Meantone and JI

Paul Erlich wrote: "For example, meantone temperament is a compromise which
has some benefits over just intonation -- more notes can be made consonant
with one another than in JI (for example, the diatonic scale in meantone has
6 consonant triads, while a JI version can have at most 5)."

That is a great explanation. I always knew it, and it is in fact the reason
that I tune my diatonic pedal steel in meantone, but I've never heard anyone
explain it so clearly. Thank you very much, Paul.

On the standard E9th pedal steel tuning, many players tune two distinct F#
notes to get that last triad in JI. The second F# is activated by one of
the standard pedals.

-b0b-

>Paul Erlich wrote: "For example, meantone temperament is a compromise which
>has some benefits over just intonation -- more notes can be made consonant
>with one another than in JI (for example, the diatonic scale in meantone
has
>6 consonant triads, while a JI version can have at most 5)."

>That is a great explanation. I always knew it, and it is in fact the
reason
>that I tune my diatonic pedal steel in meantone, but I've never heard
anyone
>explain it so clearly. Thank you very much, Paul.

You're welcome, though it's certainly been said more clearly. Since you
liked that, though, I should point out that most of the scales I (and Dave
Keenan) are interested in, and have discussed on this list, operate in just
this way -- they trade off a small deviation from JI (which may actually be
desirable) for an increase in the number of consonant harmonies.

>On the standard E9th pedal steel tuning, many players tune two distinct F#
>notes to get that last triad in JI. The second F# is activated by one of
>the standard pedals.

So how do you play an F#sus4 chord? (Thanks Margo for the inspiration.)

> So how do you play an F#sus4 chord? (Thanks Margo for the inspiration.)

We usually put the bar on the second fret and raise the G# string to A. :-)

In all serious, a sus4 based on the second note of the scale wouldn't be
played in the root position. Most steel players would move the bar up two
frets so they could get the pure JI 4th and 5th harmonies. The F# note
itself would then be tuned in unison with the 12tet instruments.

-b0b- http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/just_e9.html