fourth grade microtonality

For one of my son's fourth grade projects we made a two string, 10-5
undertone guitar (see the mmm photo archive). The strings were tuned
in unison and he demonstrated the series/guitar by playing both
strings with a handheld fan and starting with the unison pair
fretting each successive interval of the series against the 1/1.
This is really a pretty imprecise way to demonstrate anything, but
he got to do it in the resonant school auditorium and it was so well
received that they made him do it twice.
I think at this age just stimulating an enthusiastic interest in any
of these ideas, however indistinct, is the goal... mission
accomplished! (Also note Bryan's handmade lattice on the sound hole
which he was able to tie into the math the class had been learning.)

on 11/3/04 17:25, daniel_anthony_stearns at daniel_anthony_stearns@...
wrote:

For one of my son's fourth grade projects we made a two string, 10-5
undertone guitar (see the mmm photo archive). The strings were tuned
in unison and he demonstrated the series/guitar by playing both
strings with a handheld fan and starting with the unison pair
fretting each successive interval of the series against the 1/1.
This is really a pretty imprecise way to demonstrate anything, but
he got to do it in the resonant school auditorium and it was so well
received that they made him do it twice.
I think at this age just stimulating an enthusiastic interest in any
of these ideas, however indistinct, is the goal... mission
accomplished! (Also note Bryan's handmade lattice on the sound hole
which he was able to tie into the math the class had been learning.)

What's a 10-5 undertone guitar?

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

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, James <mopani@t...> wrote:

> What's a 10-5 undertone guitar?

Sorry to bust in here, but this would mean a guitar in which the
distance between the nut and octave is divided into five equal parts
(equal in length, not pitch), so that any the string is tuned
1/1=10/10, the frets will produce the pitches 10/9, 10/8=5/4, 10/7,
10/6=5/3, and 10/5=2/1, hence pitches 5 through 10 in an 'undertone'
or 'subharmonic' series of pitches constructed beneath 10/1.

Yes, that's right, and on this guitar we were able to fret up to the
10/4.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Erlich" <perlich@a...>
wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, James <mopani@t...> wrote:
>
> > What's a 10-5 undertone guitar?
>
> Sorry to bust in here, but this would mean a guitar in which the
> distance between the nut and octave is divided into five equal
parts
> (equal in length, not pitch), so that any the string is tuned
> 1/1=10/10, the frets will produce the pitches 10/9, 10/8=5/4, 10/7,
> 10/6=5/3, and 10/5=2/1, hence pitches 5 through 10 in
an 'undertone'
> or 'subharmonic' series of pitches constructed beneath 10/1.

on 25/3/04 23:26, daniel_anthony_stearns at daniel_anthony_stearns@...
wrote:

Yes, that's right, and on this guitar we were able to fret up to the
10/4.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Erlich" <perlich@a...>
wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, James <mopani@t...> wrote:
>
> > What's a 10-5 undertone guitar?
>
> Sorry to bust in here, but this would mean a guitar in which the
> distance between the nut and octave is divided into five equal
parts
> (equal in length, not pitch), so that any the string is tuned
> 1/1=10/10, the frets will produce the pitches 10/9, 10/8=5/4, 10/7,
> 10/6=5/3, and 10/5=2/1, hence pitches 5 through 10 in
an 'undertone'
> or 'subharmonic' series of pitches constructed beneath 10/1.

Thanks, "10-5" sounds at first like a trucker's coded radio message.

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