Can You Play Music by Ear?

                     The Tone Deafness Test

    Wanna know if you have what it takes to play the banjo (or any instrument, for that matter) by ear? As I mentioned in my July 2013 article in the Banjo Newsletter, the ability to play music by ear is a skill that virtually anyone can develop. The only exception to this

would be folks who are born without the ability to discriminate differences in pitches. This is known as tone deafness, or congenital amusia, which is what the test in the music player below is designed to detect.

    In the test, two snippets of melody from ten popular songs are played on the banjo. One of the snippets is played correctly, using the appropriate melody notes, and one is played incorrectly (the only variable being changed here is the pitch of the notes). Your job is to identify the example played correctly. So get out a piece of paper and pen, write a column of numbers from 1 to 10 to place your answers, and write down which version of each melody (A or B) you think is correct for each tune. The test will begin once you click on “The Ear Test” folder on the music player below. Once finished, click this link to the answer key to see how you scored!