[pianotech] Question about perfect pitch

[David Nereson]

   Maybe not all, but some, yes, definitely.  I had what was (and, 
unfortunately, still is) called "perfect" pitch (but is really just 
"good pitch recognition, at least most of the time), and when I was 
young, I could not play on a piano that was approaching a half-step 
flat.  I would play a C chord and it would sound like a B chord.  My 
fingers just would not obey what my mind was telling them to do.
    Eventually I developed (unconsciously) the skill to mentally 
transpose up a half step what I was hearing, and now I can play on a 
piano that's quite flat, maybe even a whole step low, and it doesn't 
bother me like it used to.
    I also was able to tolerate pianos that were way out of tune before 
I became a tuner.  I just mentally compensated in my mind, knowing what 
it was really supposed to sound like.  I don't have as much tolerance 
for that now.  Maybe if I were pounding out blues in a noisy bar where 
people weren't listening that closely . . . .
    If one does much home recording, jumping back and forth from the 
piano to the stereo to recording to playing another instrument, back to 
the stereo, then to the piano, recording, playing back, etc., then a 
piano that's not on standard pitch would be absolutely maddening.
    --David Nereson, RPT 
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