Yes, perfect pitch can be a curse. Those who have it tend to associate songs and tunes with their "proper" key, and if they know the original key or can see the music written on the staff, they find it uncomfortable to listen to the same tune played in a slightly different key, even though it is perfectly in tune within itself.

I think many of us could cultivate perfect pitch if we had a need for it. There are a couple of radio signature tunes whose pitch I can predict, and I daresay if I needed to, I could probably learn to recognise any note on hearing it. But it's not a skill that's needed or valued in our culture, and it could just be a nuisance, so we don't bother.

A singer or fiddler who performs unaccompanied will often use a slightly different pitching from the tempered scale they'd use if they were accompanied by a band. When it's done well, this is what makes the voice and the violin so special to listen to.

What I can't understand is all those guys you see taking ages to tune their guitars, fiddling around with electronic gizmos until their audience lose the will to live, and then singing with no sense of pitch or tuning whatever. Why can't they take the same care with their singing as they do with their instruments?

Marje