What is Your Musical IQ? 

"You're singing out of tune" Me: "You just can't handle my spiciness"

I knew a guitarist in college who had “perfect pitch.” You could slam 6 or 8 random notes on the piano all at once and he’d name them all. Never missed. But then his guitar would be grossly out of tune and he couldn’t tell. I found that fascinating.

"We think this test might provide an indication of how well the participant could be expected to endure an evening of community musical theatre auditions."

"It's basically a fancy Buzzfeed article" SAVAGE ^^

the fact that u shared the link of the iq test broke their homepage .

"Fancy buzzfeed article" I think that about sums it up.

They definitely used "out of tune" to mean "dissonant" and that really gets on my nerves. Dissonant and out of tune aren't the same and they get conflated so often.

Hello Adam, sorry a little bit correction there: 5:44 is actually Balinese gamelan, they are usually played more 'fiery' than their Javanese counterpart. But from all types of gamelans that I know (Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese) they each do have their own tuning system (and scales) that don't quite match western's 12 tones system. But there do exist gamelan sets that especially made and tuned to match western's 12 (ie. to play with orchestra/band etc). *Source: me native Indonesian 😁

Bruh the fact that I got a similar score to the Adam Neely tells me this doesn’t measure musical intelligence LOL

Broke: Beats on 1 and 3 Woke: Those notes aren't "off", they're "spicy"

When at 13 i took a MENSA test and came out in the top group, i realized that those tests in no way can measure intelligence as a whole (whichever definition we may have for intelligence) but only a person's attitude toward a very specific mental process. The same apply here: i scored slightly better than Adam and yet he is much more solid than me in most aspects of musical knowledge and, what matters most, in performing ability. Taken for fun, there's no harm in such tests, but if we want to draw conclusive assessments on someone's intelligence or ability, those tests suck big time and are actually strongly discriminatory. No surprise that most people in key positions in nations that heavily rely on those tests, are often just educated fools.

I can't believe this test comes from a university. The one who can tell whether random notes match a grid of pitch and beat perfectly and remember them like a machine has a high musical intelligence? What about feeling the music? What about knowing what to do in order to achieve a certain impact? What about being able to create and understand tension and release? What about creating elegant chord progressions? What about creating memorable and meaningful melodies? What about understanding relations between notes? etc etc

Adam Neely: It's basically a fancy BuzzFeed article. Researchers: *sad husky noises*

*band playing a song . . .* *member 1:* hey bro you’re out of tune *adam:* [clears throat] um, i’m sorry but i believe you mean that he’s not locked to the grid of the very Euro-centric 12 tone equal temperament

Each time I come back to see you, my respect increases. You actually have a lot to give. That's exceptional.

I ordered some curried chicken the other day while in India and the server asked me how I would like it prepared and I told her "extra out of tune please".

Test: *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* Fletcher: not quite my tempo

I think this test is more relevant to sound/audio engineers rather than an average musician.

I'm very self-aware about my musical skills (since I started playing an instrument fairly late) and got super bummed out about my test results on this. Their "this might predict your ability to actually play an instrument!" sentence seems custom-tailored to kick me in the shins, too.

Sounds like another instance where scientists have attempted to quantify some skill without actually consulting people who have specific experience with the skill they're measuring... disappointing. Thank you for highlighting the Eurocentric nature of their approach and doing the work to find papers discussing the implications of this bias.

"I don't want to knock on it too much." "BuzzFeed article."

Test: PROTIP: Make sure the synth and the vocals are in the same key!!

Honestly appreciate, your appreciation for all music styles… When I got a chance to go to school for music… my friends from other cultures blew my mind. Still not the most top dollar musician, but I definitely think it’s in our diversity of music that we can find such great inspiration!

I stumbled upon this video just out of curiosity and procrastination. I subscribed out of pleasure to find such a versed, intellectual and cited music conversation. And the moment you questioned eurocentrism in the test, I rushed to press the subscribe button.

> Adam Neely: or even more far out like Javanese gamelan music? > *proceeds to show balinese gamelan.*

Title of video should be "Man on Internet Rages at Facebook Quiz."

"Which one is more out of tune?" They both suck but I'd rather hear the one that's sharp

I think your right in your assessment that the tone of the beep affects the timing perception because it creates an obvious dissonance, albeit not relating to the beat. It became easier once I consciously ignored the tone.

me: the concept of an absolute intelligence quotient in reference to any subject will inherently be biased to the culture that created it also me: heehee i got 116

Yea I’m pretty sure as a drummer my musical iq is a negative number

I love your final thoughts Adam, thank you for sharing this!

Kind of new to watching your videos. WOW... really insightful and thought provoking. thanks!

I get the feeling the key change one was testing "how well can you remember a really long sequence of arbitrary notes that don't make any melodic sense after hearing it just once".

Beat alignment: Me: Were you rushing or dragging??

Amazing, I had a higher musical IQ than Adam Neeley!! *grabs bass sits down failing on Seven Nation Army

I like your thought process and impartiality!

~me while taking test~ this test is unfair and not at all an accurate representation of musical talent ~me after scoring higher than Adam~ this test is THE unquestioned scientific authority on musical IQ

"And even if your musical skills could use some work, rest assured: as far as we know, many people who have difficulty making music still enjoy listening to music very much." Wow. That's the second most condescending thing I've read or heard all week.

Thanks for your honesty, Adam.

Nice to see you taking the test, thanks for sharing. I took it a few times (at some time got a little obsessed) and at times results varied wildly/widely (take your pick), including both less and more than what we got when we played now, not sure how reliable it is (with respect to variance). Anyway, I think the singing in or off tune test makes a little more sense because of (mostly) having a 12 TET accompaniment in harmonic tonality. Wouldn't be so much if only the leading sung melody were used - some things wouldn't sound out of tune to me for example even if a drone were played for pitch reference (I'd think, it's dissonant, but so what, doesn't make it wrong), so maybe to that extent it's Eurocentric, or rather, Western - centric. Not to mention, like you said, that some some sound samples are so hazy that you can barely hear the voice, it's almost like a whisper. Anyway I like hearing the sample music, a lot was not even familiar to me, so I've played sometimes just for that :D I think the tune comparison test is quite different from the in/out of tune and on beat/tempo/phase lag tests because while the first involves pattern recognition, the other two are more absolute with respect to a reference, so minute differences are easier to overlook (or to the contrary, some may say that it's just off and that much more jarring, so you know that it's not on). I tend to perform best with the tune comparison test (not bad with the others either) so maybe I'm better at pattern recognition. Maybe because I think of music as being made of beautiful, aesthetic, moving sound patterns. I'm happy with that. Although I sometimes felt strongly that I was right and when it showed me 'incorrect' it was faulty, but also felt ambivalent about it being mechanical and possibly not lying. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, I think. This is nice as a game, maybe even a somewhat useful challenge, but shouldn't be used to measure your ability. We shouldn't rely on it or anything, and certainly not put down by it, heck no. But if we happen to do well, let's feel good, because why not? ;)

Melody Test in a nutshell: Practice 1: 4 notes in the same scale Practice 2: 84 notes in no discernible key Me: wtf

The beep test is wild. I closed my eyes and tapped along to it, and got the right answer each time because I realized there was a sinking in my gut on the wrong one. Really strange that my body had a visceral reaction to the beat.

I like how you recoiled during the second part's dissonant notes the same way I always do too. X)

I took the test while you were taking it and got a substantial amount right, the best test was the most challenging

I made 10 incorrect answers and was about to say "ok I'm totally worthless" when I understood that you have to choose a more out of tune melody, not more in tune 😂

clearly my IQ isn't high enough to work out how to start the quiz

I totally agree with your commentary on a narrow set of standards being used to apply benchmarks for measuring aptitude, particularly coming from a Jazz music perspective (the 1+3 thing threw me off a lot too). As a pop musician who lives on a click, however, I find myself having to set aside a lot of preconceived notions about how I hear music, and instead, have to try to stick myself into the situation where everything is riding on the click. So in this test I tried to get as outside of my preconceived musical ideology as possible (I missed the first question though) and simply tried to listen for a whether the click was ahead or behind the pulse of the drums/bass/strings, etc. I'm not sure what I'm doing that makes me able to do that-- maybe the producer in me is just thinking "ignore your personal feelings, just stick to the click/tuning" and that's how I'm able to get through the test. All that aside, even though I scored 125 on the beat section, I didn't like this click because it's a) not percussive enough (sine tones without an attack and fast decay are bad for defining time) b) because it's not a fast decay, you sometimes can't tell whether it's hitting the beat before or right on with the rest of the instrumentation.

To me, it sounded like the beats weren't only just delayed, but actually at different rates. Like, the interval between each beat would be different in the first example compared to the second example. So it's not just about delay or offset… it's actually about tempo.

Also their site must have gotten a Neely Hug of Death because the game just won't load haha

"what if there was indian karnatic music, would we be able to tell?" Me who grew up listing to indian music his whole life: No

This made me think of the music teacher that supposedly flunked Brian Wilson. A bandmate once commented on how I tended to bend the strings while playing lead lines. Later I read more about music theory, specifically natural intervals, and then realized *why* I did, and why such playing tended to sound "eastern," without having been aware of the theory behind at the time. And later came to realize why I have an affinity for chords with missing thirds.

I got everything right and I can't even read notes. I just produce music by ear. Love the content! Keep it going ♪

Ngl, my mom’s probably completely tone deaf but she’s also a middle eastern immigrant. When I mentioned the first study to her and insinuated that she’s not as tone deaf as she thinks, she lit up and started talking to me about the music she listened to before emigrating.

"Answer these simple questions about beeping and we'll predict how good you are at playing the violin with 100% accuracy! (Yes, it really works!)"

You're quite right about the Western-centric thing, especially with tests 1 and 3. I've played piano in a salsa band (Afro-Cuban), and the variance of the beat "lag"/"push" between instruments was extremely subtle and took a lot of practice to grow accustomed to.

Great video! I really appreciated the cultural considerations you highlighted.

He takes me driving and then leaves me in the caaaaar

That was funny: my wife and I are both musicians and we did the test alongside with you. At the first "beat" test, we both went "yeah, the second one", like you did. It turned out all three of us were wrong. Then we commented about which beat makes the music feel better... and then you said the exact same thing.

Your point about culture being highly relevant and this test just focusing on western style music is very crucial: I remember vividly being asked to a party with some sudanese exchange students - they were really impressed with me - since I, as a former drummer, had no problem clapping sextuplets while dancing to 2/4 music - which was their "thing". I remember going home from that party thinking that culture is so much more diverse than it's normally represented. You would have had to be a drummer or experienced that culture all your life to do that. I have tried getting musician friends to do a 4/4 8th note thing with one hand and sextuplets with the other - nobody can do that; but this whole party had no problem doing that with their whole body - for hours. :D

This is interesting. It's seem to be largely a test of memory and positions of tones and rhythms relative to each other. It's been years that I've been studying music. In the western tradition, we've been raised on octaves but that's simply a convention.

I notice that in the tuning test, they used a lot of 90s genres and even had some radio-head-ish pieces in there. That amuses me because a lot of that stuff is very intentionally out of tune, or uses harmonization that doesn't quite match up, in addition to leaning on mixing conventions where everything kinda runs together to make, for a lack of a better term, a "soup" of sound. It's clear the test is trying to throw the listener off.

*scored 85 on beat perception *Remembers that I'm a guitar player "Yeah story checks out".

5:44 is actually Balinese Gamelan, my Dear Friend.

lol I loved how you used the test music in the transitions.

In theory IQ is supposed to be stable over time, however all the "skills" tested here stike me as highly trainable ... mmh

Adam being mad at the beats on one and three Me: *nervously sweats in German* (there is this stereotype in Germany that Germans will always clap on one and three, no matter the kind of music...)

Very informative! Thank you for your knowledge and sensibility. Always intriguing and well stated. The Ipanema…. Episode was very extensive and well done

I love your perception and information about other cultures perspective on music intelligence. You are good with your analysis!✊🏿💯‼️

"Which exemple seems more out of tune?" Proceeds using samples from genres that souding out of tune is edgy

Adam: Introduces an online test The website: *dies*

Thanks for being open minded and going against the grain, Adam.

Thank you for the video. I just took the test and it really bummed me out when I didn't score as high as I thought I would on the second and third parts.

It's fun in the same way that "wHiCh fRieNdS chAraCter ArEyOU?" tests are, but it's pretty audacious of them to try to claim that it's indicative of "Musical Skill" lol

My musical IQ is 69 *This feels like a win to me*

Can we just take a moment to admire the incredible midi sound in the melody test.. Why did they not take the time to make it sound maybe just a bit better?

Thanks for the insight, Adam!

In the second test: you don't need to remember the first one at all after comparing it to the second. If the first and second are the same, the third is the odd one out (just listen to confirm). If the first two are different, then one of them must be the odd one. Compare second to third. If they're the same, the first is the odd one out. If they're different, the second one must be the odd one out

That second test is really hard if you struggle with working memory. Especially if you have ADHD.

Wow! I scored exactly the same as you did on the first test. I got a little lost in the second test for the reasons you described I suppose. I had a lot of trouble deciding on the 3rd test but I did better than I thought I would. This was a lot of fun!

This was very cool Adam.

Ethnomusicologist here. What a great video - I'll definitely use it in my classes. Also in case Adam sees this comment: that's a Balinese gamelan you have in the clip, not a Javanese gamelan. Both have interesting tuning systems, though!

Interestingly, in the example where you complained about beats 1 & 3, I actually heard it as 2 & 4 and completely shifted the whole song 1 beat back.

super cool video, fun to play along. I clearly need to work on my rhythm. Glad to hear you call out the "western only" perspective. Would love to hear you address the scales used in Ethiopian jazz music like Admas and Hailu Mergia-- they have a couple that are fantastic, but just untouched in the western world

123 baby! Woot! Very cool test. I'm glad I checked out this video. New sub here.

After taking the test, on top of the obvious eurocentrism, I feel like some of the clips are just so goddamn long that they're not even really testing the musical parameters they say they are, just like, raw, cognitive memory. I also think for the beat test, they should play a measure with no beeps each clip so you can get the tempo. Just throwing you into it is really jarring. The fact that this test is incredibly flawed as a metric for an individual's "musicality" is clear when you consider I got a higher score than...Adam...and he's obviously leagues ahead of me and the general public in terms of musical knowledge & ability. So people who take this test: it's a fun distraction but I wouldn't put too much credence into what result you get.

“Not gonna say this test is dumb but... this test is dumb”. Agreed!

As a pianist, I found myself physically playing the melodies in my head as well to determine which was 'off.' I can't imagine how a non-musician would discern the differences. I also got a 118 overall.

I agree 100% on the presenters assessment of this test, having said that, I am quite tickled that I was able to keep pace with him and even got a couple that he missed (as well as missed one or two that he answered correctly) 😉.

My musical IQ is 432

The fact that I have a similar 'musical IQ' to Adam, shows how floored the test is.

This is really fun, and an entirely untrained person who has a feeling they have "good ear" my answers almost entirely matched yours lol I love this and I love that I'll learn about non European musical ideals on your channel

Thanks, for analyzing this. Confirms to me, why I'm subscribed to you.

Did anyone else feel like some of the more in tune vocals, even if in tune, still just... sounded worse for the part?

“It’s basically a buzzfeed quiz” DAMN!

NICE! I got the same scores as you did! Gives me hope. Time to practice...

The test 1 really got me cause of the mistuned version sound more better, and sometimes the mistuned notes actually works in a different way. Like a different harmonic relationships...

Sometimes, I preferred the "wrong" solution over the correct one, especially when the vocals were more on the flat side. Overall, it's a fun little test without any deeper meaning.

Please help I'm still stuck in my husband's car

For the record, I got all the same answers as you on the tuning test, including the ones you got wrong. My background is similar to yours, but a bit less extensive. It would be interesting to analyze the ones we got wrong to see what threw us.

Just came back and watched this a second time (like 3 years later) and absolutely smashed the first 2 tests. Can't wait to receive my master's degree in the mail 👊🤙 HOWEVER, no matter HOW MANY TIMES I replay 9/15 in test 3 (12:28), the second example sounds considerably more bang-on to me! Anyone else get this?