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View Full Version : Microtonal and Alternate tunings thread



kentaku_sama
November 19th, 2011, 04:12 am
I wonder if there's anyone on here who has an expirience with microtonal music other than me. With a piano, we can't change the pitch of a note unfortuantely without retuning. But I enjoy playing microtonal intervals on my guitar by bending the string to change the note to have any note I want, though it technically is not easy. I do it by musical instinct rather than scientific reasoning because I can barely comprehend just intonation and ratios, I kind of get it but I more less do what I think sounds right and 'different than other 12 tone intervals.'

One thing that's really interesting is the idea of neutral intervals meaning less than major but more than minor in such a way that the interval is percieved as a 3rd quality known as "Neutral" This results in the idea of a neutral third producing a neutral chord which is bizzare sounding. Ever since I've heard these things I can tell you they sound exactly like a car horn so when I hear a horn on a car, I know it's usually a neutral 3rd. Since the sterotype feeling of major is happy and minor is scary or sad, I believe neutral is to be a calm or cool or maybe relaxed feeling, It also can be percieved if played correctly as a gray feeling or dull, bland interval , this works fantastic in a jazzy context. :music: I just try to find sounds that are very different and can be used nicely. Thoughts?