Perfect pitch

[Richard Moody]

Many musicians now have "pocket tuners", electronic devices that are as
small as a tape cassette case, and under $50.  They are accurate to 1/2
--- 1/4 a cycle per second at a' 440.  Now that pitch can be determined to
this degree, by "the masses", they need also to  understand that the pitch
of a piano  like all the other instruments of the orchestra can and
does vary during performance, or simply just sitting there. 
	For most situations it is not practical to change the pitch of a piano
less than two cycles per second.  In any pitch raising you have to guess
how far above 440 to go, so you will be lucky to get with in a half cycle,
and even then in the next 24 hours you can expect reaction to the new
tension. 
	Also through experience I have found that it is futile to worry about a
sudden pitch change for the first 48 hours.  After drastic weather changes
pianos have a funny way of comming back.  But on the other hand if we had
to adjust the piano for every one cycle per second deviation, we would
have  a lot more business. 
	If you mention this to the party that wants the pitch to be to other
standards, and the added costs for the additional tunings, they begin to
get the picture, or perhaps you get more work.  The closer the tolerence
the higher the cost.

Richard Moody     

----------
> From: robert sadowski <rls@ncinter.net>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Perfect pitch
> Date: Friday, April 03, 1998 2:31 PM
> 
> Dear list,
>      I was tuning today for a Sunday concert and a musician came in and
told
> me that he wanted the two pianos in question to be tuned to A441.  He
said
> he just returned from a practice room and that piano was A439.  Now I'm
a
> firm believer in the human computer but is this possible?  I know he
wasn't
> carrying an RCT with him to know.  It's hard for me to believe anyone
can
> detect 1 cps difference by listening.  Am I in the dark about this?
> 
> Thanks,
> Bob Sadowski RPT
> Erie, PA.