Kite's ups and downs notation: Difference between revisions

== Definition ==

Ups and downs can also notate any [[Tour of Regular Temperaments|rank-2 temperament]], although some temperaments require an additional pair of accidentals, lifts and drops (/ and \). In this context, an up or a lift represents sharpening by a [[comma]] that has been tempered, but not tempered out. For example, in [[Porcupine|Triyo aka Porcupine]], an up/down represents raising/lowering by a tempered 81/80, and lifts/drops aren't used. In practice, the two uses of the notation often coincide perfectly. Triyo is supported by both 15-edo and 22-edo, and both EDOs map 81/80 to one EDOstep. Thus if Triyo is tuned to 15-edo, an up simultaneously means both a tempered 81/80 and 1\15. Likewise, if tuned to 22-edo, the up means both 81/80 and 1\22. If not tuned to an EDO at all, then the up only means 81/80. Thus a piece written in Triyo can be converted to a piece written in 22-edo by simply writing "22-edo" on the top of the page.  

To understand the ups and downs notation, let's start with an EDO that doesn't need it. 19-edo is easy to notate because 7 fifths reduced by 4 octaves adds up to one EDOstep. C# is right next to C, and the keyboard runs C C# Db D D# Eb E etc. Conventional notation works perfectly with 19-edo as long as you remember that C# and Db are different notes.

The solution is to use the sharp symbol to mean "raised by 7 fifths", and to use the up-arrow symbol to mean "sharpened by one EDOstep". 22-edo can be written C - Db - ^Db - vD - D - Eb - ^Eb - vE - E - F etc. The notes are pronounced up-D-flat, down-D, etc. Now the notes run in order. There's a pattern that's not too hard to pick up on, if you remember that there's 3 ups to a sharp. The up or down comes <u>before</u> the note name to make naming chords easy.

=== Relative notation and interval arithmetic ===

A core principle of ups and downs notation is that '''interval arithmetic is always preserved'''. Ups and downs are simply added in:

|vM2 + vM2 = vvM3

|}

=== Enharmonic equivalents ===

In larger edos, triple-ups and triple-downs can occur. These are called '''trup''' and '''trud'''. Quadruple = '''quup''' and '''quud''' ("kwup" and "kwud") and quintuple = '''quip''' and '''quid'''.  

=== Staff Notation ===

The issue arises because while English normally places the adjective before the noun, it doesn't do so with sharps and flats. A flattened B should logically be called "flat B" not "B flat", and be written bB not Bb. If it were, then it would seem very natural to have the up come first, as in ^bB. This would be the typical English adjective-adjective-noun construction. Instead we must use ^Bb, an unnatural adjective-noun-adjective construction. This issue fortunately arises only for note names. On the staff, the flat comes before the note, so naturally the up comes before the flat. In relative notation, the quality comes before the interval, as in minor 3rd and augmented 4th, or in jazz terms flat 3rd and sharp 4th. So terms like upminor 3rd and downsharp 4th have a natural adjective-adjective-noun construction.

=== Further notes ===

In perfect EDOs (7, 14, 21, 28 and 35), every interval is perfect, and there is no major or minor. In the following list of chord names, omit major, minor, dim and aug. Substitute up for upmajor and upminor, and down for downmajor and downminor. The C-E-G chord is called "C perfect" or simply "C".

The rationale for this rule is that a chord often has a note a perfect fourth or fifth above the 3rd. Furthermore, in larger EDOs, upfifths, downfifths, upfourths and downfourths will all be quite dissonant and rarely used in chords. Thus if the 3rd is upped or downed, the 6th or 7th likely would be too. However the 9th likely wouldn't, because that would create an upfifth or a downfifth with the 5th. By the same logic, if the 7th is upped or downed, the 11th would be too.

Chord progressions use ups/downs notation to name the roots, e.g. Cv - Gv - vA^m - F or Iv - Vv - vVI^m - IVv. In relative notation, <u>'''never use lower case roman numerals'''</u> for minor chords, because both vIIm and VIIm would be written vii.  

* C ^E G = C^ = "C up" or "C upmajor"

* C vE G = Cv = "C down" or "C downmajor" (in EDOs 10, 17, 24, 31, etc., C~ = "C mid")

This table shows how altering the 3rd or the 5th affects the name of the triad. The conventional abbreviations for aug and dim are + and o. These are rather cryptic, and can be replaced with the more obvious and intuitive a and d. Likewise the symbols Δ and − can be replaced with M and m.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"  

* C E G vBb = C,v7 = "C add down-seven"

* C vE G vBb = Cv7 = "C down seven"

In the table below, if a chord is '''bolded''', the comma (the actual punctuation mark, not the interval) must be spoken as "add".   

* C E G Ab = C,b6 or C,m6 = "C add flat-six" or "C add minor-six"

* C E G Bbb = C,d7 or C,bb7 = "C add dim-seven" or "C add double-flat-seven" (19-edo's 4:5:6:7 chord)

* C E G Cb = C,b8 or C,d8 = "C add flat-eight" or "C add dim-eight"

<u>'''Ninth chords:'''</u>