Perfect Pitch?

I have it and I am partly happy with it and partly not. The good thing is that I can adjust to a higher pitched piano in a concert hall f.e.without being distracted too much. The great thing having perfect pitch is a deeper sense of listening INTO the music. Like looking at a very colorfull picture and being able to see all the little hints of different colors very precisely.
The drawback is that all the "historical" recorded or played stuff really is confusing at times when you know it should be b-minor and actually is b flat minor for your hearing. The worst is that it is impossible to sing or play different notes from those on the paper if you are making music. A written c has to be a c or you get crazy.

Aida_w, not to be impolite or anything, but how could you possibly know whether or not you hear the music any differently than me, other than being able to identify pitch names correctly, and maybe being bothered by 'off-pitch' keys?

William Schumann and others demonstrated that true tone deafness is as rare as ptomane poisoning. Pitch recognitions can be taught and learned. By using Curin hand signals and Solfege syllables,the intervalic relationships among pitches can be kinesthetically reenforced.
I hae seen Kodaly trained music teachers in public schools get first graders to the point where they can recall and sing an A after about four or five minutes without singing. Yes,you can activate and make more coordinated the parts of your brain that function as a "mind's ear" to recall tone.
Can you hear tones in your brain? If you can, you can improve your pitch recognition-with practice.

If memory serves me right, this prof said that something like five percent of the general population is "tone deaf". Maybe those are the audio high-enders! He also mentioned that different portions of the brain are involved in pitch processing, rhythm processing and the distinguishing different voices and various musical instruments. At his point no one is willing to correlate perfect pitch to audiophilia. I guess being a golden eared listener has more to do with voodoo, magic and mystical powers.

There is an interesting story about pitch..perfect or otherwise.

At one time the internationally accepted standard for pitch was... middle A as played by the Vienna Opera. This developed into an international fracas because the Vienna musicians tuned a half note sharp, because this made all their productions sound more brilliant. Singers complained that their voices were strained. I forget all the details, but the story would make a good basis for a comic opera.