12edo comma pump examples

The most common kind of comma pump encountered in "non-xenharmonic" Western music is the meantone comma pump, for which there is a separate page: Meantone comma pump examples. These work in any meantone temperament, including 19edo, 26edo, 31edo, etc. Since standard notation is based on meantone, these don't appear unusual in any way.

However, comma pumps of other commas tempered out by 12edo are also found. These necessarily involve spelling an interval unusually (for example spelling a major third as a diminished fourth), because they involve an enharmonic pun (e.g. G#~Ab).

Augmented (128/125) comma pumps

Comma pumps based on 128/125, the diesis.

• Looney Tunes theme song, Carl W. Stalling, c. 1940. https://youtu.be/0jTHNBKjMBU?t=19
• I Wish, Skee-Lo, 1995. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmXZOI7cM0M
• Giant Steps, John Coltrane, 1959. Wikipedia: Giant Steps (composition), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU
  • Mike Battaglia note: you should be aware that, strictly speaking, Giant Steps doesn't actually involve a comma pump unless you deliberately want the "B" in the beginning at the top of the progression to be the same as the "B" at the end at the bottom. If you don't, it doesn't matter; then you can treat it starting at B and going down to Cb, and then ending on top at D#, and then it'll work in temperaments that don't temper out 128/125, such as 19-EDO. The important thing is that nothing drifts with each successive iteration of the head.
• Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, Claude Debussy, 1908. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k_OLrK4ZuE
  • This piece plays with the enharmonic equivalence between A♭ (8/5) and G♯ (25/16).

Diminished (648/625) comma pumps

based on 648/625, todo.

Srutal (2048/2025) comma pumps

based on 2048/2025, todo.