Asian tunings

Interesting discussion on what/why the Chinese/Japanese/Tuvans use/choose the scales they may/may not be using, or have used. There are certainly a bunch of sharp folks here, with a great deal of knowledge. I also think it would be really instructive to have Asian musicians, with a deep knowledge of their culture and musical traditions, talk about why they use the scales they use....and even then, they may disagree as well. I liked Paul's comments about the use of the Harmonic Series for scales...probably a lot of truth there...best...Hstick

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I agree that that would be of great benefit.
What people doing theory and what actually happens out there in the world is often varied.
A recent poster pointed out how on the Shamisen they will use a smaller semitone than the theory
and i know of Koto research that points to a similar practice. But even traditional sources can be troublesome. Every westerner would say the west plays in 12 ET. But if take a recording of a Brahm's string quartet from 50 years ago and took measurements, it would not be what we find. In fact one of the things one can notice in older recordings of classical music is often the tolerance in pitch is much greater than today. i have no reason to believe this is better say 100 years ago or more. Keyboards and frets would have escape this depending on the skill at hand.
I remember one prominent Butoh Dancer from Japan who would appropriate aspects of what he witnessed when performing abroad. He received some criticism of this. he responded that he was not afraid to misunderstand, and that misunderstanding was the beginning of communication.

/^_,',',',_ //^ /Kraig Grady_ ^_,',',',_
_'''''''_ ^North/Western Hemisphere: North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>

_'''''''_ ^South/Eastern Hemisphere:
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microstick@msn.com wrote:
>
> Interesting discussion on what/why the Chinese/Japanese/Tuvans > use/choose the scales they may/may not be using, or have used. There > are certainly a bunch of sharp folks here, with a great deal of > knowledge. I also think it would be really instructive to have Asian > musicians, with a deep knowledge of their culture and musical > traditions, talk about why they use the scales they use....and even > then, they may disagree as well. I liked Paul's comments about the use > of the Harmonic Series for scales...probably a lot of truth > there...best...Hstick
> > myspace.com/microstick >