<HTML> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 12:03:27 -0800 From: "Patrick C. Poulson" <ppoulson@jps.net> Subject: Spare Me From "Perfect Pitch"! I went back to check out a Wurlitzer spinet at a  school that I tuned yesterday, the one that the music teacher said had gone totally flat in the bottom octave.  Nothing wrong. In fact, a few of the notes had gone a little sharp!  The teacher played a few notes and said " Can't your hear that these bottom notes are a 1/2 step flat?" Well, actually they sounded fine to me, but I got my Accutuner out and doublechecked them.  They were right where they needed to be.  The music teacher claims to have perfect pitch.  I have had experience with some people with "perfect pitch", and it seems that sometimes their ear focuses on a harmonic that is out of tune with the rest of the harmonics from a string, and there's nothing I can do to change short of replacing the piano.  The music teacher was busy rehearsing her choir by the time I finished, so I called in the prinicipal who is also a piano player, fortunately, and explained the situation .  She seemed to understand , and actually apologized for the music teacher's attitude and abruptness, saying that the teacher is under a lot of pressure to get her Christmas program together and also has been sick.  I was just glad that there was nothing structurally wrong with the piano, or that somehow my ears had gone totally off - admittedly, the cold I'm getting over has clogged my Eustacian tubes up a bit, but I don't think my hearing has been affected.      Anybody else had a similiar experience? Thanks, Patrick Poulson, RPT </BLOCKQUOTE> Patrick, There have been many discussions on the List concerning this phenomenon--in my experience it is NOT just one thing, nor is it infallible, and people under pressure frequently find themselves operating with a pitch sense that is not as reliable as it usually is.  But there is one more thing which may help you--MANY people with "pitch sense," or whatever you wish to call it, have relied upon it so completely that they are unable to augment that sense with the things that other musicians learn to do as a matter of course.  Your choral director friend may be one of those, and may NOT be playing with a full musical deck, so to speak!  Don't let it bother you......the sense can be an aid, but it is not a cure, no matter what some may say...there's more to being a musician, by far! Stan Ryberg Barrington IL</HTML>