How Are People Tone Deaf?

Once told my cousin, "Hey let me adjust the pitch on your call..." He hands it to me and I pitch it into the marsh! I would never do that to anyone else, we thought it was quite funny, but how many of you would like to do that with some guys you hunt with? I take a lot of people out yearly, and it never fails that I'll get a few tone deaf people. It's always awkward asking them to not call, but I want them to have a great experience with heavy kills. It has always baffled me because I learned at the age of seven when to call, and when not to call around superior callers. I could just hear it.

Buddy this is what I feel like doing..when I see some one

In the blind or in stand..

some of us.... myself included still have a lot to learn and ya being tone deaf both musically and call wise drives me nuts. I still need to practice more.

That is perfectly fine. Calling is constant work, forever! I still work at it after 27 years. Some people just don't hear it though. doesn't make me mad, but confuses me.

Creek,

I think it is literally an issue with not being able to actually hear the difference in the tone.

I can't call for squat, I just started calling this last year, but I can hear the tones very well, and know when something is off.

I've hunted with guys though that can call pretty well, but sometimes get a little excited when the birds are coming in, and they hit a note that is slightly off (usually too high), and they don't understand why the birds turn away.

One guy actually had this high note as a normal part of his call, and every time he hit it, it seemed you could see the birds hesitate a bit, but he couldn't hear the slightly higher pitch difference.

It may be a case of full blown tone deafness, or just to certain pitches. It's also going to be worse for you, hearing these off notes, if you are left handed, as lefties can usually hear slight differences in notes that righties can't.

I am unsure how much of the tone differences actually are affecting the birds, compared to how much they are affecting us, but I would about swear they hesitate, or start veering off when those off notes hit.

Yes... I have seen them veer quite often with poor judgment calling on decent callers. The most common mistake I see is guys chattering the hole time... The birds only do this in flight, so why do it? Also hailing when they are locked in is bad. A lot of these guys do not understand the difference between a hail, comeback, and greeting call.

It is still hard to tell someone to stop though. I couldn't imagine being a shooter only. Just isn't the same. I have also seen in a lot of cases that these guys do not like to be coached up in between flights. I have tried to ask them to practice with me in between flights, but 9 times out of 10, they decline.

Just hate the situation.

I've heard some ducks that are tone deaf.

Must be something in the water.

I went one of my first times with a guy who had to do all the calling, because I couldn't do any, and when I heard him hit the off note in his cadence, and saw the birds turn on that note, I told him immediately not to hit that note anymore.

I have no idea if he thought me an arse for it or not. I explained myself to him after making the statement though. While I have no idea how to work a call, I could tell that note was off, and sounded like it had distress in it, and the birds showed they did not like it. Basically just told him, hey man, you had them right up until you hit that one note, then they turned, I think this is why, blah blah blah.

Just because you can't play the Moonlight Sonata, doesn't mean you are unable tell when someone is playing it wrong.

I don't think there should be a problem letting them know to hit this note, and not that one, or hey stop calling at this point because A-B-C, whatever. Just so long as you are not a jerk about it.

I know I appreciate any and all the help I can get. Especially when it comes to something like hunting, and it's going to increase my odds.

I was raised different. I had ducks thrown threw the blind at me when I messed up, so I ALWAYS took advise from other hunters and asked how they made that sound. That is what gets me. I really enjoy helping them work on it, but most times they are bent out of shape when I/we bring it up. I've never been rude and have never thrown a duck at someone either!

Well...I think I'd rather be hit with a duck than by #2's...Which if I call, will be exactly what people want to do.

Some people have difficulty with tones just like color blindness. Practice will not help because they cannot hear the differences in tones. It will be frustrating because to such a person it all sounds the same. They usually can distinguish major differences though.

They may not realize the difficiency.

I don't think there is that many people who are that tone deaf, just that many folks who aren't willing to go sit and listen to the woods without a gun first or without the prospect of trying to kill something first.

People now more than ever are just busy bodies. Don't know how to stop and hear the music if you know what I mean. It is a lot easier to imitate a duck if you have actually taken the time to scout or just be outside when not hunting first and listen to them or any other animal and watch what they do.

Too many people just have to be doing something, smoking, talking, texting, looking a dumb pictures, blowing duck calls, squirting doe urine. Its like you know there were ducks before credit cards. I don't know. I say just go for a walk in the woods every once and a while or better yet sit and be still and quiet and listen. Stop doing all the time. My rant for today.

Heard an "old"? mallard hen this morning that sounded like she had a boot on her neck every time she called. It got to the point that me and my buddy were laughing too hard to call back to her. We tried to imitate her sound but came to the conclusion we would have to run a call over with the truck to sound that raspy and still get the squeal she had on the end of her calls..

Hunt with a couple guys who call at birds that are cupped up, on top of that they suck. Imo, calling is overrated. Dont get me wrong, it can be a useful tool but many people tend to do to much of it. Shoot, I don't and haven't ever carried a call, even when hunting by myself. You're only going to do more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing.

I rarely use a call, and when I do it is single quacks. Calling is overrated, being on the X is the key

I agree that too much is bad and quacking are sometimes enough. Don't know about not having a call when hunting by yourself though.

I think calling is overrated as well, I call when they are flying away to try and turn them, but it is annoying to me when ducks are coming in, and someone is calling. And also if you are in a hunting area with other hunting groups and someone is calling all morning long, Barneys, put the stupid call away.

It's more volume than tone that spooks the birds.

I've been doing it for quite some time, not sure why it'd make a difference if I was with 3 people or by myself. You don't need a call to have a successful duck hunt, I can assure you. If you're where they want to be, that's it.

Hunting by yourself without a call just kind of seems like dove hunting. Don't get me wrong, I love dove hunting, but seems more like shooting than hunting. Below is a video with about 30 ducks in the decoys, which you can't really see all of them due to it being 5 minutes before LST, but I kept calling the 100+ circling above my head. Lets just say we had 5 limits in 18 minutes.

I agree with everyone that calling is overrated, but if done effectively, it is the MOST important tool in hunting ducks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83rTK8glhk

So it went from hunting to shooting because of a chunk of acrylic hanging from my neck? Guess I'll need to brush up on my grunt call so I can effectively deer "hunt".

You can call it what you want, but I've been very successful with no call. Everything is the same, save for someone blowing on a duck call.

Maybe I'm old school, but I prefer cocobolo instead of acrylic.

I apologize if I offended you. I have just never heard of someone hunting ducks with no call and a group without at least one caller in almost 3 decades of hunting. What do you do if they are sitting down just out of range? Fire one off and start over? Is it a lot of pass shots? Just curious.

Duck commander ranks it at #7, as far as importance. If you are on the X, it's easy to look like a good duck caller.

Try putting your call away one morning and just running a couple jerk strings. You might be surprised what you can pull in.

I sort of understand the last sentence, but what about when you are not on the X. How important is a call then? Duck Commander hunts in the swamps of East Louisiana within the heart of the MS Flyway. The ducks can sit down anywhere over in that country. I would bet that they have never Not Needed to Call for an entire hunt. Jerk rigs are effective and I use a lot later in the season. You still have to get them in range to see the waves when hunting in thick marsh or woods though.

Didn't offend me, sorry for the knee jerk reaction. If they land just out of range, I let them sit. No better decoys than the real ones. Very little pass shooting, most of my shots are birds dropping in, or when theyre getting up. If you've never done it, just leave the call at home. Throw out a few dekes and just see what happens. I have learned quite a bit by sitting quietly to just watch and listen to how different birds react to different situations.

^^^^

We like to threaten people with an accidental drowning if they call at ducks coming in. We follow that subtle hint up with "We were just kidding with the accidental part, we will drown you on purpose".

I think it depends on your location, the particular day, and early vs. late season. Sometimes they don't wanna hear any calling, sometimes I've had to hit them with a greeting call or a few quacks to get them to stop circling and drop in. Sometimes they just wanna hover and look until they hear a little bit of a feeding call. Also seems like you can get away with crappy calling early on, but if you call in late season, you better know what you're doing! I guess it's also different on your setup.. we mostly hunt medium sized tanks in central TX, and we have probably 90-95% gadwall.

When I started making calls, it was all about the acrylic. Something along the way changed me about the acrylics. I still have some and still use one every now and again. I just got bit by the cocobolo bug. There is nothing like cocobolo. After the cocobolo import ban I went and bought a couple thousand bucks worth of cocobolo and have it stored away.

This is my favorite one to make. Cocobolo, brass band and a rubbed teak oil finish. Nothing fancy, no frills. I like it. I will never get rich making calls, I just make what I like. If I sell some then great. If I don't, well alright then.

Just sharing... The below hunt consisted of zero decoys as I forgot to actually tie the sled carrying all the decoys to the Argo. A mile and a half later, we get to the spot and realize we have no decoys. All I did was call and kick the water for these ducks.

Location location location.

One of Creek 2 Creek Properties

That's what it all comes down to.

I don't understand, again... lol What does it come down too?

Location. I've stood in knee deep water out in the open, no calls or decoys, and had groups of birds dropping in 30 yds away. As was said earlier, a good spot can make anyone look like a champion caller.

Calling itself is NOT overrated. The ability to really run a call IS overrated.

I hunt big public water most of the time so being able to turn them is key. If I don't call half the birds I see are long gone.

On the flip side, I have heard some gawd awful calling actually turn dux and bring them in.

I never said that location didn't play a part. I have well over 1000 acres of wetlands with (2) 100+ acre flooded timber units. There is no way to isolate ducks on places like this without steering them, especially when they cannot see your location until they are on top of you. We all have our ways and opinions. This was just to show that sitting by decoys without a call may work for some people, but sitting with no decoys and a call has proven to work for me.

I have to admit, I have some top notch places to hunt and you could wear neon and pound out a few every day if you wanted with no call, no decoys, and no blind. But isolating small concentrations out of thousands, keeping them on line, steering them back on line, and finishing out a flock is much easier with an experienced caller. That all I am trying to say.

I agree, my first post of this thread I said it can be a useful tool. Just saying a lot of people do too much squawking and talking. If you have someone that knows when and how to call, it can draw birds in, but imo there's a large difference in between the people that can actually do it and the people that think they can do it.

That's why I started this post. How can people not hear that they sound terrible. I have heard tone deaf before and was just trying to figure out if this is valid term. I am not tone deaf. I can work a call with the best, but I can hear that I cannot sing a song for crap. ???

Man, I want to hunt with Creek2Creek. He can work a call with the best, has 1000s of acres of wetlands, and doesn't even need decoys.

People hear what they wanna hear. They buy a call, watch a duck commander video and then they're an expert.

Guess there's a lot of DC fans out here. I don't care for their calls

As far as "tone deftness", I have been involved as a sound tech for around 25 years. You be surprised as to how many people cannot distinguish between tones or "think" they can carry a tune but really can't. If you are "tone deaf" then you cannot reproduce a particular tone or pitch from a sound that you have heard because your auditory center or brain understands it as a different sound or pitch that what they actually heard.

Thanks. That's the answer I was looking for. Guess it is possible to not hear it.

That explains a lot about my singing. And I thought I was good.

x2. What calls do you run?

Echo Timber and Echo XLT

I can sing Wild Thing pretty good, after a few beers. That's about it though.

I met my wife in a bar, but lets just say I didn't steal her heart on karaoke night!

Y'all don't run duck commander calls? Well there's the problem....

I can sing Hound Dog pretty good too, but I don't know all the word, just the main licks I can sing, and I got the Elvis moves as well.

My 5 year old is actually learning on a DC just cause they are easy to operate. My 8 year old is already working an Echo DRT.

We need a video!

Just saw this... Very nice. I have an acrylic straight timber call, seems to be a little louder in acrylic. My XLT in cocobolo is what I always grab though. It just feels more traditional and sounds great. If you do sell them, what do you charge for a call?

I use DC calls.. they sound similar to a duck and, although they can get expensive (for what they are) at academy and cabelas, you can find em for 1/3 the price on ebay if you look hard enough (about $10)

DCs suit a lot of people. I am just more accustomed to the j-frame style calls, not the wedge. Learned on an old chick majors. Got stolen when we were robbed as a kid. Would pay a lot of money for an old chick!

Somene's getting a little excited about this weekend. BTW. I do a pretty good Jeramiah was a bullfrog.

Hunting public is like watching american idol. People just don't realize how bad they suck.

What's even worse than a bad caller that knows when to call is someone who figured out how to call but doesn't know when to use it. Listening to some one hiccup and cajun squeal nonstop all morning during teal season gets old too.

Why don't we just start a thread for guys to post their calling videos? If we could actually see who can run a call and who can't it would shine a whole lot of light on this conversation.

IMO calling is very effective if you know what you are doing, but bad calling does a lot more harm than good. Since the average weekend warrior can't blow a call, but tends to think that he can, I think most hunters would kill more ducks if they left the call at home.

However, the most accomplished hunters among us all call and most call quite a lot. Guys who really know how to speak the language can bring those birds in on a rope.

For me calling is the best part of the hunt...it's the challenge of getting the birds in your lap. I grew up hunting public marsh from boat blind and you didn't always get the X, so, if you couldn't/didn't call the birds went to another group down the marsh. I couldn't imagine not taking a call...???

I have a couple acrylic high $$$ calls but my favorite finishing call is a poly Echo timbre and hedge dbl reed Calef.

I can't sing a lick but I can run a call with the best of them. toot toot

Agreed!

I like using my P.S. Olt D-2. Not to be confused with the D2-K key hole.

Good call

I bought a key hole from a small company(Bragging Rights Cut Downs) just for fun...my lord is that call loud as hell. I don't plan on using it in the field but it sure is fun to run.

Ok, you 2 go first.

They are loud. See a lot of them on WMAs

I got a lil clip in this thread working em at close range. No bragging type of calling, but field legitimate

I've never used a call. My lease partner does, but we haven't seen any ducks to call yet.

My buddy that got me into duck hunting has never used one because he was taught that it's better to not use one if you don't know when and how to use one. Basically, they can do more harm than good unless you're proficient. However, where he hunts is basically a big X. He doesn't need one there.

I can see it being important on public when there is a ton of water to land on or it's crowded. I've toyed with the thought of getting one and learning, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. It's intriguing to me and a skill I'd like to develop.

The learning is great. Remember sitting on porch with dad and grandpa as a kid and now I do it with my boys.

If you're not willing to learn to call you will never be a duck hunter.

Interesting.

I took Barney Who hunting last year, no decoys or calls, 2 easy limits

Wood ducks are an entirely different game. Go hunt a big reservoir with a refuge where the birds leave to go to fields to feed and come back to rest/loaf/roost. You'll learn how to call real quick.

I am offended by this thread as I am actually tone deaf.

My oldest son appears to have a problem with it, but when I record him and play it back, he can hear it then. I didn't know if he was just not paying attention (he is 8 years old), or if it could really happen. Listen to a good caller on a recording, Kent Cullum has some videos that are the best, then do the same in practice with yourself.

I do want to learn, but when you hunt with state champion duck callers who have 20-30 years experience on you, there really isn't much of a point!

Sure there is! I'm working with a guy in the group now who wants to guide on his own. We cook some duck, have a couple cold beers, and practice. Learning to blow a call will provide plenty of conversation and laughs along the way.

I have a really hard time hearing my call when I blow it. If I record it, no problem. I think the problem is similar to hearing your own voice through a microphone, it sounds different. It doesn't help me that I can hear it on a recording, because I can't adjust "live" while calling. For that reason, and the fact that I don't want to blow out my ears in my truck, I no longer practice calling, and I basically don't call. If I lived in the country and could practice out back, I would, but I don't.

Should the people that can't shoot leave their guns at home too?