Kite Guitar explanation for non-microtonalists: Difference between revisions

This article summarizes all the musical tuning theory needed to understand the how and why of the [[The_Kite_Guitar|Kite Guitar]].

There are two main reasons for going microtonal. One is to get new sounds, either just for experimenting or to play music from different cultures such as Middle Eastern quartertones. Another is to improve the sounds we already have by tuning them better. The Kite guitar does both.

Getting new sounds on a guitar is easy -- just add new frets anywhere, and you get something new! But getting everything in tune is far harder. So most of this article is about harmonic tuning. It just turns out that by getting enough notes to tune everything accurately, we also get many exciting new sounds "for free".

First, some terminology: Our standard tuning divides the octave into 12 equal steps, which is called 12-equal or 12-EDO (EDO for "equal divisions of the octave"). Precise tuning is measured in ''cents''. One hundred cents equals one semitone in 12-EDO. For example, a minor 3rd is 3 semitones, or 300¢.

An absolute musical pitch can be labeled with a precise frequency, e.g. A below middle-C is 220hz. But most musical tones are a combination of multiple frequencies at once, e.g. one guitar string may contain A-220 along with A-440, E-660, A-880, etc. When all the frequencies are multiples of the lowest (also called the "fundamental"), it's called a ''harmonic series'', and each of the frequencies are called ''harmonics''. String instruments, wind instruments, and even the human voice all make ''harmonic'' sounds that follow the harmonic series, whereas drums and bells may have other combinations which are ''inharmonic''. Understanding the harmonic series is <u>essential</u> for understanding most microtonal music theory. For more on harmonics, see Andrew Huang's excellent video introduction: https://youtu.be/Wx_kugSemfY and Vi Hart's more in-depth discussion: https://youtu.be/i_0DXxNeaQ0