[pianotech] Perfect Pitch (revisited)

[David Lawson]

Once again this subject raises its head. Whilst reading this post I wondered about the past. We now rely on tuning forks or ETD's to establish pitch.
In years gone by, there have been so many pitches that were called standard pitch of the time. Can anyone explain to me how pitch was established before there were tuning forks?
Pitch has been rising for years, to what end??
There must have been a method of creating pitch in the early days of harpsichords and pipe organs, what was it?
Perhaps they had 'perfect pitch' back then!!!!!
David Lawson OZ

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lou Novak 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 10:23 AM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Perfect Pitch (revisited)


  Did the Bureau of Standards and Engraving decide pitch to be 440cps?

  Doesn't everything in the universe have a natural "perfect pitch" unique to itself?

  I understood the definition of perfect pitch was to be able to throw a banjo 
  in to a dumpster from 15 feet, without hitting the sides of the dumpster! ; -) ....

  (No offense intended toward banjo players - you could substitute a vuvuzela if you like).

  -Lou
  D.M.C.
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Robert Wilson 
    To: pianotech at ptg.org 
    Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 4:50 PM
    Subject: Re: [pianotech] Perfect Pitch (revisited)


          Only your ETD has perfect pitch! 


          Bob.


          --- On Tue, 6/7/10, Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net> wrote:


            From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net>
            Subject: [pianotech] Perfect Pitch (revisited)
            To: pianotech at ptg.org
            Date: Tuesday, 6 July, 2010, 1:06


                  Hi all,

                  I went to tune for a client a while ago, and she begins by bragging what perfect pitch she has.  I had asked her when the last time her piano was tuned.  She couldn't remember, but then went on to say that it wasn't that far off as she has perfect pitch.  I whipped out my ETD and measured.  Sure enough, more than -25 cents!  I just smiled and told her it would need a pitch raise prior to tuning.  She was a little shocked.

                  Anyway, I just said all that to reiterate the fact that there is no such thing as perfect pitch.  Relative pitch, yes.  Pitch memory, yes.  But perfect pitch, no.

                  I know of people who can name a key you are playing in by not looking to see.  However, to be perfect, they would need to also tell you how many cents sharp or flat the piano is and/or name the exact frequency of the given tones.  Someone may be able to do the latter, I am not sure.  BUT, they would need to be 100% right, 100% of the time to be perfect.  If there are people out there who can do that, maybe a more correct term would be absolute, instead of perfect.

                  Okay, I am done.....for now :-)


                  TODD PIANO WORKS 
                  Matthew Todd, Piano Technician 
                  (979) 248-9578
                  http://www.toddpianoworks.com 
         

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100707/9fc8c250/attachment.htm>