Spare Me From "Perfect Pitch"!

[Tom Cole]

Patrick,

I don't think the issue was perfect pitch (or whatever you choose to
call it). The music teacher was obviously upset about other things and
you got the honor of being the target of her projected angst. Maybe she
thought that playing the PP card would trump your SAT.

Many people are confused about what causes an unpleasant tone quality -
whether it be tuning, voicing, poor design, a poor rebuild or expecting
S & S D tone out of the first octave of a Wurlitzer spinet. Few people
know about these elements of tone; they only know that pianos are
_tuned_. The reason that this piano doesn't sound right must be because
it wasn't _tuned_ properly.  

Over the years, I've had people point out certain notes of my tuning
that could use some improvement, and I can appreciate it when a person
is right. But most of the time they just want to complain about
something, and many times they make a laughingstock of themselves when
they play the C-E-G chord in the bottom octave or pick out the one note
that was one of the better-sounding notes on the whole piano (you
pretend to change it and, "Oh, that's much better".). 

One thing we can say about customers with PP, though, is that they might
be a little high maintenance because they notice a lot more than the
average person and you may have to do a fair amount of fiddling to keep
them happy. But I always learn a lot in the process and value them
because they can also be among your greatest appreciators.

Tom Cole
mailto:tcole@cruzio.com

"Patrick C. Poulson" wrote:
> 
>  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