Kite's color notation
Kite's color notation
The following is excerpted from Kite's book, "Alternative Tunings: Theory, Notation and Practice", available at www.TallKite.com.
Color notation provides a way to talk about ratios without using numbers, making microtonal music more accessible to people who aren't mathematically inclined. It's designed for just intonation, but like sagittal notation, it can be expanded to cover temperaments. Also, even those who never use JI still generally talk about ratios quite a bit, and this notation can be a useful tool. For example, temperaments can be named after the color of the comma(s) that are tempered out.
CRASH COURSE:
Wa = white = 3-limit, yo = yellow = 5-over, gu = green = 5-under, zo = blue/azure = 7-over (subminor), ru = red = 7-under (supermajor).
Ya means 5-all, i.e. 5-limit, and includes wa, yo, yoyo, gu, gugu, etc. Za (7-all) includes all 2.3.7 ratios. Yaza means 7-limit.
Notes are named wC, zE♭, etc. Triads are named after their 3rd: Cy, Gz, etc. The four main yaza triads:
Tetrads are named Cy6, Dg7, etc. The 11 main yaza tetrads, with homonyms equated:
Chord progressions: the root of each chord has a color, which defaults to white. C -- Am -- F -- G would be Cy -- yAg -- Fy -- Gy.
In relative notation, the I, IV and V chords are assumed to have white roots unless otherwise specified, so this becomes Iy -- yVIg -- IVy -- Vy.
Here's Iyb -- IVyb -- Iyb -- Vyb in B flat:
Temperaments are named after the comma(s) they temper out. Porcupine is triple yo, and 7-limit pajara is double ruyo and ru. The name indicates the prime subgroup and the rank of the temperament.