Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning 22ET guitar

Just less than two weeks ago I finished modifying Asta, my Fender Squire
Stratocaster, for 22ET. I would like to thank John Starrett for providing
an excellent refretting guide on his web page. It's a good, concise
instruction manual.

I've been playing with it at every opportunity and have a few impressions
so far. I'm tuning to a standard EADGBE, by fourths (9/22) with the G-B a
supermajor 8/22 units. Tuning the strings has been slightly tricky so far,
partly just out of simple disorientation from the new tuning, and partly
because I think the intonation is still not quite properly set. I'll get
to it sooner or later...

One of my first feelings was of dismay when attempting to play a few
chords. I was not expecting fingering to be this difficult! I guess when
I look at it now, duhh, things are obviously a lot tighter than they used
to be in 12. What I hadn't thought about is fitting fingers on the same
fret on two adjacent strings. The distance between the strings has not
changed, but the fingers now bunch up on top of each other because there is
less "horizontal" space to fit those fingertips. Also, something like a
standard barred E or A chord is far more difficult than in 12 for similar
reasons. In 12 there is lots of space for the fingers -- now the
fingertips must be moved further out from my barred finger, creating a much
more difficult stretch. Someone please tell me that all this gets easier
with practice!!

So far I've been noodling around with a few scales and familiarizing myself
with some of these new things. Scale-noodling has included various
tetrachordal scales (enharmonic, subminor diatonic...) and Paul E's
decatonic. A chain of 12 fifths also has some cool effects. I haven't
gotten to a point of really creating much Music yet; just listening to new
sounds and having fun.

Any comments or suggestions from 22-er's and others would be welcomed.
(e.g. What kind of hay should I feed it?)

digging out from the snow,
kp

🔗Graham Breed <g.breed@xxx.xx.xxx>

> Kris Peck wrote:
>
>What I hadn't thought about is fitting fingers on the same
>fret on two adjacent strings. The distance between the strings has not
>changed, but the fingers now bunch up on top of each other because there is
>less "horizontal" space to fit those fingertips.

At last someone who agrees with me! It seems most microtonal guitarists are
double jointed with ultra-thin fingers or something. This is the reason I
fretted my guitar to a subset of 31-equal, rather than the whole thing.
I've had more trouble with chords I can't get my fingers around than chords
that aren't there on the fretboard. 22-equal means the frets are a bit
wider spaced so you might find it easier with practice. Otherwise, you'll
have to choose different fingerings. Hopefully all the new chords you can
play will make up for the old ones you can't find anymore.

One solution would be to widen the neck and lose a fret. I have nothing but
respect for those who play with 7 strings!

>Any comments or suggestions from 22-er's and others would be welcomed.
>(e.g. What kind of hay should I feed it?)

It's really not a good idea to put hay in any musical instrument. It will
tend to deaden the vibrations. Now, if this is what you want, don't let me
stop you in the full flight of your experimentation. Just don't expect
anything special out of it.

🔗Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@xxxxxxxxxx.xxxx>

Some MOS scales worth playing with are the 5-,12-, and 17-tone MOSs built
of 9/22nds or 13/22nds,

0 4 8 13 17 22
0 3 4 7 8 11 12 13 16 17 20 21 22
0 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 19 20 21 22

the 7- 10- 13- 16- and 19- tone MOSs built of 7/22nds or 15/22nds

0 1 2 8 9 15 16 22
0 1 2 3 8 9 10 15 16 17 22
0 1 2 3 4 8 9 10 11 15 16 17 18 22
0 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 22
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 22

the 4-, 5-, 9-, and 13- tone MOSs built of 5/22nds or 17/22nds:

0 7 12 17 22
0 2 7 12 17 22
0 2 4 7 9 12 14 17 19 22
0 1 2 4 6 7 9 11 12 14 16 17 19 21 22

and the 7-, 8- and 15-tone MOSs built of 3/22nds or 19/22nds:

0 4 7 10 13 16 19 22
0 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22
0 1 2 4 5 7 8 10 11 13 16 16 17 19 20 22

🔗Paul H. Erlich <PErlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx>

>I've been playing with it at every opportunity and have a few
impressions
>so far. I'm tuning to a standard EADGBE, by fourths (9/22) with the
G-B a
>supermajor 8/22 units.

That's how I tune mine (except I have a low B, too). I tried other
tunings that would have been better in theory, but only this tuning
allowed me to fly (because I played 12-tET guitar in standard tuning for
8 of the last 11 years, and I always think of a 1-fret shift when going
between the G and B strings, relative to the 3 years when I tuned the
12-tET EADGCF).

>Also, something like a
>standard barred E or A chord is far more difficult than in 12 for
similar
>reasons. In 12 there is lots of space for the fingers -- now the
>fingertips must be moved further out from my barred finger, creating a
much
>more difficult stretch. Someone please tell me that all this gets
easier
>with practice!!

I never had much trouble with the E-form, but my fingers are kind of
skinny. The A-form and Em-form require different fingerings than before,
because of the comma; these do get difficlut high up on the neck.
Em7-form is a real challenge (in open position, the fret numbers are 0 4
1 1 0 0).

>Scale-noodling has included various
>tetrachordal scales (enharmonic, subminor diatonic...) and Paul E's
>decatonic. A chain of 12 fifths also has some cool effects. I haven't
>gotten to a point of really creating much Music yet; just listening to
new
>sounds and having fun.

I'm only proficient with the pentachordal decatonic scale in one
position:

e - 1 3 5 7
B - 1 3 5 7
G - 0 2 5 7
D - 0 2 5 7
A - 1 3 5 7
E - 1 3 5 7

and haven't learned to shred on this yet since all my past shredding
involved less than four notes per string. Try the near-equal heptatonic
scales 0 3 6 9 13 16 19 (22), which sounds like a cross between Arabic
and Thai scales, and 0 4 7 10 13 16 (19), which approximates harmonics
8-12. Also try my blues scale: 0 6 9 10 13 19 (22). Certain modes of the
chromatic tetrachordal scales make great Indian scales -- the ones where
the root and fifth have chromatic neighbors -- but this works in 12-tET
too. In 22-tET, find good voicings of utonal tetrads. Play otonal
tetrads and pentads with distortion -- sounds like Jon Catler.

🔗Paul H. Erlich <PErlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx>

🔗Gary Morrison <mr88cet@xxxxx.xxxx>

🔗Kris Peck <kpeck@xxxxxxxx.xxxx>

🔗Gary Morrison <mr88cet@xxxxx.xxxx>

> > I've only played with 22TET guitar a few months many years ago, but
> when
> > I did, I found an open-string tuning of fourths all the way up to be
> > useful.
> And why is this?

If you're interested in using 22TET for diatonic music, then notes
change names based upon what key you're in. As mentioned on the list, one
can construct plenty of other subset modes, but under the assumption that
you're interested in building toward the more-exotic starting with a
diatonic framework, then I found that tuning it all the way up in fourths
was an easy way to avoid interpreting the B string's pitch in any one
particular key.