Question

[Miss Scarrlet]

Are only those with perfect pitch allowed to come to try to join the Heptite Guild? In Killashandra, it seems so, yet these others settle happily into their new roles when their adjustment isn't perfect...

[Kesal]

it's a requirement because everyone who makes a good adjustment to the symbiote is expected to be a crystal singer. they will not accept applications from people who don't have perfect pitch.

this seems to be changing in the later books where they become more in need of support services. I'm rereading at the moment, but haven't got to that point yet so I can't give you a direct fact.

[granath]

Medical emergencies such as Donalla are allowed on Ballybran without the requirement. Also, after Lars became Guild Master and got permission for overt recruitment on some planets, they started accepting people without perfect pitch for support functions, and apparently especially medical.

[Bane]

They start recruiting for the much needed support staff, but they also recruit those with perfect pitch on the off chance they actually become singers. To be a singer, it is implied (or said outright, I can't remember) that you need perfect pitch to use the cutter.

Suppose someone comes that does not have perfect pitch. They would more than likely not make it past the prelim tests. I remember Killashandra having to sing scales and stuff in the first book before she was even accepted to go to the planet.

Suppose someone who did not have perfect itch applied and somehow made it past the tests. They may or may not make it as a singer. I'm hypothesizing that they do make it as a singer without perfect pitch. Wouldn't they cut sour crystal? Wouldn't it bring the quality of the crystal down to such a level that no one would want it? What if they had the affinity for black crystal? what would that do to the economy that the Guild so relies on?

Perfect pitch is an understandable requirement for application considereing the product they are selling.

[Brenda]

I think it is an absurd system. They should allow people down who want to be in a job other than Cutter. Of course a lot of the people who come down expecting to be cutters will not make the right adaptation and will be forced into another job, but then you have a planet full of aristocrats and disgruntled underlings. Particularly specialized jobs, like medicine - I doubt they have a medical school right there in the main complex.

[granath]

Indeed, and that's why Lars was starting to recruit candidates who didn't have perfect pitch when he became Guild Master. Especially as the adaptations were getting better and a higher yield of singers came out of every class.

[Lady Miacara]

Particularly specialized jobs, like medicine - I doubt they have a medical school right there in the main complex.

Considering medicine as most planets would know it doesn't fully apply to Ballybran. The other planets don't have the aide of the Symbiont in healing. Medics are there to aid the Symbiont till it takes over the healing, it's not to do the healing themselves. It's just to ensure the health of the individual and the Symbiont. They were there to fix up fractured bones, gashes, etc. as well as perform surgical issues that are akin to trauma surgery. So all medics on Ballybran are, are essentially glorified First Aiders/Triage Nurses/Trauma Surgeon/Orthopedic Surgeons all combined. A lot of their training would be under a more senior medic and most understandably hands-on. Nothing better than getting right into the thick of it all to learn the best when you have the aid of the Symbiont in the healing process.

[Brenda]

If Killa hadn't had a good transition, do you really want her as your doctor?

[Lady Miacara]

Do you think most of the medics are the best for the singers period honestly? Nobody is the perfect medic, most probably got sick of dealing with the singers after constantly warning them to take care of themselves. No, that's not the ideal but it's sure a heck better than having noone to be trained as a medic... after all what are most support personnel, those that didn't adapt good enough to be a Singer.

[Miss Scarrlet]

Well, since we really only see Killa and her classmates and Donalla enter Ballybran, who is to say they don't -have- applicants who can't sing? Perhaps they don't have the singing tests for those who want to do other things?

[Kesal]

The rules stated that all applicants must have perfect pitch. Lars and Killashandra discuss making changes to this rule only when it's realised how few applicants the Guild is getting, and how few of those coming through are making less-than-nominal adaptations - everyone's adapting and becoming singers.
Now, they're allowed to recruit openly, so this will change things, but as there are no further books at this point we don't know how that would affect the rules.

[Shadow*]

Reading the first book I got the impression that the reason they required perfect pitch was to ensure that the highest percentage of candidates would become Crystal Singers. When Killa checked the roster Singers numbered 4425, as opposed to 20 something thousand support workers. We aren't told how many of the singers were 'inactive'.

At the time, of the first book, the guild needed singers more than they did any other workers, they had unfullfilled backorders. Given the small proportion of 'perfect pitch' candidates who actually became singers, at that time, it would have seemed wise to 'load the dice' in favour, from an economic standpoint, of those who would adjust suitably and mine the planets main export.The guild would be aware of the high proportion who wouldn't adjust fully and could be easily settled into 'support' positions.

I did wonder, as I don't think it was mentioned, if those who 'passed' the entrance tests were also vetted for valuable secondary roles.

I think it was the doctor? who actually mentioned that she was hoping she wouldn't be a singer? something to do with excellent medical facilities and the opportunity for research and that the 'risk' of becoming a Singer was worth it.

Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong.

[granath]

You got it right, Shadow. Antona mentioned that she took the risk of becoming a singer even though all she wanted to do was to become a doctor. It's possible that the wish of not singing Crystal was enough to make her adaptation less than perfect so that she got her wish.

[Kath]

Reading the first book I got the impression that the reason they required perfect pitch was to ensure that the highest percentage of candidates would become Crystal Singers. When Killa checked the roster Singers numbered 4425, as opposed to 20 something thousand support workers. We aren't told how many of the singers were 'inactive'.

At the time, of the first book, the guild needed singers more than they did any other workers, they had unfullfilled backorders. Given the small proportion of 'perfect pitch' candidates who actually became singers, at that time,

<snip>

I don't think the odds are quick as skewed as they appear from these numbers. Four to 20 thousand suggests 1 in 5, and the risks of singing as a career probably lead to higher average death rates in the singing part of the Ballybran population. Realistic odds (without all the modern selection techniques which led to higher numbers of singers in Killa's and subsequent classes) are probably closer to 1 in 4, which isn't really that small a proportion.

[Lady Miacara]

You got it right, Shadow. Antona mentioned that she took the risk of becoming a singer even though all she wanted to do was to become a doctor. It's possible that the wish of not singing Crystal was enough to make her adaptation less than perfect so that she got her wish.

Yeah I'd agree with you on the possibility of the person's desire to avoid a certain adapt might play a part as well as the fact that in one of the books they said they were getting better at understanding the different adapts and seemed to be able to better judge the end results of the adaption illness.

I play a Meditech on one of the Crystal Singer Mu* and while my recruit had perfect pitch she had no desire period to be a singer... she was medically trained as a doctor prior to joining the Guild and didn't stop wishing that she'd make Meditech once there.

[Brenda]

It just seems stupid to have to depend on - mostly - disgruntled would-be singers for all their non-crystal needs.

[Shalyn]

I wonder if the symbiont would help, if the adaptation were a full success, in giving someone perfect pitch. Like, they don't have it because of something wrong with their hearing or vocal chords - something that's not necessarily medically detectable, but the symbiont ends up fixing it.

Or, on the flip side, maybe on those the symbiont doesn't have such a success with - the perfect pitch they used to have has been lost.

I don't know if it's possible, but since I can't sing my way out of a barn, I can only hope.

(And - apologies if this has been thought of before!!!)