UPDATED: 18th January to include further information from Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen.

Researchers from the “Music, Mind and Brain research group” at Goldsmiths, University of London are embarking on a project to discover how musical people are – including those who don’t consider themselves musical at all!

In collaboration with the BBC Lab UK, they have developed a simple 25-minute test which you can take online to discover how strong a sense of musicality you have.

The research hypothesis is that people without any level of musical training will be able to do very well – and in some cases just as well as formally trained musicians who take the test. They think it’s possible that people develop a strong sense of music just through everyday exposure to and appreciation of music; even if they’ve never considered themselves a musician.

Click the image below to take the test:

(You’ll need to register with the BBC website if you haven’t before – it’s quick and easy!)

What is “Musicality”?

The test is in seven short parts. Three ask you various questions about music, what it means to you, how much training you’ve had, and so on. Four are interactive musical tests, which ask you to do things like tap along with a song, or arrange short clips into groups that go together musically.

But before you start worrying that you’ll have to whip out your instrument, or brush up on your singing – there’s no need, as the test focuses on aural skills. Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen, one of the lead researchers on the project, explains “Musical performance is one aspect of musicality but by far not the only one – and maybe not even the most important one.”

At the end of the test you’re shown your scores for each of several dimensions of musicality, including “enthusiasm for music”, “musical perception” and “emotional connection”. Click to read the rest…

If you don’t play the drums, it can be hard to understand what’s going on when listening to a drum part, beyond just ‘drum, drum, cymbal’! We’ve created a new quiz here at EasyEarTraining.com to help you get to grips with the subtleties of the kit.

The quiz takes the same form as our ‘Intro To Ear Training’ Quiz: Ten multiple-choice questions based on sound clips you’ll hear. You can take the questions at your own pace, and listen several times until you’re happy with your answer. At the end you’ll get told your score and given feedback on each question, with hints on how to improve. You can tweet your score or share it on Facebook if you want to tell friends how you did.

If you have some drumming experience, go ahead and take the quiz and let us know how you get on. You may be surprised by your score!

If the topic’s new to you, make sure you read ‘A Roll Around The Drum Kit’ and spend a bit of time with the MP3s from that article before you dive into the quiz.

As always – any questions, give a shout in the Forums or in the comments below.


Enjoy!

Ear training’s a huge subject, and it can be hard to know where to start. We’ve designed a free quiz to give you a quick overview of what ear training is all about.

If you’re new to ear training, you’ll get a quick glimpse of lots of example areas which ear training could target. Done some ear training before? The quiz will help you figure out what you’re already good at, and what could do with more work. It might also throw up some new areas to train, which you haven’t thought about before…

You’ll listen to 10 sound clips and answer a multiple-choice question on each. There’s advice and guidance at the end of the quiz based on how you did.

So whether you’re new to the topic of ear training, have some skills to show off, or consider yourself an all-round wizard of sound, come take the quiz and let us know how you do!