Many months ago (last March, I think), someone posted a link to a website where you could check and see whether or not you were tone-deaf. It was a "Distorted Tunes Test," and it had to do with twin research and innate musical ability. There were twenty-five or so very well-known tunes, some were correct and some were goofed-up by a few notes. The test was to listen to the tunes and mark off which ones were right and which were not. If you got them all right, you were not tone deaf. I tried to find the thread on Mudcat without luck, and I've just run a google.com search for it, and although I found references to the test, I couldn't find the test itself. If someone remembers this and knows the URL, it's worth posting again.

Before assuming that you're tone-deaf, it might be worth your while to spend an hour or so with a good, knowledgeable (and sympathetic) musician—someone who can at the very least read music and knows some music theory, preferable a qualified voice teacher. A voice teacher can tell if you're tone-deaf or not, and assess your vocal range.

1. -- If you can hear a note and duplicate the pitch (assuming it's in your range), you're not tone-deaf.

2. -- As far as keys are concerned, make the guitar accommodate you voice, not the other way around.

Above all, don't give up too easily.

Don Firth