Suggestions for an 11-tone microtonal scale?

Hi there,

Within a few days, I'll be doing a new recording where I want to use a small
kalimba which one of my former teachers bought for me some years ago. The
original scale of the kalimba was the C major pentatonic but I realized the
kalimba sounds nice even with other scales (I've already made two recordings
where I used something very close to
60:72:80:90:108:120:135:144:180:216:240). To make the new recording somewhat
"more interesting", I had an idea to ask if someone of you wants to suggest
ratios or cent sizes for a tuning which you'd like to hear on my kalimba.
The only limitations are that the total set must be of no more than 11 tones
(or 10 intervals) and that the total range should be somewhere within 2 to 3
octaves to be "tunable" on the instrument.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Petr

> Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> Petr

!
Stearns "[2,9] index" generalized diatonic in 20-ET.
11
!
120.0 !....2
240.0 !....4
360.0 !....6
480.0 !....8
540.0 !....9
660.0 !...11
780.0 !...13
900.0 !...15
1020.0 !..17
1140.0 !..19
2/1 !.....20
!
! 13:16:19, 1/(13:16:19) chords on 1-4-7.

!
11-tone MOS of hanson (in 19-ET).
11
!
189.474 !....3
252.632 !....4
315.789 !....5
505.263 !....8
568.421 !....9
631.579 !...10
821.053 !...13
884.211 !...14
1073.684 !..17
1136.842 !..18
2/1 !.......19
!

!
Robert Valentine's tetradic generalized-diatonic in 19-ET.
11
!
126.316 !....2
252.632 !....4
378.947 !....6
442.105 !....7
568.421 !....9
694.737 !...11
821.053 !...13
884.211 !...14
1010.526 !..16
1136.842 !..18
2/1 !.......19
!
! 5-prime-limit tetrads on 1-4-7-10.

!
Harmonics 11-22
11
!
12/11
13/11
14/11
15/11
16/11
17/11
18/11
19/11
20/11
21/11
2/1
!

-Carl

To Carl:

all of the suggested scales sound sooo nice to me. But ... Their period is 2/1 so I'm now thinking about which way to go to fit them into at least two octaves -- this particular kalimba has only 11 lamels to play (or whatever I should call those flat sticks) and I'm not sure if trying to squeeze the total range into a single octave doesn't harm the instrument. One of the possible solutions could be, for example, to skip every other degree (like 0 2 4 6 ... 20).

Petr

PS: I was probably wrong -- maybe I should say 10-tone scale, I actually meant 10 intervals, which equals 11 tones.

To Carl:

all of the suggested scales sound sooo nice to me. But ... Their period is 2/1 so I'm now thinking about which way to go to fit them into at least two octaves -- this particular kalimba has only 11 lamels to play (or whatever I should call those flat sticks) and I'm not sure if trying to squeeze the total range into a single octave doesn't harm the instrument. One of the possible solutions could be, for example, to skip every other degree (like 0 2 4 6 ... 20).

Petr

PS: I was probably wrong -- maybe I should have said 10-tone scale, I actually meant 10 intervals, which equals 11 tones.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Petr Parízek <p.parizek@...> wrote:
>
> To Carl:
>
> all of the suggested scales sound sooo nice to me. But ... Their
> period is 2/1 so I'm now thinking about which way to go to fit
> them into at least two octaves -- this particular kalimba has only
> 11 lamels to play (or whatever I should call those flat sticks)
> and I'm not sure if trying to squeeze the total range into a single
> octave doesn't harm the instrument. One of the possible solutions
> could be, for example, to skip every other degree
> (like 0 2 4 6 ... 20).
>
> Petr
>
> PS: I was probably wrong -- maybe I should say 10-tone scale, I
> actually meant 10 intervals, which equals 11 tones.

Usually "tones" are octave-equivalent beasts. So if you
have 11 bars to cover two octaves, you can do C - C - C with
a 5-tone scale. So maybe that's what you want.

Lots of great 5-toners to pick from...

-Carl

    I have a 12 tone scale designed to be panned on each side of the stereo field, thus producing a very high consonance level per channel...for almost any type of instrument.
   And it all fits within a single octave, due to the way the notes are split along the stereo spectrum.
  ---------------
   Cut off any chosen note in the scale to get an 11 note scale.
---------------

   The scale system is based on listening aesthetics IE finding the maximum number of tones possible that have a similar mood.

   Let me know what you think... :-)

Left channel
1. 1 (root note/octave)
2. 1.12563
3. 1.28864
4. 1.526
5. 1.57848
6. 1.80708

Right channel
1. 1.06996
2. 1.18419
3. 1.33296
4. 1.45054
5. 1.68892
6. 1.875
         

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Petr Paøízek <p.parizek@...> wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> Within a few days, I'll be doing a new recording where I want to
use a small
> kalimba which one of my former teachers bought for me some years
ago. The
> original scale of the kalimba was the C major pentatonic but I
realized the
> kalimba sounds nice even with other scales (I've already made two
recordings
> where I used something very close to
> 60:72:80:90:108:120:135:144:180:216:240). To make the new recording
somewhat
> "more interesting", I had an idea to ask if someone of you wants to
suggest
> ratios or cent sizes for a tuning which you'd like to hear on my
kalimba.
> The only limitations are that the total set must be of no more than
11 tones
> (or 10 intervals) and that the total range should be somewhere
within 2 to 3
> octaves to be "tunable" on the instrument.
>
> Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> Petr

When I visited Jonathan Glasier in San Diego once during the '70's,
he took me to a gourd farm, where I purchased two kalimbas made from
gourds for only four dollars apiece. Each one had a one-octave
diatonic scale (total of 8 pitches), with the lowest note near the
center, odd-numbered scale degrees ascending at one side, and even-
numbered degrees ascending at the other side (I don't remember which
side was which), so that 3rds could be played by simultaneously
plucking adjacent metal tongues (the ends of which were arranged in
a "V" shape) with the same thumb.

I retuned each instrument to the tones of a single harmonic series
(as close to JI as I could), as follows (left to right):
13 : 11 : 9 : 7 : 6 : 8 : 10 : 12
This enables me to play up or down the scale quickly, and even a
quick succession of 3rds (such as 7:9, 4:5, 9:11, 5:6, 11:13).

I still have the two instruments, and they're still tuned as above,
one to a C harmonic series (harmonic 8 = 264 hz.) and the other to F
(harmonic 8 = 352 hz.). If you like, I could take a photograph of
one of these.

For an 11-tone kalimba, I'd try expanding the above to:
15 : 13 : 11 : 9 : 7 : 6 : 8 : 10 : 12 : 14 : 16

This would be a bit different from your present arrangement, in which
I assume that the pitches are arranged in ascending order.

--George

George wrote:

> For an 11-tone kalimba, I'd try expanding the above to:
> 15 : 13 : 11 : 9 : 7 : 6 : 8 : 10 : 12 : 14 : 16

Thanks, George, this was just the sort of thing I was looking for ... I'll
definitely try this, the idea looks nice.

> This would be a bit different from your present arrangement, in which
> I assume that the pitches are arranged in ascending order.

Actually, they are in the same order as you described on your instruments,
the lowest being in the middle and then going left-right-left-right ... I've
only listed them ascending for convenience.

Petr

Michael wrote:

> Let me know what you think... :-)

Can you give the intervals in either ratios or cents? It would probably take
me quite some time to figure them out from these decimal linear factors.

Petr

Carl Lumma wrote:
> Harmonics 11-22
> 11
> !
> 12/11
> 13/11
> 14/11
> 15/11
> 16/11
> 17/11
> 18/11
> 19/11
> 20/11
> 21/11
> 2/1
> !

The first four ratios make me think of a type of a vague Saba tetrachord: 11:12:13:14.

~D.

Petr Pa��zek wrote:
> Hi there,
> > Within a few days, I'll be doing a new recording where I want to use a small
> kalimba which one of my former teachers bought for me some years ago. The
> original scale of the kalimba was the C major pentatonic but I realized the
> kalimba sounds nice even with other scales (I've already made two recordings
> where I used something very close to
> 60:72:80:90:108:120:135:144:180:216:240). To make the new recording somewhat
> "more interesting", I had an idea to ask if someone of you wants to suggest
> ratios or cent sizes for a tuning which you'd like to hear on my kalimba.
> The only limitations are that the total set must be of no more than 11 tones
> (or 10 intervals) and that the total range should be somewhere within 2 to 3
> octaves to be "tunable" on the instrument.
> > Any suggestions are welcome.
> > Petr

I think mavila scales are nice on a kalimba, so how about a 5-tone mavila scale? E.g.,

0.0
160.726
523.827
684.553
845.279
1208.380
1369.106
1732.207
1892.933
2053.659
2416.760

Herman wrote:

> I think mavila scales are nice on a kalimba, so how about a 5-tone
> mavila scale? E.g.,
>
> 0.0
> 160.726
> 523.827
> 684.553
> 845.279
> 1208.380
> 1369.106
> 1732.207
> 1892.933
> 2053.659
> 2416.760

Nice idea, thanks, I think I�ll try that as well.

Looking forward to these ... I'm curious myself what'll come out of me when I start playing around with them ... We'll see - we'll hear. :-)

Petr

The Chopi of which Mavila was a village would tune up 7 tones and take 5 note scales out of them. the other MOSs are 9, 16, and 23. all good resources for pentatonics
--

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

_'''''''_ ^South/Eastern Hemisphere:
Austronesian Outpost of Anaphoria <http://anaphoriasouth.blogspot.com/>

',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',