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General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Intonation has nothing to do with absolute pitch.

Intonation has to do with hearing the pitches around you and fitting into the prevailing pitch world, adjusting as you go, and taking account of things such as major thirds needing to be lower, minor thirds higher, etc.

In other words, intonation is relative, not absolute.

You may be surprised at how far away from equal temperament things will get with no keyboard present.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of principal oboists do not have absolute pitch, either. If you stood behind them as they gave the "A" you'd see the electronic tuner on their stand. (Years ago they would have used a tuning fork.)

In reality, in some orchestras an oboist with absolute pitch would be driven crazy, because some orchestras deliberately tune sharp, in the neighborhood of A=443 or even higher.

So, as I said, absolute pitch is of very little practical use to musicians.


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