Tyler, you mention "We all know what we're really talking about so there's no reason to semanticize about the term". But, I *don't* know what you're really talking about! What are you really talking about? The current discussion was triggered by a comment made by a customer who was a *retired piano tuner*. He said that he had "perfect pitch". Given the understanding that one must have, as a piano tuner, of frequenncies in the tempered scale, one could surely be forgiven for thinking that such a statement from a piano tuner would have a different meaning from the same thing said by a non-tuner musician. J. Stanley Ryberg, you note: "Why say that? Wikipedia returns: Absolute pitch (AP), or perfect pitch, is the ability to name or reproduce a tone without reference to an external standard.[1] Follows a very in depth exposé about perfect pitch, maybe that would answer your questions. We are NOT left with no definition". Hmmm, well, one might note the following: The discussion in Wikipedia is most interesting and illuminating, certainly. But notice the initial definition: "Absolute pitch (AP), or perfect pitch, is the ability to name or reproduce a tone without reference to an external standard". You will note that no *standard of accuracy* is stated. To illustrate; there is a big difference between "the ability to name or reproduce a tone, to an accuracy within a semitone deviation, without reference......" and "the ability to name or reproduce a tone, to an accuracy within five cents deviation, without reference....." The Wikipedia article is excellent, but it does not define, when a person says "I have perfect pitch", what THAT PERSON means. To find that out, it is necessary to say to the person making the cliam, "Oh, that's interesting. What is it that you mean by perfect pitch?" Best, David.
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