Comments on: Tuning system geekery

By: Rich Huxley

Rich Huxley — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Fascinating stuff Ethan. I Happened upon your blog trying to find your writings about the democratisation of music and the idea that the specialisation that the record industry gave is a cultural and historical anomaly, all for my MA in Music Industries - http://mamusicind.posterous.com - … Happened upon this and I’ll be checking my tuning tonight.
Stay well, keep fighting the good fight… and death to false metal

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Thanks for stumbling. I dug your post, I agree there’s something endearing about an instrument that’s “flawsome.” When I’m doing electronic music I like to find samples that are a little “wrong” to keep the whole thing from being too sterile. It’s interesting to me that there’s a whole genre of electronica, dubstep, where the whole point is to have beats and synth parts that are intentionally programmed to be a little off.

By: grahamophone

grahamophone — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:05:00 +0000

Wow! So happy to have stumbled upon your site, and I will peruse with enthusiasm in a minute. But first, I wanted to share a bit of my blog with you, also pertaining to guitar tuning. Here an older article called “Totally Flawsome”:
http://grahamophonesbadguitarchannel.blogspot.com/2010/05/gbgc-7-heart-of-glass-its-all-coming.html

By: Ethan

Ethan — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:05:00 +0000

Glad you enjoyed. I know it’s weird to divide the spiral of fifths into fours that way but it’s the best 3D image of a spiral that I have. If you can recommend a better one, I’ll happily use it instead. The video is useful for making all the math more tangible, check it out folks.

By: Skye

Skye — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 09:57:06 +0000

Language correction:
Sorry, I am Danish!
Please substitute ‘derive’ for ‘deviate from’ in my comment above!

By: Skye

Skye — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:57:47 +0000

Great article, thanks! I am also very happy about the link to articles about neurological research.
Somewhat less happy about your representation of the spiral of fifths as it only makes sense to divide each turn in four from a limited perspective.
Maybe my video about the pythagorean comma will elucidate some of the facts you are describing. Please note that in the video the piano keyboard is only to make the structure recognizable for those who have difficulties grasping the abstract idea of the octave/fifth spiral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au2QFQ2ppyg
The problem is of course that a piano layout gives you the illusion of tonal fix points whereas the whole idea – like you described it so clearly – is that the tonal frequencies differ according to tuning system. For example h# generated by 12 pure fifths is about a quarter of a half tone (pyt. comma) higher than the c we set off from.
Another important consideration is that the equal temperament is much, much harder on the pure thirds and sixths than the pure fifths. The later only derive by about 2 cents (one fiftieth of a half tone) whereas the former (and there are four of them – minor and major third and sixth) derive by about 15 cents – one seventh of a half tone!
The middle tone temperament which was much used during the renaissance was designed to keep the thirds pure.
Cheers!

By: Brian Charles Clark

Brian Charles Clark — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:05:56 +0000

Very cool article. I’d known this since reading Issacoff’s book on temperament, but somehow hadn’t made the jump to my own guitar.