RE: pop in microtones

Distortion creates a massive spectrum of combination tones, which will
converge to minimum density when they form a harmonic series, which
happens if the notes being played have a small integer frequency ratio.
Open fifths and fourths and even major ninths are common in distorted
guitar music since their 12-tet approximations are close to just. 12-tet
thirds sound quite ugly through distortion and so require careful
bending (in the absence of crazy Jon Catler JI fingerboards), a fact
clearly understood (though perhaps not consciously) by good blues and
rock musicians, including David Gilmour. A typical move is to bend the
lower note of a perfect fourth or major third up until the interval
reaches a just minor third (usually functioning as the third and fifth
of a major chord or the fifth and seventh of a minor seventh). When
playing blues, I also like to bend a minor third below the root up to an
8/7 below the root while holding the root (or major second!) on the next
higher string. When the interval in exactly in JI, the root (several
octaves lower) materializes out of the noise of the distortion.

All distorted chords sound better on my 22-tet guitar than my 12-tet
guitar, except for open fifths, especially when stacked to form major
ninths. Distorted dominant seventh and ninth chords on the 22-tet guitar
remind me of Jon Catler and not of anything else I've ever heard (Neil
Haverstick tends to use the diatonic rather than harmonic seventh on his
19-tet guitar), aural proof that 22-tet is a very significantly better
approximation of 7-or 9-limit JI than 12-tet.

However, if we're talking melody rather than harmony, blues scales seem
to sound best to me in 7-tet (playing blues on an Ensoniq harmonica
patch in 7-tet, no one thought it sounded out-of-tune, just bluesy).

Can anyone give me any advice towards formulating 22-tet fingerings for
flute? I don't play flute myself, and none of my flute-playing friends
have any microtonal experience.



SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: gregs@mail.usyd.edu.au
Subject: Writing Csound from Scala1.3
PostedDate: 24-09-97 17:45:58
SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH
ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
$UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH
RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH
RouteTimes: 24-09-97 17:45:38-24-09-97 17:45:39,24-09-97 17:44:44-24-09-97 17:44:44
DeliveredDate: 24-09-97 17:44:44
Categories:
$Revisions:

Received: from ns.ezh.nl by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA v1.1 (385.6 5-6-1997)) with SMTP id
C125651C.0056920F; Wed, 24 Sep 1997 17:45:34 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA28878; Wed, 24 Sep 1997 17:45:58 +0200
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 17:45:58 +0200
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA28871
Received: (qmail 7857 invoked from network); 24 Sep 1997 15:45:15 -0000
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 24 Sep 1997 15:45:15 -0000
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu