With a string or wind instrument a player can modify the pitch of notes himself. With the minor chord do-mi-so, for instance, if the mi is flat it can be tweaked upwards a little to create a perfect harmony. But in order to do that a player has to fully grasp the tonality of the mi, what chord it’s in and its precise location in the chord sequence. Also, the player needs the technical ability to discern all that from the instrument while he continues to play. I understood the theory behind it all, but knew as well that very few musicians could reach this level of skill.

On the piano this is impossible. There is a fixed sequence of sounds and a player is unable to modify the musical intervals himself. He has to play within the pattern of sound we tuners have created. If he senses a slight lack of sparkle to the harmony, all he can do is live with it as he plays.

So I was keen to try well-tempered tuning in spite of misgivings about my ability. But nothing is absolute. ‘Correct’, ‘useful’, ‘wasted’ – these words are neither helpful nor true. I simply wanted to learn and was keen to give well-tempered tuning a try.

It took me under an hour to retune the piano from equal-tempered to well-tempered, and I was excited to hear the difference in tone. As I couldn’t play the piano myself, I just pressed the keys to see how they resonated. Do-mi-so, so-ti-re, fa-la-do. I’d have to retune it back to equal-tempered tuning before the end of the day and regretted this deeply, since the new sound was exquisite.

‘What’s going on in here?’ It was Mr Itadori, looking in from the door to the showroom. ‘Oh, it’s you, Tomura-kun.’ He bent backwards in mock surprise. ‘What have you been doing here?’

I couldn’t understand what he meant.

‘It’s so much better all of a sudden.’

‘What is?’

‘Your tuning, of course.’ His tone was even, his expression quite serious. ‘You’ve achieved such a superb clarity of sound.’

It made me really happy to hear that. But it couldn’t be true. I’d changed the tuning to well-tempered, but timbre and tone? I hadn’t intentionally worked on those.

‘Very nice,’ Mr Itadori said, a smile stretching from ear to ear.

‘Thank you very much.’

Still beaming, Mr Itadori exited the room.

Was he right? Was my tuning really improving? I wiped the keyboard with a cloth and gently closed the lid.