Kite Guitar: Difference between revisions

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This is a brief explanation, see also the longer one at [[Kite Guitar explanation for non-microtonalists]].

The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. Kite guitar is short for Kite-''fretted'' guitar. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-equal]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is physically challenging to play. Kite-fretting cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, the Kite guitar is still quite playable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. Because 13 is an odd number, <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.

The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. Kite guitar is short for Kite-''fretted'' guitar. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-equal]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is physically challenging to play. Kite-fretting cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, the Kite guitar is still quite playable. There are 20'''½''' frets per octave, thus it's about as playable as [[19edo|19-equal]] or [[22edo|22-equal]]. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. Because 13 is an odd number, <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. Magically, 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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 This is a brief explanation, see also the longer one at [[Kite Guitar explanation for non-microtonalists]].
-The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. Kite guitar is short for Kite-''fretted'' guitar. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-equal]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is physically challenging to play. Kite-fretting cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, the Kite guitar is still quite playable. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. Because 13 is an odd number, <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.
+The Kite guitar (or bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.) combines the beauty of just intonation with the freedom of an equal temperament. Kite guitar is short for Kite-''fretted'' guitar. It has 41 notes per the octave instead of 12. [[41edo|41-tET or 41-equal]] approximates 7-limit just intonation to within 3-6 [[cents]], and chords sound gorgeous! But a guitar with 41 frets per octave is physically challenging to play. Kite-fretting cleverly omits every other fret. Thus while the frets are closer together than a standard guitar, the Kite guitar is still quite playable. There are 20'''½''' frets per octave, thus it's about as playable as [[19edo|19-equal]] or [[22edo|22-equal]]. The interval between open strings is 13 steps of 41. Because 13 is an odd number, <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. Magically, 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.)