A Conversation for Scales in Music
Cutting in half
Gnomon - time to move on Started conversation Nov 13, 2000
If you continue to cut a string in half, all you will get is notes in octaves higher than the original note. To get the notes in between such as the dominant, you have to cut it in other fractions, such as 3/4, 8/9 etc.
It's not quite true to say that "actually C# is different from Db". This depends on which scale you are using. In the Equal Temperament scale which is used in all "western" music since about 1750, they are the same. In the just intonation diatonic scale (which is the one that it is claimed most violin players and singers use) they are also almost exactly the same. It is only in the "mean tone" scale used by early keyboard designers that they are different.
Cutting in half
HollePolle Posted Nov 13, 2000
At the ratio of somewhat like 72/73 is the comma, which must be something like a semitone distributed among 5 octaves. As far as I know the comma is also called pythagoras's comma, isn't it?
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Cutting in half
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