Perfect Pitch...half step low

[Richard Moody]

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