Kite Guitar explanation for non-microtonalists: Difference between revisions
added a line about 331/220 being like a sharp 3/2, added a line about 30¢ being barely small enough to fool the ear, other minor changes |
→The Kite Guitar: expanded the paragraph on ups and downs notation |
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Fortunately, there's another way to get more notes besides adding frets: detune the strings. A guitar has a built in redundancy, because a note appears in more than one place on the fretboard. The open 1st string note (middle-E) also appears on the 2nd string at fret 5, the 3rd string at fret 9, 4th at fret 14, etc. If you tune every other string half a fret sharp, every other middle-E becomes a new note. Same for every note, and you now have twice as many notes (24-EDO). The downside is that E appears in fewer places and it's sometimes harder to reach. Before, a major 3rd was one string over, one fret back. Now, there's a half-augmented 3rd there, and all your major chords sound very weird! The major 3rd is still on the guitar, but 4 frets away where it's hard to reach. The perfect 4th and 5th are also inaccessible, because the nearby ones have been replaced with strange half-augmented or half-diminished 4ths and 5ths. So tuning your guitar this way gives you something new, but you lose a lot of what you had before. | Fortunately, there's another way to get more notes besides adding frets: detune the strings. A guitar has a built in redundancy, because a note appears in more than one place on the fretboard. The open 1st string note (middle-E) also appears on the 2nd string at fret 5, the 3rd string at fret 9, 4th at fret 14, etc. If you tune every other string half a fret sharp, every other middle-E becomes a new note. Same for every note, and you now have twice as many notes (24-EDO). The downside is that E appears in fewer places and it's sometimes harder to reach. Before, a major 3rd was one string over, one fret back. Now, there's a half-augmented 3rd there, and all your major chords sound very weird! The major 3rd is still on the guitar, but 4 frets away where it's hard to reach. The perfect 4th and 5th are also inaccessible, because the nearby ones have been replaced with strange half-augmented or half-diminished 4ths and 5ths. So tuning your guitar this way gives you something new, but you lose a lot of what you had before. | ||
The Kite guitar adds notes <u>both</u> ways. There are almost twice as many frets, <u>and</u> every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and <u>only</u> in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it! | The Kite guitar adds notes <u>both</u> ways. There are almost twice as many frets, <u>and</u> every other string is detuned by a half-fret. The Kite guitar uses 41-EDO, a very accurate EDO. Omitting half the frets makes such a large EDO quite playable. It feels like and plays like an EDO half the size, e.g. [[19-EDO]] or [[22-EDO]]. The downside is that half the notes are hard to reach. But by an amazing coincidence, in 41-EDO, and <u>only</u> in 41-EDO, these are all dissonant intervals! For example, 41-EDO has good octaves and 5ths, but it also has octaves and 5ths that are ~30¢ sharp or flat of the good ones, that sound awful! Those intervals are moved safely out of the way. Those faraway notes in another context will be exactly the notes you want. It works out that in those contexts, your hand will naturally move to that part of the fretboard, and those notes will become the easily accessible ones. in other words, the layout of the Kite guitar automatically filters out the "wrong" notes, without you even having to think about it! | ||
Unfortunately, the standard EADGBE tuning simply won't work. Because then those slightly sharp/flat octaves and 5ths become all too accessible, and show up in the A and E barre chord shapes. Instead, the guitar is tuned in major 3rds. (There are also some open tunings, but those limit your ability to modulate.) | Unfortunately, the standard EADGBE tuning simply won't work. Because then those slightly sharp/flat octaves and 5ths become all too accessible, and show up in the A and E barre chord shapes. Instead, the guitar is tuned in major 3rds. (There are also some open tunings, but those limit your ability to modulate.) | ||
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60¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from note A to note B. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales. | 60¢ is also small enough that two frets (120¢) still feels like a minor 2nd, although a large one. Three frets is a small major 2nd and four frets is a large one. Many melodic pathways from note A to note B. And there's more! The next string up has other 2nds in between these. There's a mid-sized minor 2nd of 1.5 frets and a mid-sized major 2nd of 3.5 frets. Right between them is the middle-eastern-sounding 11-limit neutral 2nd of 2.5 frets. All these 2nds are available for heptatonic scales. Or you can use the large major 2nd and the small minor 3rd to make an African-sounding near-equipentatonic scale. Or you can play exotic octotonic, nonotonic and decatonic scales. | ||
Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and Downs Notation|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. | Naming all 41 notes in all 41 keys, and all the intervals, scales and chords they make, is no small feat. Kite's [[Ups and Downs Notation|ups and downs]] notation manages it by adding only two symbols to the standard notation. Any notes or chords without these new symbols are unchanged from standard notation. From C to G is still a 5th, a D chord is still D F# A, etc. So all that music theory you spent years learning still holds true. Ups and downs are simply added in. The notes just above/below C are called ^C and vC (up-C and down-C). The intervals slightly wider or narrower than a major 3rd are called ^M3 and vM3 (upmajor 3rd and downmajor 3rd). Chords are named e.g. E^m and vGv7 (E upminor and down-G down-7). Everything has a straightforward logical name. | ||
In summary, the Kite guitar offers so much. You can play "normal" music and it sounds cleaner. Complex jazz chords become much less dissonant. You can play barbershop. You can play middle eastern. You can get experimental. You gain so much, and lose so little! | In summary, the Kite guitar offers so much. You can play "normal" music and it sounds cleaner. Complex jazz chords become much less dissonant. You can play barbershop. You can play middle eastern. You can get experimental. You gain so much, and lose so little! | ||
[[Category:Kite Guitar]] | [[Category:Kite Guitar]] | ||