Monday, January 10, 2011

Pop quiz


"How Musical Are You?" asks the BBC, not rhetorically. The Beeb has put up an online, interactive test to get an answer, if maybe not the answer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/

In this test of a person's musicality, devised by researchers at Goldsmiths University of London for BBC3, the taker is asked to group very brief snippets of pop music and jazz by style, to determine whether pieces are played on or off the beat, to play the beat with the spacebar of a computer keyboard (this takes some getting used to), and to detect changes in melody at different pitches, as well as answering questions about personal background and the role music plays in one's life. It takes 15 minutes or so.

My results: high in musical perception, enthusiasm and curiosity, medium in emotional connection, low in "social creativity," or making music with others.

The Guardian (UK) put Hallé Orchestra cellist Simon Turner, composer Michael Berkeley and John Moore, drummer and guitarist of the rock band Jesus and Mary Chain, to the test. Their results (scored numerically, unlike the BBC's online scoring):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/10/how-musical-are-you