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i was curious as how microtonal music works

currently i have setup my bed room as a recording studio and in the
process of trying to create some weird and freaky music. i
wondered as how the concept of microtonal music works.

i play guitar drums and bass and am also looking to expand to paino
and violin i used cakewalk to do a few things with strings ect but
no serious stuff as of yet..

any pointers or ways to get started would be awesome

on 11/2/04 8:28 AM, Jimmy wrote:

> i was curious as how microtonal music works
>
> currently i have setup my bed room as a recording studio and in the
> process of trying to create some weird and freaky music. i
> wondered as how the concept of microtonal music works.
>
> i play guitar drums and bass and am also looking to expand to paino
> and violin i used cakewalk to do a few things with strings ect but
> no serious stuff as of yet..
>
> any pointers or ways to get started would be awesome

Hi Jimmy,

It would be really helpful if you could clarify your interests and goals
here just a little bit. You play bass and guitar. Would you be interested in
exploring other scales with those instruments? You mention an interest in
piano and violin. Yes, the violin is intrinsically a microtonal instrument.
The piano is not and is very hard to retune. But if you instead mean an
electronic keyboard with a piano sound, then that can be easy to retune to
at least some scales, depending on the model.

In getting started, are you interested in performance, composition, theory,
all? Have you heard of just intonation? Of Harry Partch? Are you familiar
much with any types of world music?

Best,

Jeff

> Hi Jimmy,
>
> It would be really helpful if you could clarify your interests and
goals
> here just a little bit. You play bass and guitar. Would you be
interested in
> exploring other scales with those instruments? You mention an
interest in
> piano and violin. Yes, the violin is intrinsically a microtonal
instrument.
> The piano is not and is very hard to retune. But if you instead
mean an
> electronic keyboard with a piano sound, then that can be easy to
retune to
> at least some scales, depending on the model.
>
> In getting started, are you interested in performance,
composition, theory,
> all? Have you heard of just intonation? Of Harry Partch? Are you
familiar
> much with any types of world music?
>
> Best,
>
> Jeff

well im not sure what im planing to do musically. i just try to keep
a borad a spectrum as possible and yes ive got a 6 string bass which
im gonna get defretted at some point soon. harry partch nope im
never heard about the person. i think pachabell done a few things
with misstuned instruments but im not too sure.

how do you mean world music? as in latain jazz tribal drums and old
folk songs. but i do prefer to get a paino but funds are limited so
i have to resort to a replacement keyboard for now which sucks.

im not sure if that helped you out any but i hope so

You know you're a true microtonalist if you refer to it as a "pain-o". ;)

--- In crazy_music@yahoogroups.com, "Jimmy" <dead_dude32@y...> wrote:
>
>
> > Hi Jimmy,
> >
> > It would be really helpful if you could clarify your interests and
> goals
> > here just a little bit. You play bass and guitar. Would you be
> interested in
> > exploring other scales with those instruments? You mention an
> interest in
> > piano and violin. Yes, the violin is intrinsically a microtonal
> instrument.
> > The piano is not and is very hard to retune. But if you instead
> mean an
> > electronic keyboard with a piano sound, then that can be easy to
> retune to
> > at least some scales, depending on the model.
> >
> > In getting started, are you interested in performance,
> composition, theory,
> > all? Have you heard of just intonation? Of Harry Partch? Are you
> familiar
> > much with any types of world music?
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Jeff
>
> well im not sure what im planing to do musically. i just try to keep
> a borad a spectrum as possible and yes ive got a 6 string bass which
> im gonna get defretted at some point soon. harry partch nope im
> never heard about the person. i think pachabell done a few things
> with misstuned instruments but im not too sure.
>
> how do you mean world music? as in latain jazz tribal drums and old
> folk songs. but i do prefer to get a paino but funds are limited so
> i have to resort to a replacement keyboard for now which sucks.
>
> im not sure if that helped you out any but i hope so

Hi Jimmy,

> well im not sure what im planing to do musically. i just try to keep
> a borad a spectrum as possible and yes ive got a 6 string bass which
> im gonna get defretted at some point soon.

Ok, that's a great idea to go with a fretless instrument. As well as being
the ultimate in microtonal, it will really help develop your ear to hear the
intervals and have an intuition for them.

> harry partch nope im never heard about the person.

He is a composer and musical instrument designer who was a major figure in
the world of microtonality. If you can find his book "Genesis of a Music" in
a library or bookstore (can also find it on amazon), it is a good read and
discusses a lot of interesting things about tuning and also shows some of
his strange and unusual instruments. That's a good book to start with if
looking for inspiration.

> how do you mean world music? as in latain jazz tribal drums and old
> folk songs.

Yes - music from other cultures often uses tunings that are different from
western music. For example, Arabic music uses tunings that are the
descendents of tunings used by the ancient greeks. In Indonesia, they have
orchestras called gamelans made up largely of metallophones (instruments
with metal keys) and gongs. These instruments use very interesting scales.
So listening to world music can give some ideas about what is possible with
different tunings.

> but i do prefer to get a paino but funds are limited so
> i have to resort to a replacement keyboard for now which sucks.

Alas, not very many modern hardware synths are retunable. Those that are
usually don't support the full keyboard retuning needed to work with the
most interesting scales. But many software synths nowadays are retunable.
Also there are ways using software to make many nonretunable synths
retunable.

One can study the theory for years, but the most important thing about
learning about microtonality is to actually play with different scales on
instruments and let your ear be your guide. Defretting your bass is a great
place to start with that.

- Jeff