Kite Guitar translations by Kite Giedraitis: Difference between revisions

== Tetradic Songs ==

This song showcases the 4:5:6:7 tetrad as the main chord for the blues.

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This song pumps the [[5120/5103|Saruyo]] comma, which equates 21/20 to 256/243. As a result, several pitches shift a comma flat during the progression, but then shift back to where they started. On the Kite guitar, the chord progression walks up the neck and then leaps down 12 frets, only to walk up back to where it started.

This particular translation adds 7ths to all the chords and features ^7 and ^9 chords resolving to ^m7 and v7 chords. The key is upminor, even though downminor is usually better than upminor for bluesy songs. But this song modulates to the relative major, and starting in downminor would lead to a dissonant upmajor key.

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The famous melody is not written out, but for each chord, each note (i. e. pitch) of the melody is written once only. For example, the "Tall and tan and young and lovely" line has the melody 9 7 7 6 9 7 7 7, but only the notes 9 7 and 6 are shown. The melody notes are shown in 3 ways: a (string, fret) format that shows where it's played on guitar, the note's interval from the tonic, and the note's interval from the current chord's root.

Arranged by Kite and Athan Spathas. Absolute notation:

   

           A^m7        Dv6        ^Gv ^GvM7    Bv,^7

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           IV^m7        bVIIv6    ^bIIIv ^bIIIvM7  Vv,^7       

</tt>This song pumps the [[81/80|Meantone comma]], resulting in pitch shifts whenever a D chord is followed by an ^G chord. D shifts to ^D, but this shift can be masked by voicing the D an octave below the ^D. Stylistically, the ^Gv chord should be an ^GvM7 chord, but this creates another shift, vF# to F#. This shift is masked by delaying the F# note, in other words adding the 7th halfway through the ^Gv chord's duration. Thus the ^GvM7 chord is a passing chord. In the chorus, the bass line can use the 7th to walk down: ^G F# E. Alternatively, the D chords could become vD chords, but this would create other pitch shifts.

This song pumps the [[81/80|Meantone comma]] very rapidly. The Gvm7 chords could instead be G^m7 chords. Note the ^4 root movement from vD to G. Alternatively, a D root could be used.  

This song switches between relative major and minor so smoothly, it's hard to say what key it's in. Here it's written out as major.  

For 6 strings. Key is vF#. Capo on the 5th or 6th fret for the key of vA or ^A. Main riff:

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The final chord of the verse section is sometimes Iv,9, sometimes vVI^m,9. The chords in the bridge are power chords, but I added the downmajor 3rd. The heavy distortion prevents adding a 12-edo 3rd, but the sweeter 41-edo 3rd works fine! Perhaps the downminor 7th could be added as well?

The song doesn't pump any commas, because there are no common notes between the last few chords. There are two approaches to translating the verse. One way avoids pitch shifts between adjacent chords:

This piece is harmonically quite simple, entirely 5-limit. Included because it's the classic guitar show-off piece! This translation is note for note, except the voicing of the final ^bVIIv chord is changed from 1 8 10 15 to 8 10 12 15. No comma issues, except for the ^bVIIv - IV4 chord change. The IV4 chord is very brief, so the ^b7 to b7 pitch shift isn't too problematic. Or perhaps bend the b7 up half a fret or so, to match the previous ^b7, makes the chord be IV(^4).

The 2nd chord in the first two lines, ^bVIIv, is an optional passing chord. The V7 chord is translated as Vv,^m7, because Vv7 sounds inappropriate for Renaissance music. The chord is voiced 1-5-7-10, and the interval from the 7th up to the 10th is a mid 4th. 41-edo flattens this 25/18 interval nearly down to 11/8. Somehow 11/8 sounds less out of place than 10/7! The melody uses the up 4th, to match this chord and also the ^bVIIv chord. The plain 4th is only used as part of the IV^m chord.

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Accompianing a barbershop quartet with the Kite guitar is fairly easy, and highly recommended! However playing a tag note for note is often impossible, because tags often use a 3-5-7-8 chord voicing. This tag is an exception, except for the 2nd-to-last chord. Translation by Aaron Wolf.

Kite's arrangement of a traditional mbira dzavadzimu song. Simple 5-limit harmonies, except for the 10/7 in the vB chord. But tricky circular rhythms with lots of 3-against-4. The harmonies are circular too. The key is simultaneously C downmajor down-2 and F downlydian down-4. (As with chords, the "down" before the mode name lowers the 3rd, 6th and 7th, but not the tonic, 2nd, 4th or 5th.) The guitar part is a 3-voice canon, with the 3 voices separated by diatonic 3rds. The highest voice is on the beat, as is the bass.

Based on the keyboard part, not the electric guitar part.  

Just as songs with meantone comma pumps can be played on the Kite guitar, so can songs with other comma pumps. The same strategies apply. The last 30 seconds of this piece is a famous example of a Porcupine aka Triyo comma pump. The comma is rapidly pumped three times.

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The score below is written out for the (P8,P4/3) pergen, with an enharmonic of v³A1, and vvE equal to ^Eb. But in 41edo, vvE equals ^^Eb. In this translation, the 4th chord is ^Ebv, causing a half-fret downward pitch shift.