Re: [Harp-L] Question: Equal Temperament Tuning on Golden MElody

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The best place to get both an explanation and audio examples related to harmonica is at Pat Missin's website:

http://patmissin.com/tunings/tunings.html

Briefly, equal temperament is better for melodies, especially melodies that contain a lot of chromatic notes (Because the notes are mathematically figured to be the same distance apart from one note to the next in the 12-note chromatic scale). However, chords can sound rough in equal temperament, and the harmonica tends to make the problem very obvious.

By contrast, you can create a just scale by deriving the pitches of notes from a single starting note (such as C) by dividing the frequency (vibrations per second) of that note by simple numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6,7, etc.). When you do this, the chord notes that go with that root note will harmonize very fully and smoothly with the root note and will reinforce it in several ways, making for great, full-sounding, ringing chords. However, some of the individual notes in a scale constructed this way can sound out of tune when played as melody notes, and the problem gets worse as you add notes from the chromatic scale. 

History is full of compromises and workarounds for the opposing problems inherent in these two solutions.

Winslow

--- On Tue, 9/2/08, Arnold Wiliem <arnoldw.id@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Arnold Wiliem <arnoldw.id@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Question: Equal Temperament Tuning on Golden MElody
To: "Harp L Harp L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 8:54 PM

Dear All,

I know this is a newbie question. But until now, I don't get it what're
the
advantages and differences the Equal temperament tuning on Hohner Golden
Melody compared to other tuning arrangement? Is it possible for me to tell
the tuning type just from ears? Could you guys give me an example (a melody
or song) that shows the differences?


Cheers,
Arnold
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