9 edo guitar (GR-20) Improvisation

Here is something I had laying around that I forgot I did. A 9 edo improvisation with my Roland GR-20 + Fender Mustang combination.

online play

http://alonetone.com/vaisvil/tracks/9-edo-guitar-gr-20-improvisation

download
http://micro.soonlabel.com/9-edo/daily20110629_fts_e_guit_9et.mp3

This is very appealing & very promising. You've found a nice electro timbre for this temperament, perfectly suited for your little intervalic exploration, which went well except for the "flaw" of leaving me wanting to hear more. I hope you'll compose & improvise more in 2^ n/9. I know I'm going to take a closer look at it.

I keep coming across 9 edo at odd places in my study of plenitonal music theory.

For one thing, untuned freebar instruments typically have overtones at near e, near 2e & near e^2 times the fundamental; 2^ n/9 or its twin e^ n/13 can accommodate that overtone structure extremely well. I don't think that property of the temperament relates to your tune, but it could suggest additional timbres for future 9 edo musics.

For another thing, dissonance perception studies involving sine wave timbres show that, graphing critical bandwidth as a function of center frequency, the flattest part of that curve is from 1000 through 3400 Hz, where critiband is around 15% of centerfreq, & it turns out that 2 steps of 9 edo perfectly brackets the critical band in that region of the curve. Despite the lower frequencies, the non-sine-wave timbre & the melodic emphasis of your tune, I suspect this property of 2^ n/9 does relate to it somehow.

Anyway your tune sounds good, whatever the theoretical reasons might be.

Cheers!
==
MLV aka Manu Phonic

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> Here is something I had laying around that I forgot I did. A 9 edo improvisation with my Roland GR-20 + Fender Mustang combination.
>
> online play
>
> http://alonetone.com/vaisvil/tracks/9-edo-guitar-gr-20-improvisation
>
> download
> http://micro.soonlabel.com/9-edo/daily20110629_fts_e_guit_9et.mp3
>

Again thank you for the listen and commentary.

untuned free bar instruments - I'm a heading down that path too. I'm getting
more and more interested in an album consisting of home made or modified or
really unusual instruments.
I recently went to Luray caverns in Virginia and heard a natural lithophone.

I'd be interested in hearing your instruments.

Chris

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 7:05 AM, manuphonic <manuphonic@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> This is very appealing & very promising. You've found a nice electro timbre
> for this temperament, perfectly suited for your little intervalic
> exploration, which went well except for the "flaw" of leaving me wanting to
> hear more. I hope you'll compose & improvise more in 2^ n/9. I know I'm
> going to take a closer look at it.
>
> I keep coming across 9 edo at odd places in my study of plenitonal music
> theory.
>
> For one thing, untuned freebar instruments typically have overtones at near
> e, near 2e & near e^2 times the fundamental; 2^ n/9 or its twin e^ n/13 can
> accommodate that overtone structure extremely well. I don't think that
> property of the temperament relates to your tune, but it could suggest
> additional timbres for future 9 edo musics.
>
> For another thing, dissonance perception studies involving sine wave
> timbres show that, graphing critical bandwidth as a function of center
> frequency, the flattest part of that curve is from 1000 through 3400 Hz,
> where critiband is around 15% of centerfreq, & it turns out that 2 steps of
> 9 edo perfectly brackets the critical band in that region of the curve.
> Despite the lower frequencies, the non-sine-wave timbre & the melodic
> emphasis of your tune, I suspect this property of 2^ n/9 does relate to it
> somehow.
>
> Anyway your tune sounds good, whatever the theoretical reasons might be.
>
> Cheers!
> ==
> MLV aka Manu Phonic
>
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Here is something I had laying around that I forgot I did. A 9 edo
> improvisation with my Roland GR-20 + Fender Mustang combination.
> >
> > online play
> >
> > http://alonetone.com/vaisvil/tracks/9-edo-guitar-gr-20-improvisation
> >
> > download
> > http://micro.soonlabel.com/9-edo/daily20110629_fts_e_guit_9et.mp3
> >
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hm, unusual instruments.... Do you know daxophones? Beautiful instrument... I'm sure it can be made even microtonal.

www.daxo.de

Daniel Forro

On Aug 19, 2011, at 10:23 AM, Chris Vaisvil wrote:

> Again thank you for the listen and commentary.
>
> untuned free bar instruments - I'm a heading down that path too. > I'm getting
> more and more interested in an album consisting of home made or > modified or
> really unusual instruments.
> I recently went to Luray caverns in Virginia and heard a natural > lithophone.
>
>
> I'd be interested in hearing your instruments.
>
> Chris

No, I had not ever heard of it before - but hey - I can make this!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daxophone

Wow - this is quite exciting!! And I love bowing things - I have been
raiding Goodwill for metallic objects (mostly bowls so far) to bow.

Thank you Daniel!!

Any sound samples out there that you know of?

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Daniel Forr� <dan.for@tiscali.cz> wrote:

> **
>
>
> Hm, unusual instruments.... Do you know daxophones? Beautiful
> instrument... I'm sure it can be made even microtonal.
>
> www.daxo.de
>
> Daniel Forro
>
>
> On Aug 19, 2011, at 10:23 AM, Chris Vaisvil wrote:
>
> > Again thank you for the listen and commentary.
> >
> > untuned free bar instruments - I'm a heading down that path too.
> > I'm getting
> > more and more interested in an album consisting of home made or
> > modified or
> > really unusual instruments.
> > I recently went to Luray caverns in Virginia and heard a natural
> > lithophone.
> >
> >
> > I'd be interested in hearing your instruments.
> >
> > Chris
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

duh - at the link you gave me!

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 10:26 PM, Chris Vaisvil <chrisvaisvil@...>wrote:

> No, I had not ever heard of it before - but hey - I can make this!!
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daxophone
>
> Wow - this is quite exciting!! And I love bowing things - I have been
> raiding Goodwill for metallic objects (mostly bowls so far) to bow.
>
> Thank you Daniel!!
>
> Any sound samples out there that you know of?
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Daniel Forr� <dan.for@...> wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> Hm, unusual instruments.... Do you know daxophones? Beautiful
>> instrument... I'm sure it can be made even microtonal.
>>
>> www.daxo.de
>>
>> Daniel Forro
>>
>>
>> On Aug 19, 2011, at 10:23 AM, Chris Vaisvil wrote:
>>
>> > Again thank you for the listen and commentary.
>> >
>> > untuned free bar instruments - I'm a heading down that path too.
>> > I'm getting
>> > more and more interested in an album consisting of home made or
>> > modified or
>> > really unusual instruments.
>> > I recently went to Luray caverns in Virginia and heard a natural
>> > lithophone.
>> >
>> >
>> > I'd be interested in hearing your instruments.
>> >
>> > Chris
>>
>>
>>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hans Reichel also builds unusual guitars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8uGNY2Qf9Y&feature=related

Enjoy. He is a genius of our times.

Daniel Forro

On Aug 19, 2011, at 11:27 AM, Chris Vaisvil wrote:

> duh - at the link you gave me!
>

More info about Reichel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reichel

Concerning experimental instruments, try to find this CD and book
released in 1996:

Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones

Daniel Forro

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, I wrote:
>
> For one thing, untuned freebar instruments typically have overtones
> at near e, near 2e & near e^2 times the fundamental; 2^ n/9 or its twin
> e^ n/13 can accommodate that overtone structure extremely well.

Sorry, this was imprecise & a bit misleading. Untuned freebar instruments vary greatly in their overtones; the values I gave as "typical" are each at the center of a distribution curve where outliers can be pretty far from center. Also the "typical" third overtone is rather higher in pitch than e^2.

A better way to express the connection between 2^ n/9, e^ n/13 & freebar overtones would be to say their "typical" values could invite or inspire freebar instrument makers to tune the overtones of their bars near 13, 22 & 26 degrees of 9 edo or 13 ede, & that little reshaping would typically be required to reach that overtone tuning.

Cheers!
==
MLV aka Manu Phonic

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, I wrote:
>
> For another thing, dissonance perception studies involving sine wave timbres
> show that, graphing critical bandwidth as a function of center frequency, the
> flattest part of that curve is from 1000 through 3400 Hz, where critiband is
> around 15% of centerfreq, & it turns out that 2 steps of 9 edo perfectly brackets
> the critical band in that region of the curve.

One result of this is that the consonance of the 2-steps-of-9-edo interval (in certain timbres like sine wave or ocarina) is highly dependent on frequency. The interval sounds more dissonant as the tonic drops below 880 Hz, but also as it rises above 3520 Hz.