Quantifying Tone Deafness in the General Population

Abstract

Many people reach adulthood without acquiring significant music performance skills (singing or instrumental playing). A substantial proportion of these adults consider that this has come about because they are "not musical." Some of these people may be "true" congenital amusics, characterized by specific and substantial anomalies in the processing of musical pitch and rhythm sequences, while at the same time displaying normal processing of speech and language. It is likely, however, that many adults who believe that they are unmusical are neurologically normal. We could call these adults "false" amusics. Acquisition of musical competence has multiple personal, social, and environmental precursors. Deficiencies in these areas may lead to lack of musical achievement, despite the fact that an individual possesses the necessary underlying capacities. Adults may therefore self-define as "unmusical" or "tone-deaf" for reasons unconnected to any underlying anomaly. This paper reports on two linked research studies. The first is an interview study with adults defining themselves as tone-deaf or unmusical. The interview schedule was designed to discover what criteria are being used in their self-definitions. Preliminary results suggest that performance criteria (e.g., judging oneself as unable to sing) play a major role, even for people who claim and demonstrate no perceptual deficits. The second study reports progress on the development of new subtests for a revised version of the Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA, Peretz et al., 2003). This currently contains six tests that allow for the assessment of melodic perception: contour, intervals, scale, rhythm, meter, and recognition memory. The MBEA does not assess two capacities that are generally accepted as central to normal music cognition: harmony and emotion. The development and norming of the emotion subtest will be described. When completed, the MBEA(R) will form a robust screening device for use with the general population, whose purpose is to discriminate "true" from "false" amusics. Such discrimination is essential to achieve a better understanding of the variety of causes of low musical achievement.

Harmonic priming in an amusic patient: The power of implicit tasks

“…The data pattern of L.B. on chord sequences (particularly in Experiments 1 and 3) suggests the need for future improvements of the MBEA, notably by including harmonic material in addition to the currently tested melodic material (as proposed by Peretz et al, 2003, and currently under development as announced in Sloboda, Wise, & Peretz, 2005). All participants gave informed consent on this project, which was approved by the ethical committee of the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal.…”

The beat goes on: music education, identity and lifelong learning

“…A number of adults who are no longer musically active point to lack of talent as one of the major factors that prevented them from engaging in music, just as a significant proportion of adults who self-define as tone deaf but who have all the perceptual, cognitive and emotional abilities to respond to music also highlight this as a powerful barrier in terms of their musical engagement across the lifespan (Sloboda, Wise, and Peretz 2005). Many of these non-singers also report negative experiences at some point in their childhood music education, such as being told not to sing out loud in primary school choirs.…”

Sensitivity to musical emotions in congenital amusia

“…A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 5 (Sloboda, Wise, & Peretz, 2005). Thus, the question of whether the ability to recognize emotions from music is retained in cases of congenital amusia remains open.…”