In a message dated 9/5/00 11:11:08 AM, tito@PhilBondi.com writes: << As I get older, I am recognizing that I do not identify A=440 as easily as I once did >> Rook, my nearly "pefect pitch" seems exactly the same as yours in many respects including my accuracy deteriorating slightly in the last 5 years or so. (I am 48.) <<a customer's piano that I have said "sounds pretty close" to be as much as 20 cents flat..that to me is not 'pretty close'..but if someone were to sit down on the same piano before I knew how flat it was and was to play chords, notes, or a song, I could identify the chords, the notes, or the key the song was in..I would get them all right..so that's perfect?>> This also mirrors my own experiences. Interestingly, I have recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. I guess they must tune significantly sharp. At the beginning of each symphony, I know, of course, what key this symphony is written in, and I perceive them at the pitch they are written, but somewhere during the developement section, it modulates through the circle of fifths, or perhaps it goes through some chromatic modulation of sorts, and I start to hear the piece a half step high. My ear QUANTIZES the pitch up or down to the apparently nearest half step. <<yes I believe there are varying degrees of perfectness with this 'gift' that some of us have>> I agree; I do not claim to have perfect pitch. It's pretty close...but no cigar. I attribute this to my tuning experience. I think perfect pitch does have something to with pitch memory, and because I am adjusting the pitch on so many pianos, my ear no longer perceives an 'A' as a finite, quantified thing. (...I mean, "thingee") My ear no longer has a "role model" of what an 'A' is. I mean where does 'G#' end and 'A' begin? It was never an issue when I was younger, making my living as a pianist. (Back in the old days when an 'A' was an 'A'!) Tom S. Chicago Area
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