MUMBAI: BBC Radio 3 and BBC Lab UK are launching a scientific experiment that asks the British public to help discover how musical Britain is.
By taking the ‘How Musical Are You?’ test, participants will reveal their own musical profile, while at the same time helping scientists to define what it really means to be “musical”.
The launch of the experiment accompanies Radio 3’s season celebrating the music and genius of Mozart over 12 days in an unprecedented radio event.
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This ambitious experiment aims to find out if, with or without formal musical training, we all have a little bit of Mozart’s genius in us.
The public is invited to go to the Radio 3 website and follow the links to How Musical Are You? Participants will receive a musical profile, with scores on five different dimensions of musicality including: Enthusiasm for Music; Musical Perception; Emotional Connection; Social Creativity and Musical Curiosity.
Radio presenters including Radio 3’s Katie Derham and BBC 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell have taken the test and both scored extremely highly, despite having very different backgrounds in music.
While Katie Derham has received formal training in music, Nicky Campbell, a musician who plays in a band, has not been formally trained and cannot read music. Both scored 99 per cent in the Musical Perception category which measured their ability to understand the qualities of music, such as rhythm, pitch, tuning and genre.
How Musical Are You? was designed by BBC Lab UK in collaboration with academics from the Music, Mind and Brain group at Goldsmiths, University of London. The scientific data will be analysed to establish whether people who are untrained but passionate about music can be just as musical as people who have been formally trained.
The experiment includes questionnaires and musical tests that evaluate your ability to categorise musical styles, memorise tunes, and recognise the beat in pieces of music. The tests are not specifically related to classical music but assess general musical ability.
Roger Wright, Controller, Radio 3 and Director of BBC Proms, said: “Radio 3 takes pride in opening new worlds of music to our listeners and we are delighted to be working with BBC Lab UK and Goldsmiths, University of London on this groundbreaking project. This is a chance for everyone who enjoys music of whatever genre to find out more about their own capacity for engaging with music.”
Leading the Goldsmiths team, music psychologist Dr Daniel M??llensiefen said: “We’re interested in finding out about the many different ways people can be musical, even without setting foot inside a music school.”
