Guides

This page is about guides to learning microtonal music. For the Xen Wiki style guide, see Xenharmonic Wiki: Manual of Style.

There are many ways to learn about microtonal music, and luckily there are many resources available! In this page, we will explore a small portion of them…

How to learn

1. Read, read, read

Not much to say in general since you are already on the xenharmonic wiki. There's a lot of math out there related to tunings; it's up to you how deep you want to go into it. Just keep clicking links!

1a. Remain skeptical

A critical element to your approach to learning about tunings in the internet is skepticism. The internet has a tendency to allow misinformation to prevail so, especially in this niche of relatively new theory, be sure to keep in mind what interest is advanced by someone else's writings, and what it is they may be leaving out.

1b. Tools, not rules

Regardless of the objective veracity of someone else's claims, they usually provide (and are often motivated by) some new or different approach to music making. If one approach is musically useful to you, feel free to use it, and if it is not, feel free not to, regardless of how many other people say it is the "right way".

2. Listen and play

It's easy to spend a disproportionate amount of time on #1, but two of the best ways to learn about xenharmonics are to listen to and to play them yourself. Check out the Microtonal listening list for the former, and the Software and Instruments page for the latter. Most of these scales and tunings are brand new, so it's almost a given that you'll learn things that no one else has figured out by playing and writing yourself. That means you won't read about it anywhere until you write it yourself!

3. Network

Naturally, some find it encouraging to interact with others working in the same area of study. Here are a few relevant online communities:

Maps | Forums (Discord Facebook) | Educational websites

General introductions

Guides that assume minimal prior knowledge. This is a good place to start.

...to xenharmonic theory

• Xen concepts for beginners: Explains the fundamental building blocks of microtonal theory from the ground up. Short and readable. Introduces interval ratios, just intonation, regular temperament, MOS scales and EDOs/ETs. Does not assume prior knowledge.
• Nick Vuci's Fundamentals of Xen, edited by Leo Coogan: Another explanation of the fundamental building blocks that emphasises different facets. Combining the two together will help you understand both better.

...to xenharmonic practice

• Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think: Comprehensive 9000-word tutorial with many images. The article explains xen; from what it even is, to linking resources (including ones on this wiki), to explaining how to make microtonal music in five methods of increasing complexity and cost. Goes from free and easy to more complicated and costing hundreds (or thousands) of dollars/pounds/euros:
  • Using a free browser-based synth
  • Using free VST plug-ins
  • Changing the settings in the program Kontakt / Micro-tuning synths in Reaktor
  • Removing the frets on a guitar
  • Buying a microtonal-fretted guitar.
• Finale Microtonal Accidentals and Playback: How to easily start writing microtonal music today! Customize Finale for microtonal display and output.
• Creating Scala scl files for rank two temperaments: A tutorial for musicians not yet familiar with the Scala software who wish to create tuning files for use with electronic instruments or DAWs.

...to alternative/underrepresented viewpoints

• Misconceptions about xenharmony

Specialist introductions

You may find more in Category: Guides and Category: Overview.

...for people interested in tuning math

• Dave Keenan & Douglas Blumeyer's guide to RTT (D&D's guide): An extensive 9-part guide to regular temperament theory with many examples and visuals by Dave Keenan and Douglas Blumeyer.
• Mike's lectures on regular temperament theory: A series of lessons on regular temperament theory by Mike Battaglia.

...for people with a music theory/common practice background

• Extending harmonic principles in 12edo to 31edo (external link): A course by @euwbah on HackMD, aimed at musicians familiar with common practice music theory but unfamiliar with microtones. It uses 31edo as a bridge to generalize 12edo concepts to a purer more abstract

Galleries of pages by topic

• General theory: Lists pages about foundational concepts
• List of approaches to musical tuning: Lists pages about different families of tunings

Videos

• Video introductions to microtonality
• Learn about Microtonal Music: A YouTube playlist curated by Sevish with over 400 videos from various content creators.

Podcasts

• MMMday06: A single-day podcast project hosted by Prent Rodgers in 2006.
• Now and Xen: A podcast about xenharmonic and microtonal music and discussion created by Stephen Weigel and Sevish in 2018, currently hosted by Stephen Weigel as of 2023.
• Xendergarten: A comedy podcast hosted by Userminusone since 2023.

See also

• MicroPedagogyCollective – pedagogy-related projects
• Pedagogy questions
• The Library – a list of periodicals, papers, dissertations and books about microtonal music
• Corollaries – little thought-provoking tidbits about tuning
• Composing Powerstart