Perfect Pitch, ET vs. WT, tone color

[Phil Bondi]

Dave:

..as a guardian of pitch, I would never set A4 without a SAT or a fork, and
I have Perfect Pitch, or pitch retention, or whatever you want to call it..

..i had a hard time at first when starting to learn to tune to NOT tune
musically..

..back in the mid 70's, I was studied by 2 students..1 at Berklee, one at
MIT..the guy at MIT was an Acoustics major, or something to that effect..I
was 19 years old at the time, and I knew I had this gift at age 7..but..it
wasn't until that study that i realized that as i hear pitch, i hear color,
also..the keys of Eb minor and Db minor are as dark as night, even in ET..I
would LOVE to hear these keys now in another temperment, now that I know
they exist..the keys of G, D, E, A, and C I hear as *common*, or a common
color..i also grew up in a rock and roll enviornment..that explained
that..now..the keys of F and Bb I hear as *less common*..the Key of B is a
very bright color..and Ab is starting to get dark..

..I have never met anyone who has *developed* what this person is claiming
he can do..

..It is my novice opinion in the Piano Technology field that having Perfect
Pitch means nothing..it's taken me years to learn how to tune without tuning
musically..that means that I use to try and tune too pure..so consequently,
a couple of keys would sound wonderful, but the rest of them sounded really
bad..call it Tito's Temperment!..

..it is my expert opinion in pitch retention that I believe it can not be
developed..again, this is my opinion..every person that I know that has
Perfect Pitch knew they had it at a very early age..that to me means that
you're born with it..or..in your early development, you are exposed to
enough music to begin to figure out what note to play on an instrument, and
then, the sound of that note coupled with the notation equals pitch retention..

Dave, you have a SAT, correct?..this is what I would suggest..if you're
really interested in learning more about this phenomenon, set up the SAT to
C3 or C2 in the Tune mode..sing *ah* till you get the lights to slow
down..when this happens, you're real close..I've done it just for the heck
of it..but..my point is..If this phenomenon can be developed, you MUST be
able to reproduce the note yourself..that means being able to sing it..you
must be able to *feel* it..again, every person I know that has Perfect Pitch
can do this..

..save your money..talk to me privately if you'd like..

..also, since owning the SAT, I can now accurately predict where A4 is..just
today, I tuned a piano that I described to the owner as being *real
close*..A4 turned out to be at -9.6..that makes A4 437hz + ...not perfect,
but darn good..another customer was told by me that their piano would need
to be pitch corrected, and that it was *very flat*..I said somewhere around
-50 cents..it turned out to be -62 cents..

..the words *perfect pitch* bother some people..i don't blame them..i'll go
along with pitch retention, even if it sounds more clinical.