It's a real curse, you have no idea how painful it is when folks are just a little bit off! And when something is transposed, and he's looking at the original score, it sends him into a tailspin.
It’s a curse, all right. During my youthful church-going days I could hear that the congregation was anywhere from a quarter tone to a half tone off from the organ. Catholics neither sing loud nor do their organists play loud. (The Protestants knew how to sing!) The low volume on the organ caused the congregation to drift off in pitch during the hymn. It drove me nuts.