There’s no such thing as an absolute best sound. No sound is absolute. It would have been better if I’d said it was, but I couldn’t. For a child being pushed to have an appreciation for the arts, hearing adults insist this was the absolute best possible sound was not going to help.

‘You’re quite the fool, Tomura.’ Mr Akino sounded pleased with himself. ‘You should have just agreed. No one likes to play the piano if they have concerns over whether or not it has a good sound.’

‘I suppose so.’

I nodded briefly, but then hung my head in doubt.

‘Isn’t it enough if a client thinks it sounds good?’ I said. ‘I don’t know – I just don’t like the idea of someone else deciding whether it’s the absolute best sound or not.’

Mr Akino gave a small, dry laugh. ‘You can be such a pain, Tomura.’

I’m a pain. Is that why people want to switch to a different tuner?

When I lived in the mountains the doctor would visit our local clinic on Mondays and Thursdays only. He made very clear diagnoses and did not mince his words. He’d diagnose a cold as a cold. ‘You’re going to be fine,’ he’d declare in some cases, while in others he’d caution patients about their prospects in no uncertain terms. After I moved away from the mountains, I never saw another doctor who spoke quite so plainly or conclusively.

Which approach is the more honest? Perhaps the one found in town hospitals, where doctors will consider a range of possibilities. But is avoiding a definite diagnosis really helpful to the patient, or is it just a way for doctors to shirk their responsibility? I started to have my doubts. I remembered how this felt.

‘So how did you answer him?’

‘I told him if you’re going to use the word “absolute”, then I don’t think this is the absolute best sound.’

‘You weren’t wrong and you didn’t lie.’ Mr Akino cocked his head to one side to ponder the question. ‘If you’re going to respond as honestly as you can, then sure, you might answer in that way. But if you do, it sounds more like your subjective opinion.’

Unless you have a relationship built on trust, a subjective approach won’t be of any interest to the other person. But that’s what I didn’t understand – how to establish that kind of mutual trust.

‘Even if you can’t explain it in words, if you tune it so it sounds good, that’s enough,’ Mr Akino said. ‘Putting aside the question of absolutes, the end game is to make it sound good.’

Fair enough. But what had me in knots was the question of how to go about creating that gorgeous sound in the first place.