Perfect Pitch...half step low

[Matthew Todd]

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There is the remarkable story about Brahms.  He discovered his piano a half step
flat, just minutes before he was to play on that piano in a concert with an
orchestra!  So he actually transposed his piano part from memory during the
performance up a half step to C sharp while the orchestra played in C.


Matthew

Richard Moody wrote:

> When I started taking lessons at age 12 I didn't know the piano was half a
> step low. In fact it wasn't until 13 years later when I was learning to
> become a piano tuner that I knew there was any such thing as a piano half
> a step flat.  So I would practice my half hour at night and go to school
> the next day and hear a piano at 440.   A couple of years later I would
> try to play with the record player and was pleased I could learn some
> tunes doing that.  I copied a lot of songs in F, and Bb.   When playing by
> ear I would always try it first in C.   I remember "discovering"  the I IV
> V pattern for pop, rock and folk tunes.  My formal lessons were classical.
>  I was a poor sight reader so I never had Exodus in sheet music.  I did
> have a copy of "Alley Cat". But playing that on my piano, I never realised
> I was hearing it half a step low on the radio.  Had we had a 45 and I
> tried to play along with that, I might have realized something wasn't
> right.  A couple of times kids with guitars came over and were glad to
> tune up to a piano.  And one wondered why his guitar was high in pitch to
> the piano as he had recently tuned it at his teacher's.  Another comical
> (now it seems) spin off was when I practiced my high school chorus music
> at home, in the evening of course.  I would wonder why it was easier to
> hit  E5 at night than in the day time.  I asked the choral director why
> this was so, but she had no answer.
>         Had she suspected my piano was half a step low she might have recomended
> a tuner.  We did have it tuned, once, but as I found out much later on, he
> didn't tune it to pitch.  I don't know what would have happened if he had
> done that.  I would have had to re-learn all of those songs I copied in F
> and Bb back into E and A if I was to play along with the records. But had
> it been a quarter step off I don't know what would have happened.  Perhaps
> I would have concentrated more on my classical lessons.  Or maybe would
> have been become discouraged with the piano sooner as I couldn't even find
> the right notes the record was playing.
>         My last teacher lived right around the corner, and naturally I would
> "cram" before going over.  I never realized the Chopin Prelude I had
> played 15 minutes earlier now sounded half a step  higher on her piano.
> To this day I have no notion of pitch recall.   I can "match pitch" in
> singing and "carry a tune" but I have no idea what the pitch name is.
> ---ric
> >
> > I cannot play a piano that is more than a half step away from the
> typical
> > A-440.  I'm one of those people who gets confused because I'm not
> hearing
> > what my mind says I'm playing.
> >
> > Although I don't play nearly as much as I used to, I never did find any
> > particular key intimidating.  Not only do I play in the typical C, F, &
> G...
> > I also really enjoy playing in F#, C#, & B.
> >
> > Brian Trout
> > Quarryville, PA

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