Kite Guitar explanation for non-microtonalists: Difference between revisions

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The advantage of guitar-sized EDOs is the simplicity. The "universe" of possible notes is a managable size. Unlike just intonation, melodies don't have small pitch shifts of a comma. Another advantage is the symmetry. Unlike just intonation, every note can be the tonic of any scale. The disadvantage is that the harmonies are no longer perfectly in tune.

~~The~~ larger the EDO, the more in tune it is. The smaller the EDO, the more playable it is. 12-EDO is a great compromise. It happens to approximate certain simple ratios very well. For example, by sheer coincidence, the ratio 3/2 is almost exactly seven twelfths of an octave. It's only 2¢ off. Four twelfths of an octave is pretty close to 5/4, but audibly sharp by 14¢. All 5-limit intervals come from combining 3/2 and 5/4 together, so all 5-limit intervals are about 12-16¢ off.

In general, the larger the EDO, the more in tune it is. The smaller the EDO, the more playable it is. 12-EDO is a great compromise. It happens to approximate certain simple ratios very well. For example, by sheer coincidence, the ratio 3/2 is almost exactly seven twelfths of an octave. It's only 2¢ off. Four twelfths of an octave is pretty close to 5/4, but audibly sharp by 14¢. All 5-limit intervals come from combining 3/2 and 5/4 together, so all 5-limit intervals are about 12-16¢ off.

We tolerate this slight mistuning in exchange for the convenience of having only 12 notes to deal with. But 12-EDO fails to tune 7-limit JI well. A ratio like 7/6 = 267¢ doesn't really exist in 12-EDO, because the nearest interval is 300¢, which sounds much more like 6/5 (316¢).

To get 5/4 more in tune and keep 3/2 in tune, the EDO has to get larger than 12. EDOs such as 19 and 22 do approximate 3/2 reasonably well, and 5/4 better than 12-EDO. But neither 19-EDO nor 22-EDO tunes 7-limit JI very well. For that, the EDO must get even larger. No EDO tunes primes 3, 5 and 7 well until 31-EDO. And prime 3 is worse in 31-EDO than in 12-EDO. The smallest EDO that improves 3, 5 and 7 over 12-EDO is 41-EDO. 53-EDO and 72-EDO are also famous for being very accurate. But a really big EDO like these paradoxically becomes more like JI. There are lots of notes, and you can get everything really in tune, but the sheer complexity is overwhelming. More about EDOs here: [[EDOs]] and here: [[wikipedia:Equal_temperament|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament]].

This youtube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2jYk37Rlg The Mathematical Problem with Music, and How to Solve It] is a nice explanation of 5-limit JI and 12-equal, as well as historical tunings like pythagorean and meantone temperament.

== The Kite Guitar ==

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Fortunately, there's another way to get more notes besides adding frets: detune the strings. A guitar has a built in redundancy, because a note appears in more than one place on the fretboard. The open 1st string note (middle-E) also appears on the 2nd string at fret 5, the 3rd string at fret 9, 4th at fret 14, etc. If you tune every other string half a fret sharp, every other middle-E becomes a new note. Same for every note, and you now have twice as many notes (24-EDO). The downside is that E appears in fewer places and it's sometimes harder to reach. Before, a major 3rd was one string over, one fret back. Now, there's a half-augmented 3rd there, and all your major chords sound very weird! The major 3rd is still on the guitar, but 4 frets away where it's hard to reach. The perfect 4th and 5th are also inaccessible, because the nearby ones have been replaced with strange half-augmented or half-diminished 4ths and 5ths. So tuning your guitar this way gives you something new, but you lose a lot of what you had before.

The Kite guitar adds notes both ways. There are almost twice as many frets, and every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and only in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it!

The Kite guitar adds notes both ways. There are almost twice as many frets, and every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size, e.g. [[19-EDO]] or [[22-EDO]]. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and only in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it!

Unfortunately, the standard EADGBE tuning simply won't work. Because then those slightly sharp/flat octaves and 5ths become all too accessible, and show up in the A and E barre chord shapes. Instead, the guitar is tuned in major 3rds. (There are also some open tunings, but those limit your ability to modulate.)

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So the bad news is, you can't simply pick up a Kite guitar and start playing it. There's a learning curve. You have to learn new chord shapes. The good news is, there are fewer chord shapes to learn than you might expect. Here's why: in EADGBE, the G-B interval is different from the other intervals. As a result, the C, D, E, G and A major chords all have different shapes. But the Kite guitar is isomorphic, meaning same-shape, and there's only one shape to learn for all those chords. Because the intra-string interval is always the same.

There's a few other drawbacks. Obviously the closer fret spacing is somewhat ~~more difficult~~. Omitting half the frets makes finding notes a little harder. Also the major-3rds tuning reduces the overall range of the guitar. Unless you're using an open tuning, 6 strings ~~isn't quite enough~~, and 7 or 8 is best. And of course, there's a learning curve in training your ears to hear all these new sounds. But that's the fun part!

There's a few other drawbacks. Obviously the closer fret spacing is somewhat less playable (although no worse than a mandolin or ukelele). Omitting half the frets makes finding notes a little harder. Also the major-3rds tuning reduces the overall range of the guitar. Unless you're using an open tuning, or playing with another guitarist, 6 strings is somewhat limiting, and 7 or 8 is best. And of course, there's a learning curve in training your ears to hear all these new sounds. But that's the fun part!

Finally, there's subtle pitch shifts of a ~~half-fret sometimes~~. These are the inevitable result of getting everything more in tune. ~~When you really study harmony~~, ~~you find that there are more than 7 notes~~ in a ~~major scale~~. ~~Weird~~, ~~but true!~~ The good news is that like watching a magician's trick, casual listeners are completely fooled and don't notice the pitch shifts.

Finally, there's sometimes subtle pitch shifts of a comma. These are the inevitable result of getting everything more in tune. As mentioned, a piece often requires both 9/8 and 10/9. On the Kite guitar, one uses whichever is appropriate at the moment. Sometimes one must use 9/8 immediately before or after 10/9, resulting in a pitch shift of a half-fret, about 30¢. Something similar can happen with 5/3 and 27/16, or with 7/4 and 16/9, etc. The good news is that like watching a magician's trick, casual listeners are usually completely fooled and don't notice the pitch shifts.

So there are disadvantages, but the advantages are enormous. Chords are only a few cents away from JI, and sound great! And there are so many harmonic options. There are four main kinds of 3rds: large major, small major, large minor and small minor. There are likewise four 6ths and four 7ths. There's more of everything: two major chords, two minor chords, two dim7 chords, three augmented chords, four dom7 chords, etc.

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The Kite guitar also gives you lots of melodic options. Going up one fret takes you up about 60¢. This is the perfect size -- barely large enough to feel like a small minor 2nd and not a quartertone. In other words, in the right context, two notes a fret apart can feel like two distinct notes of a scale, and not two microtonal versions of the same note. And yet 60¢ is barely ''small'' enough so that the ear can be fooled by pitch shifts of half a fret (30¢).

60¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from note A to ~~note B~~. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales.

60¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from one note to another. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales.

Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and ~~Downs Notation~~|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. ~~Notes~~ are ~~named~~ ^C and vD (up-C and down-D), intervals are ~~named~~ ^4 and vM3 (~~up-fourth~~ and ~~down-major~~ 3rd)~~, chords~~ are named E^m and ~~vF#v7~~ (E upminor and down-F# down-7)~~, and so forth~~.

Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and downs notation|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. Any notes or chords without these new symbols are as usual. From C to G is still a 5th, a D chord is still D F# A, etc. So all that music theory you spent years learning still holds true. Ups and downs are simply added in. The notes just above/below C are called ^C and vC (up-C and down-C). The intervals slightly wider or narrower than a major 3rd are called ^M3 and vM3 (upmajor 3rd and downmajor 3rd). Chords are named e.g. E^m and vGv7 (E upminor and down-G down-7). Everything has a straightforward logical name.

In summary, the Kite guitar offers so much. You can play "normal" music and it sounds cleaner. Complex jazz chords become much less dissonant. You can play barbershop. You can play middle eastern. You can get experimental. You gain so much, and lose so little!

[[Category:Kite Guitar]]

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 The advantage of guitar-sized EDOs is the simplicity. The "universe" of possible notes is a managable size. Unlike just intonation, melodies don't have small pitch shifts of a comma. Another advantage is the symmetry. Unlike just intonation, every note can be the tonic of any scale. The disadvantage is that the harmonies are no longer perfectly in tune.
-The larger the EDO, the more in tune it is. The smaller the EDO, the more playable it is. 12-EDO is a great compromise. It happens to approximate certain simple ratios very well. For example, by sheer coincidence, the ratio 3/2 is almost exactly seven twelfths of an octave. It's only 2¢ off. Four twelfths of an octave is pretty close to 5/4, but audibly sharp by 14¢. All 5-limit intervals come from combining 3/2 and 5/4 together, so all 5-limit intervals are about 12-16¢ off.
+In general, the larger the EDO, the more in tune it is. The smaller the EDO, the more playable it is. 12-EDO is a great compromise. It happens to approximate certain simple ratios very well. For example, by sheer coincidence, the ratio 3/2 is almost exactly seven twelfths of an octave. It's only 2¢ off. Four twelfths of an octave is pretty close to 5/4, but audibly sharp by 14¢. All 5-limit intervals come from combining 3/2 and 5/4 together, so all 5-limit intervals are about 12-16¢ off.
 We tolerate this slight mistuning in exchange for the convenience of having only 12 notes to deal with. But 12-EDO fails to tune 7-limit JI well. A ratio like 7/6 = 267¢ doesn't really exist in 12-EDO, because the nearest interval is 300¢, which sounds much more like 6/5 (316¢).
 To get 5/4 more in tune and keep 3/2 in tune, the EDO has to get larger than 12. EDOs such as 19 and 22 do approximate 3/2 reasonably well, and 5/4 better than 12-EDO. But neither 19-EDO nor 22-EDO tunes 7-limit JI very well. For that, the EDO must get even larger. No EDO tunes primes 3, 5 and 7 well until 31-EDO. And prime 3 is worse in 31-EDO than in 12-EDO. The smallest EDO that improves 3, 5 <u>and</u> 7 over 12-EDO is 41-EDO. 53-EDO and 72-EDO are also famous for being very accurate. But a really big EDO like these paradoxically becomes more like JI. There are lots of notes, and you can get everything really in tune, but the sheer complexity is overwhelming. More about EDOs here: [[EDOs]] and here: [[wikipedia:Equal_temperament|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament]].
+This youtube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2jYk37Rlg The Mathematical Problem with Music, and How to Solve It] is a nice explanation of 5-limit JI and 12-equal, as well as historical tunings like pythagorean and meantone temperament.
 == The Kite Guitar ==
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 Fortunately, there's another way to get more notes besides adding frets: detune the strings. A guitar has a built in redundancy, because a note appears in more than one place on the fretboard. The open 1st string note (middle-E) also appears on the 2nd string at fret 5, the 3rd string at fret 9, 4th at fret 14, etc. If you tune every other string half a fret sharp, every other middle-E becomes a new note. Same for every note, and you now have twice as many notes (24-EDO). The downside is that E appears in fewer places and it's sometimes harder to reach. Before, a major 3rd was one string over, one fret back. Now, there's a half-augmented 3rd there, and all your major chords sound very weird! The major 3rd is still on the guitar, but 4 frets away where it's hard to reach. The perfect 4th and 5th are also inaccessible, because the nearby ones have been replaced with strange half-augmented or half-diminished 4ths and 5ths. So tuning your guitar this way gives you something new, but you lose a lot of what you had before.
-The Kite guitar adds notes <u>both</u> ways. There are almost twice as many frets, <u>and</u> every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and <u>only</u> in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it!
+The Kite guitar adds notes <u>both</u> ways. There are almost twice as many frets, <u>and</u> every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size, e.g. [[19-EDO]] or [[22-EDO]]. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and <u>only</u> in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it!
 Unfortunately, the standard EADGBE tuning simply won't work. Because then those slightly sharp/flat octaves and 5ths become all too accessible, and show up in the A and E barre chord shapes. Instead, the guitar is tuned in major 3rds. (There are also some open tunings, but those limit your ability to modulate.)
@@ Line 101: / Line 103: @@
 So the bad news is, you can't simply pick up a Kite guitar and start playing it. There's a learning curve. You have to learn new chord shapes. The good news is, there are fewer chord shapes to learn than you might expect. Here's why: in EADGBE, the G-B interval is different from the other intervals. As a result, the C, D, E, G and A major chords all have different shapes. But the Kite guitar is isomorphic, meaning same-shape, and there's only one shape to learn for all those chords. Because the intra-string interval is always the same.
-There's a few other drawbacks. Obviously the closer fret spacing is somewhat more difficult. Omitting half the frets makes finding notes a little harder. Also the major-3rds tuning reduces the overall range of the guitar. Unless you're using an open tuning, 6 strings isn't quite enough, and 7 or 8 is best. And of course, there's a learning curve in training your ears to hear all these new sounds. But that's the fun part!
+There's a few other drawbacks. Obviously the closer fret spacing is somewhat less playable (although no worse than a mandolin or ukelele). Omitting half the frets makes finding notes a little harder. Also the major-3rds tuning reduces the overall range of the guitar. Unless you're using an open tuning, or playing with another guitarist, 6 strings is somewhat limiting, and 7 or 8 is best. And of course, there's a learning curve in training your ears to hear all these new sounds. But that's the fun part!
-Finally, there's subtle pitch shifts of a half-fret sometimes. These are the inevitable result of getting everything more in tune. When you really study harmony, you find that there are more than 7 notes in a major scale. Weird, but true! The good news is that like watching a magician's trick, casual listeners are completely fooled and don't notice the pitch shifts.
+Finally, there's sometimes subtle pitch shifts of a comma. These are the inevitable result of getting everything more in tune. As mentioned, a piece often requires both 9/8 and 10/9. On the Kite guitar, one uses whichever is appropriate at the moment. Sometimes one must use 9/8 immediately before or after 10/9, resulting in a pitch shift of a half-fret, about 30¢. Something similar can happen with 5/3 and 27/16, or with 7/4 and 16/9, etc. The good news is that like watching a magician's trick, casual listeners are usually completely fooled and don't notice the pitch shifts.
 So there are disadvantages, but the advantages are enormous. Chords are only a few cents away from JI, and sound great! And there are so many harmonic options. There are four main kinds of 3rds: large major, small major, large minor and small minor. There are likewise four 6ths and four 7ths. There's more of everything: two major chords, two minor chords, two dim7 chords, three augmented chords, four dom7 chords, etc.
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 The Kite guitar also gives you lots of melodic options. Going up one fret takes you up about 60¢. This is the perfect size -- barely large enough to feel like a small minor 2nd and not a quartertone. In other words, in the right context, two notes a fret apart can feel like two distinct notes of a scale, and not two microtonal versions of the same note. And yet 60¢ is barely ''small'' enough so that the ear can be fooled by pitch shifts of half a fret (30¢).
-¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from note A to note B. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales.
+¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from one note to another. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales.
-Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and Downs Notation|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. Notes are named ^C and vD (up-C and down-D), intervals are named ^4 and vM3 (up-fourth and down-major 3rd), chords are named E^m  and vF#v7 (E upminor and down-F# down-7), and so forth.
+Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and downs notation|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. Any notes or chords without these new symbols are as usual. From C to G is still a 5th, a D chord is still D F# A, etc. So all that music theory you spent years learning still holds true. Ups and downs are simply added in. The notes just above/below C are called ^C and vC (up-C and down-C). The intervals slightly wider or narrower than a major 3rd are called ^M3 and vM3 (upmajor 3rd and downmajor 3rd). Chords are named e.g. E^m and vGv7 (E upminor and down-G down-7). Everything has a straightforward logical name.
 In summary, the Kite guitar offers so much. You can play "normal" music and it sounds cleaner. Complex jazz chords become much less dissonant. You can play barbershop. You can play middle eastern. You can get experimental. You gain so much, and lose so little!
 [[Category:Kite Guitar]]