Tone Deaf

[Richard Brekne]

J Patrick Draine wrote:

> >Just a slight detour off the perfect pitch thread.
> >I don't have perfect pitch and have no concept of how it's achieved.
> >But what's even more inconceivable to me is being  tone-deaf.
> >How is this possible?
>

Grin... thats the bugger aint it... fact is we never can really know for
sure whether tone deafness really exsists. Could be just an extreme case of
lack of ear training. On the other hand there is good reason to believe
that there are some people who completely lack the ability to distinguish
between tones. You can sing song to these folks or speak monotone, and they
seem to notice absolutely no difference, or so I am told. You can in fact
subject them to all kinds of tests, varying frequencies of sign waves and
ask them if you are going up or down... etc etc ad absurdum.. But in the
end we just have to go by their response.. it still may be as simple as
"not noticing" rather them being physically incapable of doing so.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway