Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions

Line 4:

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 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is difficult to play. 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 <u>all 41 pitches are present on the guitar</u>. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.

Omitting half the frets (known as skip-fretting) 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.)

Omitting half the frets (known as [[skip-fretting]]) 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.)

In addition, important 7-limit intervals like [[7/6]], [[7/5]] and [[7/4]] are easy to play. This means the Kite guitar can do much more than just play sweet Renaissance music. It can put a whole new spin on jazz, blues and experimental music. The dom7 and dom9 chords are especially calm and relaxed, revealing just how poorly 12-tET tunes these chords. But dissonance is still possible, in fact 41-tET can be far more dissonant than 12-tET. And 41 notes means that the melodic and harmonic vocabulary is greatly expanded, allowing truly unique music that simply isn't possible with 12 notes.

Line 50:

Kite, Aaron and Caleb Ramsey with Jacob after his June 2019 show in Portland, on the sidewalk outside the venue.

[[File:Jacob Collier with a Kite Guitar 6-26-19.jpg|none|thumb]]

== About 41-EDO ==

[[41-edo]] approximates just intonation very closely. Prime 3 is extremely accurate, and primes 5 and 7 are both flat, which means their errors partially cancel out in ratios such as 7/5. Unfortunately prime 11 is sharp, so the errors add up, and 11/10 is nearly 11¢ sharp.

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 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 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is difficult to play. 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 <u>all 41 pitches are present on the guitar</u>. Each string has only half of the pitches, but any adjacent pair of strings has all 41.
-Omitting half the frets (known as skip-fretting) 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.)
+Omitting half the frets (known as [[skip-fretting]]) 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.)
 In addition, important 7-limit intervals like [[7/6]], [[7/5]] and [[7/4]] are easy to play. This means the Kite guitar can do much more than just play sweet Renaissance music. It can put a whole new spin on jazz, blues and experimental music. The dom7 and dom9 chords are especially calm and relaxed, revealing just how poorly 12-tET tunes these chords. But dissonance is still possible, in fact 41-tET can be far more dissonant than 12-tET. And 41 notes means that the melodic and harmonic vocabulary is greatly expanded, allowing truly unique music that simply isn't possible with 12 notes.
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 Kite, Aaron and Caleb Ramsey with Jacob after his June 2019 show in Portland, on the sidewalk outside the venue.
 [[File:Jacob Collier with a Kite Guitar 6-26-19.jpg|none|thumb]]
 == About 41-EDO ==
 [[41-edo]] approximates just intonation very closely. Prime 3 is extremely accurate, and primes 5 and 7 are both flat, which means their errors partially cancel out in ratios such as 7/5. Unfortunately prime 11 is sharp, so the errors add up, and 11/10 is nearly 11¢ sharp.