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
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