Test Your Pitch Discrimination

My first attempt was 98,5%, this is the third. After that, one more, but I couldn't manage 100%...Who'll beat me now !!

jayem wrote: My first attempt was 98,5%, this is the third. After that, one more, but I couldn't manage 100%...Who'll beat me now !! At 500 Hz you can reliably hear pitch differences of 0.46875 Hz, which means you did better than approximately 99.9% of people who took our test!

Nice!

The Son of Gorp wrote: At 500 Hz you can reliably hear pitch differences of 1.25 Hz, which means you did better than approximately 93.9% of people who took our test! A lot better than I expected!

Also nice!

So here's a question for you two with good pitch discrimination - does music drive you totally insane unless everything is perfectly in tune?

SteveG wrote: I can dance.

You've got me beat.

I don't think it matters too much to me if it's out of tune, I play both piano and trombone so I think that might be why I can tell pitches pretty well. 

Edited by The Son of Gorp - January 14 2015 at 16:45

I thought my hate occurred accidentally too, but it just might be my sensitive ears 

At 500 Hz you can reliably hear pitch differences of 3.9375 Hz, which means you did better than approximately 61.8% of people who took our test!

Not bad, for a prog reviewing bass player I think.

Vompatti wrote: At 500 Hz you can reliably hear pitch differences of 23 Hz, which means you did better than approximately 14.2% of people who took our test!

Did it again and got:

At 500 Hz you can reliably hear pitch differences of 2.375 Hz, which means you did better than approximately 77.8% of people who took our test!

So it must be mostly luck.

jayem wrote: Star_Song_Age_Less wrote: So here's a question for you two with good pitch discrimination - does music drive you totally insane unless everything is perfectly in tune? Actually, not strictly in tune can feel very spicy, and I love deciphering the harmonies in some synth sounds or free jam sessions, how they're not tuned like a piano but still relate to each other, and "translate" into emotions, or images, etc. When a melody comes into my mind, it's hardly ever tuned to A3=440Hz and I don't "check" which notes (are closest to the ones) I'm thinking of, unless I want to write them down on a part... I happened to sing in choirs and felt uncomfortable, but also found it quite funny when all those serious, brilliant people got out of tune (that never happens in orchestras, where instrums have their pitch secured, at worst we'd hear sparse slippery notes).

That's exactly where I am, too.  Interesting that we seem to enjoy similar things in music even with very different pitch discrimination abilities.  When music is too perfect I often find it to feel emotionless, robotic.  Not always, though.

Polymorphia wrote:

Perfect pitch actually doesn't detect infinitely small variations. Perfect pitch is developed when you're very young. It simply comes from hearing lots of "in tune" music early on such that the pitches become ingrained in your subconscious. Basically, you'd be able to hear pitch difference more clearly because you'd also be able to hear or feel its relationship to Western pitches. That's why before A=440Hz was established as the official tuning, people with perfect pitch in different cities would disagree on tuning.

A gal with perfect pitch I'm friends with got 98.5% the first time as well. Being able to sing a note without hearing music recently, it seems you most definitely have perfect pitch, which might be the "absolute ear" you're referring to.


And even now A=440 Hz is just the American tuning.  European orchestras keep bumping this up and up and up to make the strings sound brighter, which makes it tough on the brass.  I personally prefer warmer strings and am very happy with A=440 Hz.

I definitely do not have perfect pitch, only relative.  If I haven't heard the note I'm supposed to sing recently, I have to take a wild guess as to where in my voice it is.

jayem wrote: Polymorphia wrote: it seems you most definitely have perfect pitch, which might be the "absolute ear" you're referring to. No doubt about it, I have this ability, but don't you feel the commonly used words "perfect" or "absolute" sound, well, out of tune... It's the way we call the ability to memorize pitch, long time, but anyone who can (at best) distinguish (and thus memorize) 0,5/500Hz variations's still far from the "absolutely perfect" ear that would dectect infinitely small variations.

True. If only we had perfect language to compensate.

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