18edo: Difference between revisions

{{EDO intro|18}}

18edo does not approximate the 3rd harmonic at all, unless a >30¢-error is considered acceptable, and it approximates the 5th, 7th and 9th harmonics equally well (or equally poorly) as 12edo does. It does, however, render more accurate tunings of 7/6, 21/16, 15/11, 12/7, and 13/7. It is also the smallest edo to approximate the harmonic series chord 5:6:7 without tempering out 36/35 (and thus without using the same interval to approximate both 6/5 and 7/6).

In order to access the excellent consonances actually available, one must take a considerably "non-common-practice" approach, meaning to avoid the usual closed-voice "root-3rd-5th" type of chord and instead use chords which are either more compressed or more stretched out. 18edo may be treated as a temperament of the 17-limit [[k*N_subgroups|4*18 subgroup]] [[just intonation subgroup]] 2.9.75.21.55.39.51. On this subgroup it tempers out exactly the same commas as [[72edo]] does on the full [[17-limit]], and gives precisely the same tunings. The subgroup can be put into a single chord, for example 32:36:39:42:51:55:64:75 (in terms of 18edo, 0-3-5-7-12-14-18-22), and transpositions and inversions of this chord or its subchords provide plenty of harmonic resources. 18edo also approximates 12:13:14:17:23:27:29 quite well, with the least maximum relative error out of any edos ≤ 100 (the worst-approximated dyad is [[23/13]], with relative error 18.36%). Hence it can be viewed as an "/3 temperament" (/3 used in the [[primodality]] sense), specifically in the 2.9.13/12.7/6.17/12.23/12.29/24 subgroup. As for more simple subgroups, 18edo can be treated as a 2.9.5.7 subgroup temperament.

== Intervals and notation ==

18edo can be notated with ups and downs. The notational 5th is the 2nd-best approximation of 3/2, 10\18. This is only 4¢ worse that the best approximation, which becomes the up-fifth. Using this 5th allows conventional notation to be used, including the staff, note names, relative notation, etc. There are two ways to do this.

 

 

The second way preserves the <u>harmonic</u> meaning of sharp/flat, major/minor and aug/dim, in that the former is always further fifthwards on the chain of fifths than the latter. Sharp is lower in pitch than flat, and major/aug is narrower than minor/dim. While this approach may seem bizarre at first, interval arithmetic and chord names work as usual. Furthermore, conventional 12edo music can be directly translated to 18edo "on the fly".

 

! colspan="3" | [[Ups_and_Downs_Notation|Up/down notation]] using the narrow 5th of 10\18, <br> with major wider than minor

{{Uniform map|13|17.5|18.5}}

18edo [[tempers out]] the following [[comma]]s. (Note: This assumes the [[val]] {{val| 18 29 42 51 62 67 }}.)

! [[Harmonic limit|Prime<br>Limit]]

| Diesis, Augmented Comma

| [[Vishnuzma]], Semisuper

| Tritonic Diesis, Jubilisma

| Orwellisma, Orwell Comma

| Mirkwai

| Hemimean

| Kalisma, Gauss' Comma

| Superleap

Pathological [[3L 12s]]: 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1

== Application to guitar ==

* [[Lumatone mapping for 18edo]]