Piano tuning

So, it's been about two years since I had Maelstrom tuned.  I know he needs tuning because generally speaking, pianos need to be tuned every 6 months.  But I can't figure out how bad it is.  I only know that for the past year or so, I've been increasingly aware that when I play, it hurts something inside my bones.  I can never place a finger on exactly what it is but I know that feeling.  It means the pitch is off.  Probably flat, as that's what pianos usually do when they're not tuned, but nonetheless, I can't tell what it is.  This morning I hit the corresponding key on my keyboard to the keys on the piano.  I found a few particularly icky areas but even those were not certain to me.  It still sounds close enough to my ear to not sound "bad" on any individual keys outside those I know best - the C4-C5 range.  C4, D4, E4, F4, G4… and the sharps in between… they interchangeably sound awful to me, even though I swear I liked the tone of the piano previously and still like the rest of the notes.

Something's definitely off.  I hate not knowing how to discern what, though!  It's simply not in my brain's abilities to have "perfect pitch" I guess.  I should probably be happy I can tell there's even anything off at all.  But whenever I call the piano tuner guy, I always get asked, "Does it need a pitch raise?"  I always say, "Um… mayyyybe…?"  I don't know.  I know what that means.  I don't know if my piano needs it.  Do most people who play pianos know this?

Now, the thing that REALLY baffles me is this.  I know, beyond a doubt, that the tea kettle's first whistle is a very definite A.  I believe it's A5, to be exact.  I don't know how they got that to tune that way, but I can hum to it every morning as I bustle around waiting on that water.  Not only that, but I can hear that sound in my audio memory so precisely that I can hum it just before the thing goes off, and I can hum it on command just before hitting A5 on my keyboard.  To me - remember that my pitch isn't perfect - it sounds perfect.  I know I'm in the ball park.  I know that I'm darned close.  And my voice remembers where to go to hit that one note, even without prompting.  So somewhere in my head is the ability to duplicate what I hear, at least.  The problem, then, is that I don't hear some sublety in pitch.

Is this related to CAPD?  Or am I overanalyzing this?  I mean, am I putting down my abilities, like Dale says I do, believing that I've actually got a processing problem even when it comes to music?  Or is it that I'm quite normal and that the majority of the population cannot tell the difference, either?

I may never know the answer, and it doesn't matter.  But my curiosity often kills me on this.  Mum always told me I was tone-deaf.  I have often wondered if she has perfect pitch.  Much of my family was music on a hobby level at the very least.  I love music.  If I were tone-teaf, I know I would not be able to know that the tea kettle hums a nice happy A5, nor would I be able to match it so closely.  I've worked hard, off and on, for years, to get as good as this as I have.  Musicians practice far more regularly and longer than I have.  Why do I think that I should have an ear as good as a good musician's ear?  Why do I think that?  I don't know.  It might be the whole Mum-says-you-must-be-perfect thing.  But… I don't have to play for people.  So why do I care about proving I can do it?

I love music.  I love challenges.  Music is probably the biggest challenge I have ever had skill-wise.  It confounds me as much as speech and colour, because these are things that words cannot truly describe.  How do you explain warmth?  How do you explain the tingles that go up your spine when you hit upon a realization, the perfect note, or the perfect lyrical construction?

Bah.  Who knows.  The tuner guy is here.  LOL.

~me