Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions

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~~'''<big>The Beauty of 7-limit Just Intonation</big>'''~~

~~'''<big>The Freedom of an Equal Temperament</big>'''~~

== The Kite Guitar ==

The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-edo]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6¢, and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is impractical. The Kite guitar cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, they're not so close as to be unplayable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. 13 is an odd number, thus all 41 pitches are present on the guitar. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.

The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-edo]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6¢, and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is impractical. The Kite guitar cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, they're not so close as to be unplayable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. 13 is an odd number, thus all 41 pitches are present on the guitar. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.

Omitting half the frets in effect moves certain pitches to remote areas of the fretboard, and makes certain intervals difficult to play. Miraculously, it works out that the remote intervals are the ones that don't work well in chords, and the ones that aren't remote are the ones that do work well. For example, the sweet 5-limit major 3rd, a 5/4 ratio, is easily accessible, but the dissonant 3-limit major 3rd 81/64 isn't. (3-limit & 5-limit refer to the largest prime number in the frequency ratio.)

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-'''<big>The Beauty of 7-limit Just Intonation</big>'''
-'''<big>The Freedom of an Equal Temperament</big>'''
 == The Kite Guitar ==
-The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-edo]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6¢, and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is impractical. The Kite guitar cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, they're not so close as to be unplayable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. 13 is an odd number, thus all 41 pitches are present on the guitar. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.
+The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-edo]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6¢, and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is impractical. The Kite guitar cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, they're not so close as to be unplayable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. 13 is an odd number, thus all 41 pitches are present on the guitar. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.
 Omitting half the frets in effect moves certain pitches to remote areas of the fretboard, and makes certain intervals difficult to play. Miraculously, it works out that the remote intervals are the ones that don't work well in chords, and the ones that aren't remote are the ones that do work well. For example, the sweet 5-limit major 3rd, a 5/4 ratio, is easily accessible, but the dissonant 3-limit major 3rd 81/64 isn't. (3-limit & 5-limit refer to the largest prime number in the frequency ratio.)