Re: [MakeMicroMusic] Paradise...

Ah yes...

I dropped a note back to the SQuest people and asked about tuning
capabilities of the new software synth Infinity 2.0 that J.P. mentioned
earlier today.

Rick

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., jacky_ligon@y... wrote:

> Welcome to Paul Erlich!
>
> Paul - I have questions.
>
> Can you play funky riffs on 22 and 31 tET guitar?

Well sure!

Example: the classic "James Brown" 9th chord.

On the 22-tET guitar, a typical funky 9th chord (fingered roughly
conventionally) acquires a whole new character -- it's much closer to
a harmonic series. The 9:7 interval is particularly in-tune and
particularly xenharmonic. You can hear a lot of this on the MAD DUXX
CDs. The chord, since it's close to a harmonic series, sounds huge
with distortion -- much better than the 12-tET equivalent -- and in
fact quite similar to what Jon Catler does with the JI guitar.

On the 31-tET guitar, there's a bit of a dilemma. Using roughly
conventional fingering, you get a "diatonic" 9th chord -- a bit more
dissonant than 12-tET, but very compatible with conventional diatonic
soloing. But there is also a "harmonic" 9th chord -- even closer to a
harmonic series than the 22-tET version -- that is very difficult to
finger -- and difficult to solo over.

Another example: The Jimi Hendrix chord (seventh with "sharp 9")

On the 22-tET guitar, this chord sounds fantastic to me, since it
approximates the JI chord 1/1 5/4 7/4 7/3, without being that
different from 12-tET. Works really well with the native "minor
pentatonic" scale of 22-tET.

On the 31-tET guitar, there is again a dilemma. If you play the
chord "diatonically", you get that extra-narrow diminshed second (77
cents) between the major third and minor third -- rather dissonant,
but quite compatible with conventional blues/diatonic thinking for
soloing. But if you try to play the even-closer-than-22 approximation
to 1/1 5/4 7/4 7/3, you'll have a hard time fingering it, and soloing
over it is difficult too, because you have to negotiate the
21:16 "wolf" (it's even a wolf melodically) between the 4/3 and the
7/4.

Blues scales

On the 22-tET guitar, there are several interesting approaches to
playing blues scales, some of which might not sound good to me on any
given day, but great on another (never trust your ears unless you
give them lots of time)! I've discussed this a bit before so now I'll
simply add that it's really fun, especially if the harmony is wide-
open enough, to "mutate" between slightly different blues scales --
kind of like side-slipping in 12-tET but much more subtle and
hallucinogenic!

On the 31-tET guitar you can pretty much think conventionally . . .
you also have those neutral thirds and neutral sevenths ("blue"
thirds and "blue" sevenths) which somehow don't sound bluesy, but
rather "oriental", when you hit them directly as opposed to bending
up to them as a normal 12-tET blues guitarist would. So this takes
one outside the "funky" realm . . . anyway I need new batteries for
the active pickups in the 31-tET guitar . . . the distortion is
overwhelming right now . . .

Although I've spent comparatively little time playing bass, I think
it's the instrument on which I have the most natural talent. I've
asked Jon Catler for a fretless bass marked for both 22-tET and 31-
tET. If he ever gets back to me on that, and the instrument arrives,
I plan to create some funky microtonal multi-track recordings.

> Do you tune your open strings to an E based tuning? Or other?

The tunings are pretty much as standard as they get given the ETs in
question (other than the fact that the 22-tET guitar is a 7-string
with a "low B"). I played 12-tET 7-string guitar tuned in all fourths
for three years, since that makes all modes in all positions exactly
the same fingering (up to a rotation). Going back to standard 12-tET
tuning, I just have to always remember to adjust one fret when moving
between the G and B strings. This adjustment remains one fret on the
22-tET (though the one-fret shift is only about half the distance),
but it becomes three frets in 31-tET (since the diatonic semitone is
three degrees of 31-tET). On the 31-tET guitar the interval between
the G and B strings is 1 cent off a pure 5:4, while on the 22-tET
guitar, it's 1 cent off a pure 7:9. As for absolute pitch, it's
generally in the ballpark of where the strings are conventionally
tuned (so that the tension feels right), but beyond that, I don't
care.

My next microtonal guitar is going to be an acoustic "shrutar" for
playing raga-style music. It will normally be tuned to an open tuning
with only 1/1s and 3/2s. Dave Keenan and I have been discussing it
quite a bit. The fretting will be an unequal 22, with many of the
pitches forming just ratios against the open strings. I'm getting
quite bored of trying to play this style on the 12-tET guitar (not to
mention it doesn't sound right)!