What Happens When A Professional Musician Takes Music IQ Test?
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
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Music IQ Test: www.themusiclab.org/quizzes/miq
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Well this was just ridiculous lmao. GO TAKE THE TEST!! It's fun, if nothing else. And then go grab the Intro to Piano course for 50% off! betterpiano.com/intro-to-piano
I wonder how your musical IQ can relate to your intellectual IQ
hugged it dead, apparently
Charles has too much power, their website is down LOL
I didn't save my scores for the individual segments (because I thought they would be saved in the image export), but overall I got a 113. I did worst in the melodic discrimination category (I think it was around 105 for that category), and I did better by about the same amount in the other two categories. That matches what I expected for myself pretty closely, although I want to get better at these because I try to arrange my own version of a lot of different songs.
I chose to interpret it as ignoring style, so purely the actual pitches or rhythms rather than the application. If it was asking you to choose the one that felt "best" or "most fitting", I would agree with your annoyance, but it was asking specifically about the pitch or beat itself rather than the context.
Hi Charles, I just re-descovered the amazing 70s italian cartoon soundtrack of Signor Rossi by Franco Godi. Every track a banger. Maybe something you would enjoy. Anyways thanks for your always interesting videos.
also, they picked the worst possible click sound to use for testing beat perception
Yeah, not wrong there, but it's still part of the test, so the fact that it's consistently inconvenient for everyone still makes it useful
This is more of a producer’s test…a “which take would you use”, where neither is perfect, but one has a better overall feel than the other.
I would say two of the clips should have been correct instead of incorrect.
I don't think it's that at all. The test is only asking you to identify which one is in tune, on beat, etc. Which one you might actually put into the recording is another matter.
That third test, i could definitely tell when tuning software has been used to manipulate the vocals. You can hear the sampling issues as well...and digital "slurring"
This is how I got them all but one while scoring mediocre on the other two. Feels like involuntary cheating.
I work as an arranger and songwriter, I'm a multi-instrumentalist, music was my major, and am known for having very, very good relative pitch and I only got 115. Some of them were quite hard, you really have to concentrate. There are issues with this test, and it really only tests within western musical concepts.
I have a theory that this test is mostly taken by other musicians. So in this case 100 would be average for musicians, not for all people.
I am a self-taught musician. I got 104. And i was concentrating very hard. And this would aling with my theory. I am neither a total beginner nor a professional by any means. Your result is average between musical geniuses and someone like me then. I think it makes sense.
We crashed it 💀
yup
4:34 - 5:02 How I imagine bad piano teachers listening to their students play.
Hahahah😂
It's why we charge so much for lessons--it's compensation for the PTSD we now experience when listening to Fur Elise, Heart and Soul, and chopsticks (ALL played too fast).😵💫
I do think it should be noted that whilst this is a very interesting watch, it’s by no means a serious “musical iq” test by reliability. Music isn’t decided in ability of transcribing Melodies. There’s more to ear training. And musical ability also does not end at ear training. Technique, composition and simply an innate musical conception and understanding are components that are not to be understated
The original IQ test had the same flaws. I don't know why so many people are obsessed with the concept of quantifying intelligence, but I believe it's an impossible goal. Every person has a unique set of skills, abilities, talents, and aptitudes, which they developed through their unique experiences of life, upbringing, and education. Since no two people are alike in this regard, data cannot meaningfully measure "better" or "worse" intelligence. And since music is so subjective and largely defined by implicit cultural norms, 'musical IQ' is even harder to quantify! We should really stop trying, and instead focus on helping everyone grow and develop their musicality.
_"Technique, composition and simply an innate musical conception and understanding are components that are not to be understated"_
The test isn't meant for musicians only, though, so technique and composition are irrelevant.
I'm interested, how would you test "musical conception and understanding"? And doesn't this test also kind of test them in a way? It is definitely not perfect, but pitch and rhythm perception, and musical memory are quite important things, and definitely things I would say fall under "musical conception and understanding".
If you had to test the "musicality" of someone (and let's say you don't know if they are a musician, so you can't test their playing skills), how would you do it?
Also, this test doesn't test your ability to transcribe melodies. It tests your musical memory. It tests how sensitive your ears are to tuning and rhythm. These aren't things that are only useful if you want to transcribe stuff. I would say they are pretty fundamental "musician skills".
@@InventorZahran right? Trying to collapse so many dimensions of data into one number never ends well.
And I don't even mean in a societal sense, but even just the fact that it's self-defeating. The number will always say more about the ways one person weighted the dozens or hundreds of independent factors, than it says about those factors themselves.
Thus it fails even in its task of being an objective and easily-comparable number. Someone might say they have an IQ of 153 but if they don't know which test they took it's actually less-meaningful than not giving a number at all. The same person on a different test would likely get 130, or 160.
It is an actual scientific test. you should actually go and read it. it isnt about transcribing btw
@@InventorZahran this is all, scientifically, wrong. you can absolutely quantify the comparative performance in tasks that represent domains of intelligence.
I guess it's being hammered as I get so many "disconnected from the server" that it's like operating through treacle and not worth getting to the end. Was able to try 3 types of challenge anyhow
Same. I tried for a few minutes and gave up, I'm not going to wrestle with this thing to get it to work lol
These tests feels like how people who don't really make a lot of music THINK musicians work. It's like in those weird music drama shows where everyone is focused on getting all the notes right and faster than everyone else for status or whatnot. Just, this test is so superficial 😂
Yeah i agree
Haha totally!
It is not specifically for musicians. And it isn't superficial. It tests pitch and rhythm perception, and musical memory. All of those skills are quite relevant to musicians. It can be argued how well it tests them (I think some of these examples were pretty bad), but those are still important musical skills. I guess my question would be, what else should it test if the goal is to test how "musical" someone is (and it isn't only for musicians)?
this test clearly isn't supposed to be compared to how musicians work. They're capturing the similarities of IQ tests quite well, but for music, actually - meaning it's a test you can do without any (or minimal) knowledge. What would be your idea for a less 'superficial' test?
This comment feels like how people who don't really make a lot music THINK how music IQ test should work.
Charles: "It's not MY fault, it's the test's, obviously. 🙄"
Charles, you are always a joy to watch!
Editing is on point in this video. Really great stuff. Shout out to the editor
Love learning things I realized I can't tell notes very well yet watching you do this 😅
I got 112. I also had low beat alignment and melodic discrimination, mostly because the melodies were wacky and I couldn't remember them! You win.
I got 110 overall. Tuning 111, beat 113, melody 107. And yeah I tended to get the longer melodies wrong because although my memory isn't bad, remembering 3x 10-12 random music notes and then figuring out where there was a minor difference among them in three different keys feels way off the expectation scale 😂
i got a 127? i don’t really know any theory but i have synesthesia so that helped
113. My best one was beat alignment
Feel like most would have gotten better beat allignment if the sound for the click wasn't so shit, it has a slight attack and very little notable transient which makes it slightly hard to tell when the actual sound of the click starts. Use the metronome from like any DAW and it'd be much easier lol
I actually paused the video right at the beginning to go take the test because I didn't want to spoil it for myself!! I got 114, not bad for being out of music school for over a decade!
It's a very flawed test, for sure. It's not testing what it claims to be testing because it's introducing WAY too many variables without any warning. It also starts samples before you're ready.
The melody test is a MEMORY test, and without a total center before each melody, it just becomes hard to calibrate between them.
The rhythm test doesn't take into account swing, push, pull, or anything like that.
The tuning test uses a TON of super indie stuff where being out of tune is sometimes part of the style, especially when the accompaniment is SO LOUD and DISSONANT.
I got 126, but the few I got wrong were either because I was distracted by it telling my results for the previous question, or because of a stylistic issue.
Yea my vocal one was the worst one because a few of them they were both out of tune and it sounded stylistic/intentional either way, one would clearly be slightly sharp and the other would clearly be slightly flat. Still 112 on that one, the indie ones just really threw me.
Imagine if they did the test with punk, where being off beat and out off tune isn't as important as the message, so everything sounds a bit ..... rough
I would argue that ability to memorise melodies is a sign of musicality, and being able to establish a tonal context is part of the difficulty. Ear training is a huge part of developing this skill though so I’m not sure how much it has got to do with innate musical intelligence
i got 116. It certainly keeps you on your toes. I wish you had the option to re-listen to the examples but yeah, easy stuff with a couple of harder ones.
Thanks Charles!
the instructions for the second one should have said “in which of these are the beeps clapping on the 1 and 3?”
Nah because it beeped on the 4 beats (and all 6 eighth notes in the 6/8 songs).
It’s about tempo matching and tempo consistency, mostly not about where the beep sits.
you just outed your musical iq
@@fashnek they're the same tempo, it's about hearing when the beeps are offset wrongly so yes it's about where the beeps sits
How is this a music test? This is just a memory and relative pitch test
Yeah I was expecting some questions about Chords, keys, different clefs maybe?
@@coxandrewj it's about musical iq, not music theory
@@zappyappwhich you think would include some questions about MUSIC theory...
regular iq tests don't test knowledge/schooling. That's why your iq is pretty stable throughout your life. Music theory is a form of education/knowledge, not actual intelligence
@@kinghotcoc0IQ tests are based on intuition, not studied knowledge
nice. good job.
you've been uploading a lot recently hah, love it
I did, probably about the same as you, if not a little better, except, I got to listen to them multiple times. I'm excited to try it out tomorrow, when I wake up
Got everything correct in the tuning test. Score: 149. (I wonder if this is the highest possible score, or if how fast I answered each question also makes a difference.)
Got two wrong in the melodic discrimination test. Score: 124.
Got one or two wrong in the beat alignment test. Score: 115.
Overall score: 130.
Strangely I feel like I did better in the beat alignment test than in the melodic discrimination test, but I still got a lower score. Maybe it depends on how supposedly "easy" the mistakes I made were...
Your results are calculated based on the results of all other participants. So if more people start to get max score on tuning it'll count for less points for future participants, and vice versa.
I felt the same way as you about beat alignment and melodic discrimination.
Would love to hear a melody/harmony breakdown on Tell Me a Bedtime Story by Herbie Hancock. Always loved listening, but reading the lead sheet and playing it blew my mind
The cuts to the meme clips on this video were ON POINT! 😂 The whiplash one!
for being a jazzhead, I was surprised with your face expressions whenever you encountered dissonance, I found myself smiling and bopping at dissonance and seeing the ick in your face made me wonder If something´s wrong with me
Nothing wrong, but you should probably stop listening to jazz for a couple weeks. Dissonance aside, those could hardly be called melodies
There’s pleasant dissonance, and there’s out of place dissonance. In my ears most of the examples was certainly the latter😂
I think it's because the examples in the test lacked musical context to make the dissonance sound good (in my opinion). For example, two notes a major 7th apart sound pretty bad to my ears, yet a major 7th chord (which contains the same interval) sounds lovely.
Their servers aren't keeping up with the demand :( I keep getting "Disconnected from the server"
Been loving the vids, any chance you could review the Lies of P game ost at some point?
Honestly watching the video and getting an idea gives all of us a big advantage on knowing when and how to focus. If you did it again, even with completely diffferent samples, you'd do much better the second time
The worst for the beat perception test they had was a sample that was playing on off beats, and they deemed the one with the click track playing on the off beats is correct. Hopefully they've taken it out by now
Still there
If anyone wants a comparison of how someone without musical training did on the test, I got 106. I've been playing the guitar for 2 years. I can transcribe some simple music to guitar by ear, although chords are still difficult. My biggest weakness is rhythm, to this day.
Praise to the courage. the Music Lab test was for your musicianship, the uploading test was for your ego-less humility
big love.
1:13 literally me handing my first written improvisation to my piano teacher 😭
The problem with this test is the same problem with the STAAR test (State of Texas Assessment of Aademic Readiness) (more the case in the latter). They want to know the MOST correct (or incorrect) answer. Any number of them could be described as such, based on your opinions. At some point, it becomes less of 'how much do you know?' and more of 'how good are you at contextless riddles?'
I couldn't even tell the differences in half of those! I'm not doing it because I know I'm gonna get a much lower score lmao,but kudos to you for doing it!
I got 128!. My best was Beat Alignment, 137, which apparently is so good it's off the end of the chart 😂 Next best was Musical Discrimination, 130. Worst was Mistuning Perception, 118.
I got 117! I’ve been taking piano lessons for most of my life, I’m in chorus during the school year, and beginning last school year I’ve begun taking voice lessons as a class.
Charles' reactions are the best part of this video
I love your content. Could you do a video going over the cover of defying gravity by third reprise? It’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in a while
Hey man, this is random i know but idk why but, have you been working out becase youre looking slightly leaner and bigger than usual, if its just the lighting, then I guess its working 💪, sorry if this is off video topic😂
Glad I waited until the test worked, I got 117 and never been to music school, can’t play an instrument and use the piano roll and tracker but I really, really love the sound of beautiful, complex chords! 😅
Wow can't believe this got recommended to me seconds after it came out wth
I got it 5 minutes after
probably because they paid money to get such priority?
Reminds me of the sight singing examples.
This reminds me heavily of Karman testi (Karma's test) that I and everyone that wanted to go to a music focused elementary school had to go through at around 8 years of age. But instead of melodies, it tested your ability to separate different intervals and some rhythm repetition.
6:27 like zoinks scoob!
I think something that made the beats of the music hard is that some of them were not the same tempo, so they got close during a certain segment of the clip
I've played trombone for about 12 years now and that test just seemed absurd! Someone else made a comment about a non-musician making a music test based on how they think music works and I completely agree. I got a 103 for anyone who cares
116, but the ones I missed I was uncertain about, while the ones I got were really obvious. :)
Will the courses betterpiano prepare me a little for composition class? Im starting composition in 3 months.
I love the idea of this test, and wish I could take it, but I think we crashed the server or something lol. Based on the 'examples' it seems pretty simple
I did this on my own and I learnt that I'm really good at figuring out differences in pieces
I normally watch videos at 2 or 3x speed. After you started the first test I had to rewind and slow it back down to 1x to follow what's going on.
i got 99. i got a little distracted and couldnt tell for somethings, but if i focused a bit more i could probably get higher
I got 128. I aced the piano tune one, but you're right about the voice one, it was pretty subjective. The beat alignment was weird too.
One big problem I have with the test (in addition to all you brought up) is that it's labeled a "Music IQ Test" yet all the examples are Western tonal music, the majority of which are in recent pop/rock styles with English lyrics. Yes, those are very popular styles in the world and important to learn, but there is a whole world of music out there. It's like having a math IQ test and only testing addition. (also I think the test is loosely associated with Harvard since the main guy went there but isn't officially affiliated with them, and I'm fairly certain it's not at all associated with Yale)
I've met some of the researchers from The Music Lab, and they are all very kind and do interesting work. But they often stir up controversies claiming certain "universal" traits of music through somewhat limited studies, although sometimes the issue comes when mainstream non-music outlets publish about their work and make their sweeping claims even more sweeping and grandiose.
Hours later and your traffic is still overloading their servers
first time I did this I had 130 but then I did it 4 years later after 2 years of music break and it was 105. So practice and having music around you helps a lot :D
134. was struggling with the exact same bits as you... 😂
134, but like Charles I take exception with at least 1 that I got wrong in the beat alignment (#5 for me - not sure if they're randomized or not). I did find that trying to ignore the click and tap along with the music (when you could actually hear it) helped quite a bit (but I also did the worst on that section so what do I know?).
I think we may have crashed the site haha
yeah, disconnected from server. Let's try tomorrow :p
I’m only starting to understand the beauty of being slightly behind the beat, but it really does improve the groove compared to being slightly ahead or spot on.
10:13 is me every time someone tries to be a "singer" at a gig 😂
If this proves something, is that music is not exact science, it's art. It's alive... if it feels right, it's right.
And that we as humans are not machines, give us random notes as melodies and we give random answers... some people int he academia really train melody perception such that they can retain very complex, completely nonsensical and random melodies in their heads... and most just go by "does this make sense?" and if it does, we retain it better...
In British music exams from ABRSM, there is an aural section where you're played 2 melodies and asked what all the differences were between them.. melodic, rhythmic etc.
There are 8 grades in British musicianship. The aural tests get longer and longer per grade. I think the last grade is like a minute of music, its REALLY hard. First few grades I rememebr being relatively easy.
As someone who’s just got a Bachelor’s but also did audio recording, I’m not mad at my results. I will say, the tuning part I’m proud of. My alto ear usually hears things that are flat and not sharped but once I went into the mindset of flat or sharped, I got a lot better. I also actively love percussion and pride myself on being a vocalist who actually can keep time. But I was STRUGGLING to figure out if they wanted some of them were correct because they were dragging or rushed (a few examples had one rushed and one dragging). Overall though, I had a blast! My results were:
Overall: 113
Melodic Discrimination: 103
Mistuning Perception: 123
Beat Alignment l: 109
This whole test is like an exam to see who's a classically trained musician and an improvisational musician. Like a lot of this is based purely on classical training, its quite similar to the listening exams i would've done on my trinity piano exams. Music is based on preference and style imo.
Not really sure I agree here. This test feels way more on the lines of improvisational and by ear music than classical. My classical hearing exams were all about identifying specific intervals, scales, chord progressions, and similar things. Specific things that can be named with theory. The first question was the one most like my classical exams, but all three are really just fundamental music skills regardless of classical or by ear. Still a pretty poor test though.
Some of those rhythm tests felt like I was choosing between two equally valid ways of perceiving a particular rhythmic pulse/accent pattern.
How is it classical? Essentially none of the musical examples were classical. Also, classical musicians would have a much harder time with the "rushing vs on beat vs dragging" test - that's a thing that jazz and pop musicians talk a lot more about than classical musicians. Actually, the out of tune test was also something where pop musicians would have an advantage because of the musical examples.
The test isn't based on any musical training. The first part tests your musical memory. That's not something only classically trained musicians have - it's something everyone who listens to music has. Actually, I would argue that musical memory is more important to people who only play by ear.
Some of the aural tests are similar but wouldn't use such weird melodies that meander all over the place since that isn't really common in real music.
I appreciate the replies to my comment and I understand the miscommunication and mistakes on my part, I’m not as knowledgeable on this topic as I would like to be and I may have worded this comment wrong but what I meant was that the rhythm and melody parts of this test reminded me of the aural exams for my piano grades, they would often make u clap along to a rhythm and name the time signature along with playing two Melodie’s and trying the name the tonal differences between them. The exams were often very rigid and required specific answers relating to the specification. But ever since I’ve started to shift and learn from the trad and jazz musicians in my school I find that when doing these sorts of tests they could have a completely different opinion on what chords, tones and rhythms are being played and they would still be right even though technically their answers could be considered “wrong” it’s just how you hear or interpret the music. For example I have two piano teachers, one who teaches me classical piano and the other who teaches me how to compose and improvise and I’m telling you now if you were to give them a chord, tone or rhythm both would have different answers depending on the complexity
I also got the second test question on the tuning/singing task incorrect. I'd be interested to know how many people chose the 'wrong' option on that one. I think on the melodies, some of them only differed by the duration of a certain note, but I could be wrong on that. My overall score was 110, which is about the 75th percentile. I was on headphones in a quiet room and I haven't had any music training (other than a few violin lessons when I was 9 years old and watching CZcams videos like this one).
I love how during the singing section, the singer said the word like and the like button lit up. it wasn't even you! lol.
As a professional singer and voice teacher I received 121 and that is lower than the iq test I did when I was younger, that was somewhat in between 132-135. My cognitive skillset deteriorated clearly due to a syndrome I had while giving birth to my son, 14 years ago. My husband agrees that it made me more stupid, haha, but my son's birth was worth it. My ability to remember melodies and lyrics also deteriorated during this period, but beat and pitch perception is still strong the test shows.
7:08 sounds like my band teacher when the saxophones (me included) suck at playing.
I got a score of 110. I did the best on the rhythm portion, which makes sense, since I once took drum lessons.
This test reminds me of the GRE subject test in music (they did away with it like the year after I took it, grrrrr). I had never taken a standardized musical exam before and man, did it SUCK. And it made me wonder how or why anyone would want a test like this.
Also, for the record, I did end up becoming a music teacher, and I have developed the all important skill of hiding my horrified expression when I hear out-of-tune playing/singing. 😂
Yeah I refuse to believe I have a higher musical IQ than someone who can hear a melody and play it on piano immediately...
For the record, have 10+ years experience of music but nowhere near Charles' experience and still got a 123 (133/115/122), one point above him.
Woof that tuning test hurt my ears 😂
Have you reviewed Deliver Us from the Prince of Egypt yet? It’s a phenomenal song!
This reminds me of my music gcse a bit 😂😂😂
Tried taking this test. Kept disconnecting and restarting. The Beat example makes me mad because I can’t hear the music through the beep and the clips are so short I feel like I’m just starting to hear the beat of the music and it’s over. I can’t compare it to the beep track that I’ve had to try to ignore to hear the music.
I wonder if the sharp/flat singing was done through software or the actual singer. If you can sing well, it can be hard to force yourself to go sharp or flat.
Took it twice. Kind of frustrating with the constant connecting to server but did 124 the first time and 121 the second
I got 118, beat alignment was 108 and tuning perception and melodic discrimination were both 123. Kinda reinforces what I know, I don't have the best rhythm, but pleased with myself overall!
I didn't knew such thing existed!
"Musical IQ" and IQ as a whole, is a mostly fake concept. Intelligence is so complex and multifaceted that a simple test cannot meaningfully quantify it.
Charles, if you want to hear some amazing wind ensemble band music from anime, check out "Liz and the Blue Bird", composed by Akito Matsuda. It's 22 minutes and 4 movements, uploaded by "Josedolf Staller"
6:16 beep makes it even cooler
I got a 123 almost exactly the same scores and we missed some of the same examples. I also was furious at some of the beat alignment ones. 125/111/132
just like when you take a regular IQ test, you're not obligated to read an encyclopedia before taking it
Do "A Cup of Liber-tea" and "Automaton Combat Theme" from Helldivers 2. They have some really interesting chord progressions I need your opinion on.
I just did this test... got exactly 100, dead center of the bell curve. I'm only slightly disappointed, I would have said I'm a little better in terms of these things than the majority, but honestly I found it quite a bit more difficult than I expected. Especially the melodic discrimination... by the time I heard the third one the first one was completely gone from my head.
❤❤❤
I took the test before watching the video, and I got 118. The beat placement one angered as me as a percussionist(I scored 114), and the melody one was also tricky(112), but I did surprisingly well with the tuning, which I don't normally consider to be one of my strengths(127).
I did terribly on the melody test. All the others were above average.
You have to have a good aural short term memory for the melody test and I think mine needs training.
Although, if you played a tune, I could play it back on piano or guitar no problem.. but comparing them I suck at.
what kind of music is this 9:03?
Test doesn't work on my phone, hopefully they'll fix that lol. In the meantime I'm curious to see what I get when I get ahold of my PC again
I got a 122 also! We got the same score, but you got 2 more points in the mistuning perception!
it was really hard to take this test it kept saying it was trying to connect to server...
tried taking the test but it just keeps losing connnection to the point where I can't get through the test
I took this about 4 years ago before I studied music in college and got 121. I'm interested to see if my studies have increased my score
I had 124 but I have to mention that there was one question in the "out of tune" section I just answered right because it was pretty similar to another question which I had wrong so I just took the other option because both sounded almost the same to my ear 😂
I got a 120 overall
My melodic discrimination was a perfect 149, beat alignment is 111, and my mistuning perception is 100.
Idk though, the mistuning part i actually preffer if some voices were pitched higher or lower, then again not enough melodic context lol
Scored 121. Actually got 100% in the Melodic Discrimination (guess my short term memory is fine) and tanked the beat alignment (104, still above average but whatever).