QUANTUM 7 (Transcendent Tonality) 31 tone guitar
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Stephen James Taylor performs at Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood, CA December 2014. Performed on a custom made 31 tone per octave baritone guitar made by Halo Guitars. The extended tonal palette allows for new ways of creating musical tension and release. Song available soon at itunes and cdbaby.com
3:25 that riff blew my mind, i replayed it so much omg
My favorite tuning system thus far.
This and 17 for me is best
Gift! Thank you for sharing this. Stephen James Taylor is an absolute pioneer and student of the Human Experience. Such an inspiration on various levels.
First I've ever heard of this kind of thing. I listened to it and didn't realize until afterwards that I had been drooling. Interesting...
aguitarr man I keep finding that when I listen to microtonal music, it makes my mouth water.
That's astounding playing and composing!--I don't think I've heard you perform except on sound tracks before. My loss, obviously
The clarity, both of the instrument (yay sound guy, whoever engineered this recording deserves a medal) and of the intervals creates a huge sense of space. I think 31-TET in particular is really good at that feeling of filling a large volume. Coupled with the pitch bending makes me think of the call of a collosal animal. Utterly fantastic stuff, beautiful composition!
I need of these to write some sick metal riffage
GET ONE
The best proof that microtones can sound good.
or most middle eastern traditional music that has always used microtones...
@@sereysothe.a or jazz music that uses microtones...
sounds great Stephen, thanks for sharing that..I liked the story
This is an f'n beautiful song, man.
I love this work
truly a masterpiece, my man, where can i find more of this?
You should check out Fabio Costa’s Aphoristic Madrigal or some of Mike Battaglia’s work
Nice. Wouldn't have minded some 7-limit intervals but great performance
One thing i liked about this is how appealing the major thirds sound, they're virtually perfect in 31-TET, and ugly as hell in 12-TET
SihtamEmperor don’t over-exaggerate!
That's because the ratio of 5:4, from which 31ET is derived, is that of the acoustically pure, beatless major third. The 12ET major third, by contrast, is very sharp, 13.7 cents wider than
pure. On your normal 12ET guitar the major 3rd C-E (second-first strings) beats about 10 (!) times per second--abrasive indeed!
@@jameslouder uhhhh. Maybe I'm just dumb...but I don't think 31edo has anything to do with 5:4 inherently. 31edo derives from...the octave being split evenly into 31 equall parts. The math just happens to work out such that it is very near 1/4 comma meantone, which is very near just.
@@TheApostleofRock It's not just an arithmetical coincidence. The whole tone in 31ET (or EDO, if you prefer) *is* a mean whole tone, whose ratio is the geometrical mean of the just minor (10/9) and major (9/8) tones, i.e. the square root of 5/4. This is not a just interval, nor are any of the other 1/4-comma meantone intervals *except* the major third (and of course, the octave). When you actually tune normal 12-note meantone on the keyboard, you do it by erecting pure major thirds on a core of four tempered fifths. With only 12 notes on the keyboard, you will have to leave one wide, unusable interval. This is the infamous "wolf", typically G#-Eb and any key that straddles it is unplayable. But if you have 31 notes in your octave you'll be able to continue tuning pure thirds until you close the circle and come out pure on the octave.
@@jameslouder Well heck. You know more than I do. I guess I didn't know which came first.
Excellent performance!
This is AMAZING.
I really love this. I might want to get a guitar like this some day...I love 31-tone and I have written some music in it, and configured my computer to play it, including connected to an electric keyboard with MIDI...just dabbling, but I have yet to hold or play on a physical instrument that produces music in this tuning. This is exciting and I really hope you keep doing stuff with this.
I'd love to hear more songs if you explore this tuning more.
Some kind of lyre maybe for multi harmonic systems?
awesome Stephen … luv this!!!! :D
it is amazing. thank you. glad you exist!
Sounds great
So amazing !
SUPER!!!!! Thank you so much! So mesmerizing. It opens my mind, so far framed into the cage of the 12 tones. 🤟
Ah, you're doing the impossible, according to someone in a chat I was just at. Always nice to witness someone doing the impossible.
Love it.
Making Peace sound good. THANKS
love it awesome
Brilliant!
awesome!!
whoa.
Yep this is the best performance on this kind of instrument I have ever heard!
Check out Dsilton!
The best microtonal piece I've heard, dissonance really needs to be approached with taste rather than full on exposure if the tune is meant to be pleasing to the ear. Well done on your work.
Is this tuned in BEADF#B standard baritone tuning? Whats the scale length? How many frets is that in total and how do you calculate the spacing between the frets?
turdrhinofiend I'm sure the sixth string is tuned in C#
+turdrhinofiend No clue what the exact scale lenght is of this guitar. Using the fret markers as reference, each string has a range of two octaves, which means the number of frets = 62.
Concerning fret spacing: The distance, d, from the headstock nut to fret number n, can be found with the formula d(n) = 2S(1 - 2^(-n/31) ) where S is the scale lenght of the instrument.
I can show where that formula comes from if there is interest. (This formula does not take compensation for string stiffness into account, but it is still relatively correct)
I can't speak for how his guitar is tuned, but basically, the way you figure out fret spacing is in principle the same as for 19-tone or 12-tone equal temperament. You place the octave exactly halfway across the entire string. Then you divide that length by the 31st root of 2 to get the fret just before the octave, then again for the one before that, etc until you've placed 31 frets.
What Angus said!
As for the tuning, you can hear him play an open chord at the very end, might be able to figure it out from there.
It’s open C♯ tuning:
C♯
G♯
E♯
C♯
G♯
C♯
I transcribed it on my channel if you want the full details
Can someone explain why 31TET works so well? I've only delved into 24 and 19TET.
+Jonathan Keeler 31TET has a very accurate representation of many harmonic ratios used in western music. there's a load of intervals in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th harmonic that are within 4 cents of being perfectly in tune with just intonation, but there are also a few near-perfect 7th and 11th harmonic intervals. everything harmonizes in 31tet.
+Jonathan Keeler It keeps in with properties already present in 12tet and 19tet, the next "natural step" if you want to keep the meantone mindset is really 31-tet. Then after, if I'm not mistaken, 55-tet.
i wish i could understand this... cents? intervals? harmonic intervals?
DETTH Study more acoustics. Especially frequency ratios, the harmonic series/overtones. Also look for "Xenharmonic" (as in a term to look for).
Gracias//
This is amazing. I can't tell but is the neck standard length or is it closer to bass length?
"baritone" means longer scale length, usually like a standard guitar extended to reach D at same tension. it's almost a requirement with 31frets per octave (so that lower frets are not too small).
rrr00bb Thanks that makes sense! I know very little about the technical aspects of these types instruments and 31 ET in general, but I do know that I love the sound of them. Can't wait to get my hands on something like this one day!
not really showcasing 31edo (11-limit) tonality very well, just using the extra frets for ornamentation, and getting a nice ring from the meantone thirds.
Its just to make things sound Spicy you know
Oh man. No seventh harmonic?
Anybody ever thought about the why that Western civilatation in general came to dividing of the octave by 12 'microtones'?
Euh Dink doesn’t it have to do with approximating the diatonic scale? And then transposing for singers? And being possible to play on a piano?
Euh Dink It comes from the dominant tonic relationship giving a circle of 12 key centers
For the edo variety, I think it's mostly a matter of convenience and mathematical happenstance. It's a small enough number to be practical and does a good enough job. We were already using 12 tones, unless I'm just dumb and ignorant, so it was super good luck that math works. The bigger question is how we came to twelve tones in the first place. I'm not sure on the origins of the diatonic scale, but I think that came afterwards, because the typical diatonic is distinctive for it's pattern of small and whole steps spread as far apart as possible. The name literally means seven, so I don't think it's origin is separate from the structures of twelve notes.
Thomas is probably correct technically. It might be easier to think of pythogorean tuning. Take a note, and multiply by a perfect fifth, get a second. Take the original note again and divide for a third note. Repeat and divide/ multiply by an octave as necessary to keep it all within one octave. You'll get a whole bunch of notes that are varying distances apart from one another. However, you get to 12, and it's pretty even. Adding more places notes in the cracks of others and it doesn't "even out" again until like....43 or 52 or something? Now it's getting unwieldy.
@@TheApostleofRock Fifty-two iterations of the cycle of fifths will get you home to C at last--or as close as makes no difference. It doesn't work out to the exact number of cycles per second, but it's close enough for practical purposes. Did I say practical? Whaaattt??? Not for us. However, Indian classical music does make use of the microtones this generates--and if that sounds amazing, well, it is! These refinements are mainly used by singers--and there's the main thing: Indian classical music is monodic. Chords don't enter into the picture at all. Where Western music uses harmony to create interest, Indian music uses microtones--also terrifically complex rhythms. Different strokes...literally!
@@jameslouder Exhibit A as to why this stuff is fascinating. Tuning is so intimately related to the structures of, and therefore kinds of music that various peoples create.
this is transcendental! this is the basis of amygdalic scale!
thats... not even a real thing
Fear the old blood? Lol. r/unexpectedbloodborne
what's the technique that he uses at the start called?
Tapping
He's doing like a wired pluck then changing the angle to do a pick scrape with the nail then tapping harmonics
pinch harmonics , ?@@austinsatterfield6792
By the way there are 378 notes on that guitar!
Is it just me? Some of that sounds wonderfully melodic, some of it sounds like a cat duetting with a saw-fiddle.
What is the opening music? :O o.O
The opening music is from the album, Space, Time and Motion on itunes,
Space, Time and Motion, Vol. 1 by Stephen James Taylor
itunes.apple.com/us/album/space-time-and-motion-vol-1/1220598152
The track is called "Probing Beyond"
Sick thanks man! :D
It does not matter if you divide the octave into twelve or way more notes. The result of a even more divided octave is a greater purity of tone but also a significantly more difficulty to handle correctly (on a guitar this is basically impossible to do). But as long as you CHOOSE only a small number out of them, i.e. only seven which harmonize together (and of course you could modulate into different pitches), beautiful music can be played. A fretless instrument such as the cello has theoretically countless notes per octaves, but it does not mean all of those notes can be combined harmonically.
This very simplistic approach that anything more than 12TET (tones per octave) produces notes that are not harmonically resonant is simply wrong. First of all, in 12TET some intervals are out of tune in regards to the overtone series. The latter of which would probably be the "best" way of constructing a scale, where every note is in tune to some basic frequency. This is just intonation.
31-TET was actually already developed during the renaissance era to make music of that time sound MORE perfectly consonant. Meaning some intervals (particularly 3rds and 6ths, popular intervals in renaissance already) are MORE in tune in this octave divison, they are closer to the actual physical particular overtone.
You should educate yourself on this temperament and it's qualities (or music in general) before you give such haphazard advise.
Maybe my ears are not trained well enough but isn't the majority of the melody just played in the standard major and minor scales? I mean the whole point of having one of these is to experiment with microtonality, so why is he just playing it like a regular guitar and then only using the microtones as more a means of gimmicky transitions and dynamics?
Its 31EDO. The only intervals in 31EDO that are the same as regular 12 tone equal temperament are the octaves. Every other interval is tuned differently.
Im just saying, from a very linear, unbiased point of view, the more notes there are in a scale, the larger the spaces between ideal target chords should be, and the farther away from traditional twelve tone major/minor should be undeniably present. The only thing this artist seems to be doing is droning an open note, and ascending or descending chromatically between traditional 12 tone target notes. There does not seem to be any sort of innovation in chord structure, composition, or scales, which is what I would expect from this genre of fetishism, but this has proved only to be a gimmick so far, trying to mimic actual microtonal music from other countries.
That's an interesting perspective. One might add however that the microtonal field is so vast that there is room for ALL levels of exploration, from sonic materials that sound dissonant and "way out" to the consonant and more conventional sounding sonorities....and everything in between. In any event, seems to me there is value in creating a language of transition, connective tissue that can over time, ease in the public acceptance of a wider choice of intervals. Systems like 31 or 53 Equal are helpful in that they contain subsets that can mimic conventional tonal progressions or at the drop of a hat, go very far out there. A simple device like delaying the resolution of a V7-I cadence via 31 tone chromatic passing chords may not constitute a major innovation, but the subtle interpolation of additional data can allow the public ear to accept and enjoy these alternate intervals. Hence it may be worthwhile to condition the soil for a larger audience someday.
A new language that is broader and more precise can still contain elements of the old. It's not that cut and dry. Regardless, we will just have to see how all this plays out in the coming years....
I think your comment is getting at something deep here...yes, you are correct that most of the melody is played in the standard major and minor scales. This is one of the interesting features of 31-tone equal temperament. There are only a few equal temperaments that play major and minor scales reasonably in tune. The main ones are 12, 19, and 31. Anything less than 31, other than these numbers, is going to sound really out of tune if you try to play a major or minor scale...perhaps an exception would be 22 which is sort-of passable.
But...in 12 tone equal temperament you can't play arab traditional music with intervals like...the one that roughly divides a minor third in half. In 31 tone you can. So it's like, 31 tone is kinda unique in that you can play all the familiar stuff but you can also play new and different sounding stuff.
Also, if you listen very closely to the major scale, the intervals are subtly different. In 12-ET, the fifths are nearly perfectly in tune but the thirds are off. In 31-ET there is a slight sacrifice to the fifths (they're still very close but ever-so-slightly off) but the thirds are much closer. This is achieved by the whole step being a bit narrower...it's a type of "meantone" tuning, meaning that the whole tone is somewhere in between the width of the major tone (9:8) and minor tone (10:9).
There's nothing fundamentally wrong about this music. But my interest in xenharmonic music is in having my understanding of harmony bent around the edges and challenged and taken on a voyage through outer space with irradiated sharp oranges and marshy flat purples, not to have a bunch of music that sounds like it's basically 12 tone music that I've heard before with an occasionally overindulged subchromatic approach.
I can't say you're doing anything wrong. But that doesn't change my disappointment.
j4yn1ck5 well, good for you.
Hmm, my own goal is kind of the opposite, to normalize differing harmonic systems to my ear. Especially one's close to a "pure" harmony.
Credit where credit's duel, in 31EDO you can never be accused of making a mistake.
00:32 click here to skip the fucking blablabla
it sounds like someone is playing a guitar thats out of tune well.
Yeah thats the vibe
Sloppy virtuoses
Your way too used to equal tempement lol