Amusia — SYNC PROJECT

Amusia — SYNC PROJECT: "there are individuals in whom the mechanisms function in a way that even normal processing of musical sounds is not possible...called tone-deafness or amusia, typically affecting around 4 % of the population."

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What's amusing about amusia?

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Welcome to 4Amusia.com , a place to find out more about something called amusia, a condition that can make it impossible to carry a tune or learn to play a musical instrument. Widespread ignorance of this condition—commonly referred to in derogatory terms like tone deafness or tin ears—can lead to social and emotional problems for those who have it. I know, because I have amusia. Amusia is defined as: "a musical disorder that appears mainly as a defect in processing pitch but also encompasses musical memory and recognition" ( Wikipedia ). Some studies suggest that as many as 4% of people are born with an innate inability to recognize musical tones or to reproduce them. This is referred to as congenital amusia. In 2018, I discovered that my lifelong failure to sing or learn guitar—despite great effort—was due to congenital amusia, not some weird character defect (although you can still find music coaches who insist that amusiacs are just being lazy). When time permits, I pl...
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Neurobiology of Congenital Amusia: Trends in Cognitive Sciences

An interesting way to describe amusa: "The core deficit of congenital amusia is characterized by a lack of awareness of acquired musical pitch knowledge." And good to know that studying those of us with "lifelong musical pitch deficits...can help to reveal what is specific to music processing at all levels from behavior and brain to genes." Neurobiology of Congenital Amusia: Trends in Cognitive Sciences
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Amusia testing: a detailed analysis

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Some serious work on testing for amusia is covered in this long-but-worth-reading academic article: Revising the diagnosis of congenital amusia with the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia . I am now looking at getting myself "lab-tested."  There are several ongoing amusia-related studies in the UK so I may be able to find a lab test opportunity via one of these. While I tested "positive" for amusia on several online tests, the article cited above suggests that lab testing may be more accurate. Plus, it appears there a different flavours of amusia, so to speak. I am particularly interested in knowing if my sense of rhythm is normal or not (I think I have a good sense of rhythm, but my partner has suggested that march to "the beat of a different drum"). One of the ways in which learning about congenital amusia has helped me is the notion that difficulty in following a tune is due to memory issues. This helps me understand my feeling that I can follow a...
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