Still having hearing problems, and now pitch problems.

[Fassa Albrecht]

OK I've just taken a pitch test and my score was horrendous! But this is now worrying me, as I am beginning to notice I am having trouble with differentiating between notes and between instruments sometimes. I also find vocals and voice difficult to understand sometimes- they sound fuzzy or can sound 'fast-forwarded' like they are talking too quickly.
At the moment I have Level 42 on my CD player and Mark King sounds like he is in a blender.
Add to this the problems I have in hearing everyday sounds such as bleepers and alarms, and I know I have a problem.
What should I do?? I have curiously been cleared by an audiologist once.

[DocBop]

I have no idea what to do, but I will include you in my prayers.

[JimmyM]

Does your hearing sound normal otherwise? Are you talking about having an actual medical problem with your hearing? Because no amount of pitch work is going to help if you have a medical problem.

If the answer's no, then maybe you need to work with intervals some more. Play different intervals on your bass in different spots and really work hard at listening to the differences. If you have any other instruments, do it on them as well.

This is why it's good to play piano, even if it's just a tiny bit. You can play chords and get used to hearing them voiced thoroughly instead of two or three notes, and you can play 8 octaves worth of intervals.

Hope that helps, but if you think it's medical, maybe you better get a second opinion from another doctor.

[Deacon_Blues]

I did the test too. (For you who didn't see it, there was a thread in off-topic with the test). Do the test again, several times if you want to, and press the repeat button as many times you like - I did that and hit a much better score than on the first time.

I believe you can train yourself to become better at this, but at the end of the day, I don't know how important it is to be able to hit excellent scores in tests like this. In real life, the mathematically correct pitches are just that - mathematical. You never hit the exact frequencies on a natural musical instrument (or a human voice). Also, a vibrato is still considered in tune although the pitch varies within a certain interval. In addition to vibratos, singers often slide from note to note and thus make the melody sounding natural.

If you think you have problems with pitch recognition, here's a couple of questions you could ask yourself:
- Are you very picky with how your bass is tuned and can you tune it by ear?
- Do you hear when an instrument like a guitar is slightly out of tune, or when someone sings a sour note? If you answer yes on the latter, can you say if the note was too high or too low?

I don't really know what to do to help if you have problems with this, but nonetheless I hope things work out well for you.