BBC: Musicality Test for SKIENCE

[beccatoria]

Ahahahaa. So. I took the BBC's new science musicality test thing which measures five different parts of your relationship to music, from technical skill at keeping the beat, etc., to remembering songs, to emotional connections, etc.

Anyways, it reflected my somewhat weird relationship with music quite well, that being, I'm actually reasonably good at it, really love it when it's around, but don't exactly make space for it in my life or actively pursue my moderate talent in that area. I think this is partly down to my inability to focus on much for very long - I think it's why I'm drawn to vidding. I can immerse myself in music and interact with it, but with...extra bits. Music is a background to a lot of my life, but rarely ever foregrounded.

I miss when I was regularly playing cello, guitar, piano, bodhran and singing, but apparently not enough to dust off my beautiful cello and tune it.

I have this vague wish that I lived in a place where music was more generically around so I could casually participate, but not enough motivation to go out there and do something about it. I don't miss it enough, and I have...headphones and vidding.

Anyways, the hilarious point being, here are two of my five test results:

Musical Perception (things like rhythm, pitch, tuning and genre): 98%.
Musical Curiosity (things like seeking out new music, genres, artists): 1%.

I can keep the beat, you guys, but damn if I ain't lazy when it comes to finding new stuff. If it doesn't FALL OVER ME, I will stick to political hip hop, emo indie rock, and Romantic or Minimalist piano. ♥

If you're curious, the test is linked in this article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12127843

Comments

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

That test was a lot of fun! I did surprisingly good on the beat-tapping and melody memory quizzes. Somehow I only got a 23% on "emotional connection" though, not sure how that happened. (I beat your curiosity with a whopping 19%!)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, your results are similar to mine. I mean I know that I don't suck at music but I wasn't expecting to do as well as I did and I also wasn't expecting such a low emotional connection to music. I guess it's because I couldn't legitimately say that I pursued it as a sole activity (and the test was probably sadly right that I tend to relisten to stuff I know I like rather than trying new stuff!) or consciously use it to manage my mood, but I think that's more because I'm horrible at doing anything in a focused manner. There's very little that affects me as much as a truly spine-chilling piece of music.

Still, it was totally interesting, and yes, funner than I was expecting!

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I can't do the test right now because I'm posting this from *cough* the office *cough*, but I'm actually afraid to do so. I think I might be among the rare minority who is Really, Truly and Completely Tone-Deaf. I'm so non-musical that it hurts.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Well, the interesting thing about the test is that it's not just testing musical skill in terms of being able to understand rhythm or tell if something's out of tune. It's linked in with an article about whether some people who believe they are tone deaf mostly lack confidence. So the quiz is a mix of practical musical tests - like memory, rhythm, genre - where you listen and answer questions, and also questions about your general relationship to music, personally and socially and how these are important factors too?

There are five areas they score in, and aside from the two above, I didn't really do that great in any of the others either, scoring low in two and moderate in one of them.

So if it won't be fun for you, don't do it, but they want all sorts of people to do it. And the results might not be what you expect. For SCIENCE! :D

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LOL

Enthusiam 80%, musical perception 22%, emotional connection 51%, social curiosity 65%, musical curiosity 65%.

22%? Explains so much.