micro guitar question

There's been lots of talk of refretting or fretless guitars, but what
about using standard-fretted instruments, while re-tuning the strings in
relation to each other, in Just ratios?

I'm interested in a kind of adaptive JI where, let's say you have a piece
of music, structurally concieved in some ET, say 12, where there's one
"line" (series of notes. . . not necessarily an explicit melody in the
piece) that's always tuned in this ET, but the notes "around" the notes of
that line (harmonies, accompaniments, etc.) are tuned adaptively to be
Just with the "line" tones. On a computer, or course, this would be no
problem. It's kind of extrapolating from JdLbnfl's re-tuning of my Piano
Sonata a year ago; where I noticed that I liked the results best when the
"melodic springs" were loosest: that is, the emphasis was on perfect
vertical sonorities even if at the expense of well-tuned melody. (I
actually liked the "warped" quality of the horizontal pitch successions).

So what I'm thinking of doing is a piece for guitar and computer, based on
this idea. 12-ET in structure, but all local harmonies in JI.

I could just have the guitar play a single line, and the computer provide
all of the adapted harmony, but I'd like the guitar to contribute some
harmony as well. Hence, I'm thinking it might work for it to be
fretted in 12tET, but have some JI harmony be "available" for use, by
re-tuning the strings to JI ratios in relation to one another.

Any reason(s) I couldn't make this work?

c bailey

--- In tuning@y..., Christopher Bailey <cb202@c...> wrote:
> There's been lots of talk of refretting or fretless guitars, but
what
> about using standard-fretted instruments, while re-tuning the
strings in
> relation to each other, in Just ratios?

sure, i've done some of that, and read websites by others who've done
it . . .

> I'm interested in a kind of adaptive JI where, let's say you have a
piece
> of music, structurally concieved in some ET, say 12, where there's
one
> "line" (series of notes. . . not necessarily an explicit melody in
the
> piece) that's always tuned in this ET, but the notes "around" the
notes of
> that line (harmonies, accompaniments, etc.) are tuned adaptively to
be
> Just with the "line" tones. On a computer, or course, this would
be no
> problem. It's kind of extrapolating from JdLbnfl's re-tuning of my
Piano
> Sonata a year ago; where I noticed that I liked the results best
when the
> "melodic springs" were loosest: that is, the emphasis was on
perfect
> vertical sonorities even if at the expense of well-tuned melody. (I
> actually liked the "warped" quality of the horizontal pitch
successions).
>
> So what I'm thinking of doing is a piece for guitar and computer,
based on
> this idea. 12-ET in structure, but all local harmonies in JI.
>
> I could just have the guitar play a single line, and the computer
provide
> all of the adapted harmony, but I'd like the guitar to contribute
some
> harmony as well. Hence, I'm thinking it might work for it to be
> fretted in 12tET, but have some JI harmony be "available" for use,
by
> re-tuning the strings to JI ratios in relation to one another.
>
> Any reason(s) I couldn't make this work?

the problem is that you're going to be *very* limited in the kinds of
chord voicings you can use, and your voice leading from one chord to
the next will tend to suffer greatly.

you could get far better result from *two* 12-equal guitars, tuned 15
cents apart. it seems you're not concerned about 15-cent pitch
shifts . . . so simply write the piece on one guitar, and then, when
making the final arrangement, apportion the notes among the two
guitars so that the 5-limit triads are just (well, within 2 cents of
just).

want 7-limit? three guitars 15 or 16 cents apart should do the
trick . . . for full 11-limit you'll need four guitars . . .