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              Get Involved Test Your Sense of Pitch


Have you ever wondered how a musician can pick out a single wrong note in a complex piece of music? Has anyone told you that you are tone-deaf or have a tin ear? These all relate to a sense of pitch—roughly speaking, the highness or lowness of a sound. It's what distinguishes a soprano from a bass singer and gives each piano key a distinct identity.

Our ability to distinguish pitch is not fully understood, but we do know that it involves some processing by the brain after a sound is perceived. This means tone deafness is not necessarily linked to any hearing disorder. An individual with perfect hearing may still have trouble distinguishing pitch because of how the brain interprets the sounds.

Research shows that 2 to 5 percent of the U.S. population has problems with pitch perception. Studies in twins also indicates that the role of inheritance in deficits in pitch recognition is extremely high, with little effect of environmental experience. Tone deafness appears to stem from *nature,* not *nurture.*

Want to test your own sense of pitch? We've developed an online version of the **Distorted Tunes Test,** a standardized survey in use for over 50 years. In it, you'll listen to a series of snippets from well-known tunes—some of which have been distorted by changing various notes' pitch. Your task is to pick out the incorrectly played tunes.

No personal information about you will be collected while you take the test; scoring will be handled by your browser via JavaScript. This means you must have JavaScript and cookies enabled on your browser to take the test. Please review the NIDCD privacy policy for more details about our use of information.

**You must be 16 or older to take this test.** Tone recognition is not fully developed at younger ages, and test results may not be meaningful. If you agree to the conditions of this test and certify that you are 16 years or older, click the button below to proceed. Good luck, and have fun!
    Last Updated Date:
      July 31, 2014
              Related Topic

Journey of Sound to the Brain Video COVID-19
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