal good or bad - there's only what you like or don't like.

There's also universal good or (and) bad. Thank god.

an example being?

Tod, I said Thank god. So I meant the 10 commandments of course.

oh, you didn't make that very kleer. there are really 10 of those? damn me, then. i can only accept 3 or 4 at a time.

Enthusiasm High 88%
Musical perception High 98%
Emotional connection High 89%
Social creativity Medium 51%
Musical curiosity Medium 69%

Well it seems that social creativity depends on curiosity.Interesting.

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whitem8
Hmmm, I scored 99% across all areas, but looking at some of the results I am skeptical...

And rightly so! I just tested the test and filled in the musical test totally at random while I gave the most favourable answers to the written questions as for musical perception (agree, disagree etc). The result: Musical perception 100%!

So this is a very bad test, because the results of the musical test don't matter at all, and the results they gave in words (low, medium, high) or in percentage do say nothing about your musical perception.

The musical test scores are the only part that matters and you have to interpret your results yourself. For example: if you, like me, answered all the melody memory questions correctly, you scored well. The same goes of course for the 'group the music' test, the 'match the beat' test and the 'tap to the beat' test.

Conclusion: in the end a disappointing test.

yeah it was quite weird! on the music tests i put "i think so" virtually every time,
just because i hate being tested in music, and that seemed to weigh more than my answers.
when i looked at the actual results i got on the tests (except for the sort-the-clips deal) they were pretty accurate!
way better than i expected

>> How did you get on with sorting out the sound clips? <<

really bad, Green Lady - and you?
but i do kinda admire the fact that i raised me hands in protest about halfway through,
dragged the rest of the clips into spaces will-nilly and wound up with one of each genre in every "set" :E

i don't remember the percentages but:

Enthusiasm High
Musical perception Medium
Emotional connection High
Musical curiosity Medium
Social creativity Low

ENTHUSIASM FOR MUSIC 86%
MUSICAL PERCEPTION 98%
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION 41%
SOCIAL CREATIVITY 37%
MUSICAL CURIOSITY 96%

the lowish score for social creativity seem strange, given how much playing with others I've done. I'm not sure how that came about. For emotional connection, I didn't agree so strongly with the questions about music as a stress-buster or a workout-motivator, because I don't think that's what music is for.

I mixed up one of the hip hops with one of the pops. Aren't they the same at this point?

I guess the score are percentiles? Because I didn't get 98% of the musical tests correct. I found the "melody memory" test the hardest. I can't really hear melodies without backing music, a chord structure. It doesn't make sense to me; the next note could be anything. Yet I did about as well on that test as on the rest of them.

thanks for posting, Green Lady!

I've read somewhere that on some market-research surveys they only count what you say if you tick one of the boxes at either extreme (i.e. if you say you LOVE it or you HATE it but not if you just like it). I bet they discount whatever you say on the musical perception tests if you admit that you're guessing.

I got two or three right in each section of the group-the-clips thing (and I did try, once I got over the shock of how short they were). Scored very low on social creativity, as expected. I don't have the necessary ability for anything that involves participation.

Perception: well, I'll quote the website: "You scored low for perception, which suggests that you don’t have a strong ear for music. You are likely to find it challenging to keep a beat or sing in tune, and you may also have difficulty in distinguishing between different instruments or musical genres." Either I'm being too modest or I am truly dreadful. I've always known about the singing in tune, but I was disappointed at how badly I did on the rhythm tests. I did best on the melody memory, about 75% right.

Enthusiasm and emotional connection: you seem to score high here for being the sort of person who uses music to manage their emotions (I don't) and exclaims loudly that they just ADORE music and they Couldn't Imagine Living Without It! I could imagine it - I wouldn't enjoy it, but I can imagine it. Medium for both.

Musical curiosity: High, as I said before. I don't care much about genres (and I now know, of course, that it's because I can't tell them apart). I guess ignorance is bliss.

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Green Lady
Enthusiasm and emotional connection: you seem to score high here for being the sort of person who uses music to manage their emotions (I don't) and exclaims loudly that they just ADORE music and they Couldn't Imagine Living Without It! I could imagine it - I wouldn't enjoy it, but I can imagine it. Medium for both.

right, it's surprising they rate this kind of nonsense so highly when the musical tests are somewhat demanding.

you're probably right that voting for the extremes is what makes the difference.

Not sure how musical I am, but I fired up the paisley pink fender '54 copy and am waiting for my new TASCAM D-02 8-track recording machine to be delivered any day now!! Haven't recorded anything in 20 years!!! I feel like playing!!!!!!B