Until a few months ago I had never heard of amusia or even considered that there could be such a condition. From my discussions with this forum and thoughts about why I struggle to understand melody or music riffs I went to UtSW center for child autistic studies in Dallas and had the Montreal Protocol diagnostic for amusia administered to me. (I’m not a child, that’s just the lab where they had the diagnostic for the test. The test had an initial cognitive function test to make sure I wasn’t having problems hearing or interpreting sounds and was capable of understanding the instructions. It then used piano pieces and tested pitch, rhythm, meter, contour, interval then memory and singing. The results just came back and I scored a dismal well below threshold in the diagnostic for amusia. While this is a disgnostic criteria like a scale of deaf or blind meaning that it’s continuous, I was in the bottom quartile for everything but memory which makes some sense to me since I love complicated patterns.
I’ve been reading a book called “ The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music” by Isabella Peretz who developed the Montreal protocol. The amusia diagnosis is either derived from congenital inheritance or trauma. I have never had severe head trauma (although if I did and didn’t remember it maybe that explains a lot) so it must be congenital. I think that like colorblindness this isn’t something that limits a person. But it does help me understand why I don’t think about melody or whistling a tune or remember a song at all. It’s also not a label I would wear although I’m glad to have had the test help explain some perspectives on why melodies and song parts don’t make sense to me.
But it also tells me that my work to memorize songs as note by note patterns and chunks is a good way forward for me.
I think that’s a healthy attitude. Test results are not an indictment, they are information. What you get out of music is not the same as what others do. And you don’t have to compare your experience, or learning path to them either.
However, in the forums the rest of us might continue to be confused about where you’re coming from.
I don’t know how to express a shrug in text.
Agreed! If anything, this pushed me much harder. I practiced just over 15 hours over the weeekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening. I don’t care about the diagnosis. But it does tell me why the learning to play by ear seems so frustrating to me when I try it and even though it works for so many others so well, it also tells me why using memorization is a good way for me to move forward. One question during the test was “hum a tune fast and then slow” and I couldn’t hum any tune. I never think about humming a tune. It has never been a consideration to me to hum a tune or think about a song when it’s not being played. It just doesn’t come up. I’ve always been baffled by people who can hear a song and think of the name and musician or hear a few notes and know a song title. I always figured they must have studied for years. And I’ve always been amazed when people can read or study with music. It’s always seemed like an annoying fog to me when I’m trying to do something else. I recall watching my son run at a track meet that had loud music and I kept wishing the music would stop so that I could focus on watching the kids run.
But for my banjo playing, I think my best way forward is to continue to memorize the notes and I’ve started working on timing and developing what I think of as “waypoints” in a song. I call different parts “ladder 1” or “ladder 2” and know what the pattern is for each ladder and then if I can find the ladder or other markers in a song then I can tell where I am.
I’ll continue because I enjoy playing.
If you're that bad off, maybe you should consider adding the accordion...
Maybe a theremin too. And that hurdy gurdie thing with the gypsy noises. I’ll just stick with banjo. I once saw a sign meme that said “we sell music instruments and banjos”
