What is "tone deaf"?

College Confidential Community
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<p>I might not be tone deaf, since I can speak Vietnamese (tonal language), but when I talk in English, people call me monotone. Ahh!! Well, I’ve heard that monotone comment maybe 1-3 years ago, though recently, this girl mocked me, with a low robotic voice. When I think tone deaf though, I think someone talking like a robot. But I can do “do re mi fa so la”. Looking through Youtube: tone deaf, I see bad singers, not necessarily “lack of tone”. Any musical buffs here? I’d be interested in a pro singing in monotone then how they’re supposed to do it.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/[/url]”>http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/&lt;/a&gt;
Woo 86.1%. So. I still don’t know what a “tone” is though.</p>

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<p>Tone deaf, musically speaking, is when you don’t have the ability to discriminate between notes. In language terms, it may mean that words are not pronounced correctly. What people were making fun of you was probably because the way you speak in English is expressionless. If you transfer that into music, it’d be similar to singing all on one note.</p>

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<p>I’m tone deaf.</p>

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<p>My friend is tone deaf.
She used to take guitar lessons w/ me and when the teacher was asking her to tune her guitar, she couldn’t b/c she couldn’t differentiate b/w the different sounds. So now she doesn’t take guitar anymore.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/tunetest/dtt.asp[/url]”>http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/tunetest/dtt.asp&lt;/a&gt;
I got You correctly identified 26 tunes (out of 26) on the Distorted Tunes Test. Congratulations! You have a fine sense of pitch.</p>

<h1>So I don’t think I’ve ever met a monotone !speaker, which is supposedly what I am maybe. That’s just weird. Who talks in one “note”? ROFL:(</h1>

<h1>Would you consider William Hung monotone?</h1>

<p>“I’m tone deaf.”</p>

<h1>How’s life?</h1>

<h1>What do tone deaf people enjoy in music?</h1>

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1BJWAnZC8[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1BJWAnZC8&lt;/a&gt;
I was watching VH1, and they called Biz monotone. There’s certainly something not pleasant in the way he sings the chorus, but I think I can hear different “notes”.</p>

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<p>75%, I’m not a musician so I guess that’s good.</p>

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<p>According to the first test that pug linked to, I’m tone deaf. Yet, I can tune my violin w/o any help and am quite musical.</p>

<p>Okay, I’m fine according to the second one! Yay!! :)</p>

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<p>I’m fine accordinfg to the second one…good thing since I play guitar haha</p>

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<p>58.3%. Eurgh. But 21/26 on the other one.</p>

<p>Do you ever listen to yourself speak? Just a thought.</p>

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<p>“Do you ever listen to yourself speak? Just a thought.”
Yes.</p>

<h1>Would you consider William Hung monotone?</h1>

<p>“I’m tone deaf.”</p>

<h1>How’s life?</h1>

<h1>What do tone deaf people enjoy in music?</h1>

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1BJWAnZC8[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1BJWAnZC8&lt;/a&gt;
I was watching VH1, and they called Biz monotone. There’s certainly something not pleasant in the way he sings the chorus, but I think I can hear different “notes” from him.</p>

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<p>I think I might be tone deaf. is there a test I can take or somthing?</p>

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<p>Angljc1: go to the link in the second post.
here are my scores for the three from that page.
Tone deaf: 52% correct - below 55% possible pitch perception or memory deficit. 1st percentile
Pitch perception: 16.2 hz. 3rd percentile
Rhythm: 52%. 3rd percentile.</p>

<p>lol, I love this! I’ve been telling people for years I’m tone deaf and have no rhythm, and here’s proof!</p>

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<p>of course then I go to the link in post 6…
You correctly identified 23 tunes (out of 26) on the Distorted Tunes Test. Congratulations! You have a fine sense of pitch.</p>

<p>or I’m good at random guessing…</p>

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<p>VeganActress–maybe you wouldn’t be tone deaf if you took my side before. :p</p>

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<p>but I’ve been tone deaf forever…</p>

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<p>That is because you never chose my side. This was your one chance, and you blew it. Good job. Do you not know I am nyjunior–the great healer.</p>

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<p>26/26…yet I still can’t sing worth a darn.</p>

<p>I can, however, tune a guitar.</p>

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<p>So, tone deaf I got 86.1, pitch, I think ~83, rhythm, 1st time 60%, 2nd time, 76, hehe.</p>

<p>K, your scores are nice, but I still want to know what “tone” is in an easy definition.</p>

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<p>from dictionary.com (with my comments):

  1. any sound considered with reference to its quality, pitch, strength, source, etc.: shrill tones. (this is what the tests are mostly testing. how well you can distinguish between different notes. tone deaf is when you have difficulty telling differences or recognizing the notes.)
  2. quality or character of sound.
  3. vocal sound; the sound made by vibrating muscular bands in the larynx.
    (these next three are what people are refering to when they say you speak in monotone)
  4. a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.: a tone of command.
  5. an accent peculiar to a person, people, locality, etc., or a characteristic mode of sounding words in speech.
  6. stress of voice on a syllable of a word.
  7. Linguistics. a musical pitch or movement in pitch serving to distinguish two words otherwise composed of the same sounds, as in Chinese.
  8. Music.
    a. a musical sound of definite pitch, consisting of several relatively simple constituents called partial tones, the lowest of which is called the fundamental tone and the others harmonics or overtones.</p>