Device Bench

Music quiz · Audio

Perfect Pitch Test

Press Play, listen, then answer. Pick Cents mode below if you want it.

Start with the system volume at a comfortable level. If you are wearing headphones and are not sure how loud it is set, hold them slightly away from your ears for the first tone. If a tone is uncomfortable, press Start over, which stops playback and clears both modes.

Mode
Modenote naming Trials0 Result— Web Audio—
The note was

Gap now 120 cents · reversals 0 of 8 · seed 51721

How this test works

Name the note scores pitch classes: you choose C or C♯, for example, without naming an octave. Tones come from 25 pitches between A3 and A5, tuned to A4 = 440 Hz. The table shows the note that played, your answer, and how many semitones apart the two names are. Both modes generate sine tones in your browser with the Web Audio API, at a fixed level with a short fade at each end, so no audio file is loaded and nothing is recorded.

Cents resolution starts each pair on a note from A3 through A4 and places the second tone above or below it. The gap starts at 120 cents and stays between 1 and 400 cents. Two correct answers in a row divide the gap by 1.7, and one wrong answer multiplies it by 1.7; after two reversals the step shrinks to 1.22. A reversal is a change of direction, from narrowing to widening or back, and it counts even at a gap limit. This two-down-one-up staircase is a standard adaptive method, and it targets about 71% correct answers.

The estimate is the geometric mean of the latest six reversal gaps, rounded to a whole cent; the steps are multiplicative, so an ordinary average would be pulled up by the wide early gaps. It appears in Result after six reversals, a fuller message follows at eight, and later answers keep updating it. The site's tests run the staircase against simulated listeners with thresholds of 5, 20 and 80 cents: every run converges, the three come out in the right order, and the 20-cent listener's median estimate lands below 20 cents, as a 71% target should. Your headphones, volume and room still shape the number, so compare it with your own runs on the same setup.

Frequently asked questions

How do I use the two modes?
In Name the note, press Play and pick one of the twelve names. In Cents resolution, press Play, listen to both tones, then choose Higher or Lower for the second one. Hear it again repeats the current note or pair without counting a trial, and each new trial starts with Play. Neither mode has a fixed number of rounds. Switching modes keeps each mode's results, and Start over clears both.
Is this a test for tone deafness?
No. This page measures how finely you can tell two pitches apart and how often you can name one. It is not a test for tone deafness, it cannot detect amusia, and it is not a hearing test of any kind. Those are clinical questions and a browser page is the wrong instrument for them; a qualified professional is the right one. What you get here is a measurement of one run, under whatever headphones you are wearing, today.
What is a cent, and how should I compare results?
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, so adjacent piano keys are 100 cents apart. Compare your number with your own later runs, using the same headphones, volume and room each time, and note which mode you used and how many trials you took. Familiarity with these tones can lower your number over repeat runs.
Why doesn't the pitch gap change after every answer?
Because it takes two correct answers in a row to narrow it. The first correct answer in a streak leaves the gap where it is, and one wrong answer widens it at once, up to a 400-cent limit. Narrowing stops at 1 cent. Requiring two right answers to step down and one wrong answer to step up makes the gap settle where you answer about 71% of pairs correctly, well above the 50% that guessing Higher or Lower would give. Your estimate shows up after six reversals, where the gap switches between narrowing and widening, and you can keep answering for as long as you like.
If I score well, do I have perfect pitch?
No. A random guess from twelve buttons is right one time in twelve, so a few correct answers can come from luck, and the page saves its fuller feedback for runs of eight trials or more. Absolute pitch, as musicians use the term, means naming notes reliably across a whole instrument's range and on unfamiliar timbres, and this quiz uses sine tones from A3 to A5. The table also names earlier tones, which you can remember and use as a reference. A strong result is a good reason to test your pitch memory more thoroughly.

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