How to Participate in The Music Lab's Research

Updated

You can participate in The Music Lab's research by playing any of its online games or tests directly in your browser. No account or special equipment is required, and you can take part from anywhere in the world. The site recommends wearing headphones, though you can also play through speakers. Each activity is a citizen-science task: your responses help researchers learn how the human mind creates and perceives music.

Getting started

  1. Go to themusiclab.org.
  2. Pick a game from the list on the homepage.
  3. Read the short instructions for that game and begin.
  4. Play through to the end so your responses can be recorded.

The homepage notes you can send feedback about your experience, and that participation is open worldwide.

What you can play

The site lists games with an average completion time and a running count of players. Times and player counts below are as shown on the site.

Game What it tests Average time Players so far
Tone Twist Tracking motion and pitch at the same time 8 minutes 237
Rhythm Radar Which rhythms fit best (musical intuitions) 10 minutes 31,448
Tone Guesser Music vs. color intuitions 11.1 minutes 127,924
Calls of the Wild Hearing animal sounds 4.2 minutes 38,079
Test Your Musical IQ General musical ability 21 minutes 3,044,175
Tone-Deafness Test Pitch perception 2.5 minutes 2,101,151
Memory Mayhem Memory for music and words 12 minutes 18,329
Top of the Charts Which songs the world knows 2.2 minutes 183,007
Kids' Music Quiz! How kids interpret world music 8.3 minutes 45,294
AI or not?! Telling AI-generated music apart 7.5 minutes 13,295
Are You a Super-Listener? Distinguishing tricky sounds 5 minutes 261,822
Who's Listening? Voices from around the world 1.1 minutes 102,451
What's Your Musical Style? Teaching a robot how music feels 5.0 minutes 249,540
Synthesizer Game The building blocks of music 4.4 minutes 86,920
World Music Quiz Identifying song types 2.3 minutes 249,572

If you want a quick first task, the shortest options are Who's Listening? (1.1 minutes), Top of the Charts (2.2 minutes), and World Music Quiz (2.3 minutes). If you want the most-established test by participation, Test Your Musical IQ and the Tone-Deafness Test have the largest player counts.

Participating with a baby

The Music Lab is also recruiting expecting parents and parents with babies for research about infants and music. You can take part from anywhere in the world. The homepage links to a dedicated page ("find out more") with the details for this study.

Practical notes

  • Headphones are recommended but not required. The site says you can also play while listening on speakers.
  • One game works best on desktop. Kids' Music Quiz! is noted as working best on a desktop computer.
  • Times are averages, so your own session may run longer or shorter.
  • No login is mentioned on the homepage for playing the games; the page describes picking a game and starting.