Why Does Music Only Use 12 Different Notes? 

Most people actually haven't come to any conclusion that 12 is the best. They simply adopt it unconsciously. In my opinion, 12 is the best option for 5-limit harmony, but once you go beyond that, you're better off upgrading to a system like 22 or 31. Most musicians don't even know what extended Just Intonation (7-limit harmony, 11-limit harmony, 13-limit harmony, etc.) is, and couldn't begin to understand the usefulness of alternative tuning systems like 22 or 31EDO.

AcTuAlLy iTs 1.6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

@@Frahamen Why stop there?

How dare you

That piece at the end of video; did you upload a separate video for it? What is its title?

no, my finger isn't too far back. im playing an e half flat.

Its simialr to UK comedian Eric Morecombe "Im not playing the wrong notes...Im playing all the right notes but in the wrong order"

haha!

You've picked the best instrument for it! I say have fun

And I sing perfectly in micro-tonality!!

Marvin Bennett ok

Everything basically...

Marvin Bennett thanks for telling us how old u are😅

Jacques Shellacques Im not laughing at his age but how it was really unnecessary to say how it was back in his age (like how does that have to do with anything). Lol, why would I laugh at someones age, Im gonna become old too. Btw u have horrible logical sense. How is age something given at birth? Thanks for driving this conversation into politics for no reason whatsoever.

Marvin is David's long lost brother

best way to understand is to grab an instrument while you watch these and take your time fiddling around

I totally agree with you. The same happened to me too. Undoubtedly one of the best videos(if not THE best...) on the matter on the whole RU-vid stuff!

I should write the exact same comment!

Your wife seems like a wonderful person, I hope she rests in peace

@@Fernsaur what if she doesn’t want to?

@@alysdexia She has no choice.

@@Picasso_Picante92 that’s what you think.

As a human being, I appreciate your comment

Musical DLC

only OGs remember the early access when there was no Si/Ti, and Do was called Ut

Lo!KA I also cannot wait to see the C flat flat flat sharp semi sharp dim aug dominant 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 major minor sus4 Tritone Lydian blues Locrian Phrygian Dorian Mixolydian Minor scale!

They never should have let EA get control of music.

Eastern tonality expansion pack lmao

Muahaha unlimited power

He explains later even those are designed to most easily reach those 12 notes. Beware the horror of monotony!

@@magnusm4 And he's wrong.

but people with perfect pitch can still detect what notes the fretless instruments are hitting.

@@jeromem.evardome10_kr15 who says you have to play in 12 TET? The violin is intended to be tuned to perfect 5ths (or equal temperament depending on your preference) but nothing prevents you from playing notes outside the scale except not knowing where to set your finger. With false harmonics, there are an infinite amount of harmonics we can play as well. Same for trombone and other non-chromatic instruments in the family. I'm less versed in how they work but the principle is the same. Harmonics ring freely on certain intervals (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, so on) but the slide gives you the potential to play notes anywhere on the scale.

What company was that? Very interesting story! Thanks

What's cool is that you don't need to know the mathematics. We can play by ear 👂, which means we have all this frequency analysis tech built into our brain already. How awesome is that!

Not my ass reading ‘PCB’ as ‘Perfect Cherry Blossom’. 😂

​@@cockysonuvaBSounds like Allen Organ Company

Printed Circuit Board

Maybe he has a doctorate.

Nice

You need to subscribe to Adam McNeely's RU-vid channel. He makes the most insightful videos on such topics.

@@amjan yeah, Adam's great too. Completely different styles. Not sure which is better or best but a combination of the two is better than either.

Well, I’ve understood music theory since I was about 10 (so, 1977) and have been tuning pianos for 36 years (at concert level for at least 30) and his explanation completely confuses the matter. His explanations might be useful for programming a digital keyboard but I don’t find it much use for practical application. The 12 note scale exists because much of it exists in a single vibrating string under tension. In a single string, it is easy to identify the fundamental, octave, 12th, double octave, M17, M19, m21, triple octave, M23, M24 and so on. If you start tuning a stringed instrument in a cycle of Perfect 5ths, which exist in the physical vibration of each string, you will arrive with the 12 tone scale. It will produce a wide octave, so you have to narrow the 5ths (or widen the complimentary 4ths as appropriate) slightly to achieve a perfect octave and a useful scale, but that is how we got to a 12 note scale.

@@AlDunbar David seems to be very limited in terms of the variety of genres he is familiar with. He is very pop music oriented. This I find somewhat disappointing and even frustrating.

@@tannertuner Thanks for the great insight, Tanner!

😂😂😂 gonna use that from now on

Gives another meaning to "The Well tempered Clavier"

@@nano9285 The well tempered clavier is a collection of preludes and fugues in every key. The intention is to demonstrate tempering of keyboard instruments as a means of being able to play in any key without retuning.

It's always beautiful to see mathematics show up in other fields :)

It's an excellent video but I'm stunned that you weren't taught this long ago. As musical intervals ARE mathematical... I got all this stuff decades ago age 7 and strangely it made great sense and it "wore off." After my twenties it got harder to remember and apply it to music. Well, you're getting it now - better late....

I saw a great video on harmonic series and music. Light bulb came on. Dimly, but on.

You should read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Er ... I did learn this in school.

@@AndrewBlucher Good!

@@Pagliacci_Rex SciFi?

@@AndrewBlucher i didn't. And i WAS in a music school. Turns out that unless kids played piano or wanted to get a certificate as piano technicians in the future, the school didn't care two shits about actually teaching us anything but the history of european music and endless lists of compositors

😃😃

When played on the same instrument, yes. When an ensemble plays together, they have to tune to a common standard, e.g. 440 Hz (=A). Otherwise, they'll sound terrible.

This is why(?) traditional Indian Classical music has a movable Sa (Do). It doesn't matter where you agree the tonic is, the interval math remains the same.

interesting! Anyone else finds equal temperament more in tune than just temperament. Must be related to listening habits.

@@thesoundsmith Do you think this is why certain guitar tunings sound similar to that droning Indian sound? A guitar tuning really experiments with intervals.

Thank you! 🙂😃😃

DECADES is how I tune my 7 string

@@TonyHavenMusic Dammit I didnt even think of that. Good point.

Always has been

@@christianrobiso9373 underrated comment

Be interested to hear/see examples of these alleged beauties!

Well said.

I'm 53 and just taking up the ukulele, violin and harp. Guess I'm an extra late bloomer.

@@tia283 Try the trombone. It's the funnest.

@@tia283 Are you 53 years old or 53 tone equal temperament?

@@ValkyRiver Ha, ha

75 years. Bravo for sure.

​@@Steve_K292 years. Amazing.

​@@josephkim3223 108 years, brilliant

@@virgilvandoge3599 116 years. Stunning.

@@epicormic_bud791 years. Breathtaking. Any other vampires watching this video?

Thank you! This one really was a challenge so I’m really glad it came across ok! Thanks

Cheers! That means a lot!

I came to the comment section to say exactly that. I learnt music theory at a too young age and have forgotten lots of things. David is refreshing my memory and filling in the gaps, in such a clear, pleasant way. And has excellent music taste 👌🏼 Thanks so much!

Yeah Even an Old man didn't Explain this Music theory. But this Young Man he do lots and lots of Effort the explain this Extraordinary Theory. That's why I Subscribe. 😄

Ditto !

Divedown25, no one corrected your grammar so neither shall I, except to say, ditto!

Thanks!

they are wel aware of those thanks

Yeah if I could find my tuner, i guess now it’s just gonna slowly get worse and worse

And blues wouldn't be blues without 1/4 bends.

Same with all string instruments, minus the harp

@@rainyday6430 and minus also the piano and harpsichord. Not sure about the Hurdy Gurdy.

If you tune by harmonics, you can easily tune the open strings to a just intonation. But then any fretted notes will be off. E.g. tune the B string harmonic at the 5th fret to the G string harmonic at the 4th fret. Voila, you have a just intoned major third (B) of G. But now all of the fretted notes on the B string will be flat, unless maybe its a crap guitar and the action was too high anyway, or if you bend every note slightly on the B string :-)

Wrong. Equal temperament was already fairly common with string instruments in Bach's time, he certainly didn't invent it. The Well tempered clavier books weren't composed with 12TET in mind, in fact, well temperaments are another class of temperaments altogether.

@@delibirdempire4792 I didn't mean to suggest he invented it. He promoted and advanced the form. He didn't show tunings but had diagrams. There were numerous ideas of tunings. Bach did advance the idea of a way to tune an instrument that did not require continual tuning. I believe with his own music he used various tunings. Bach does deserve credit for making a case for solving the tuning problem.

@@penultimatename6677 I agree. Bach (and most composers of that era) experimented with tunings for musical effects. The temperaments Bach used for the WTK books (well temperaments) gave each key a different musical feel. Each prelude had a distinct "sound". Playing in all twelve keys was already very possible though (with equal temperament)

"Tuned to the key..." is a nonsense as it is not possible to tune any key to just intonation. The musical system for key instrument was almost "Meantone". Well-tempered systems have been (re-) invented by Werckmeister. Well educated musicians with string or wind instruments as well as singers against this didn't and don:t follow until today a fixed tuning system. They perform/ed their music according or near to just intonation. Even when making music in common with key instruments. Besides there exists already a real pipe organ with 12 keys per octave but about 60 frequencies per key (+/- 30 Cent) and an internal program controös every performed music in real time to just intonation. Either with 3-5 limit or 3-5-7 limit if desired. More information you will find at www.hermode.com and the nistory of western tuning from pythagorean over meantone, well tempered to equal tempered is also described on one of its pages.

@@hermodetuning3208 of course it's possible to tune to the key. As you wrote, on wind or string instruments it's simply a matter of choice. Even fretted instruments often had movable gut frets to adjust the temperament. Only keyed instruments had an issue with changing temperament.

Thank you! 😀😀

I wrote a piece in 19-TET recently. I’m considering doing a video of all 53-TET intervals.

Do you have a source for the harmonics of a tuned metal bar? I would not have expected another harmonic sequence to exist.

@Balmung Barbossa there aren't many places in Asia that weren't colonized... also the chinese traditional system is also derived from the hamonics series of a string like our, and while it is not equal tempered, it is very close to a twelve tone system, and so easy to make the switch, and many east asian musical culture are heavily influenced by China in their history. I would also point to globalisation more then colonisation, but regardless, my point is not that equal temperament isn't pleasing to some or to many, I grew up with it and I find it very pleasing, I am a classically trained musician, I studied western style composition, etc. I am not saying it's not a great system.and I would expect people in ohter culture to find it pleasing as well, but I also find indian music's sliding temperament very pleasing, and chinese music's non equal tone system more pleasing, Balinese note and timbre relationship also very pleasing with their beating sound (instruments are tuned 6hz appart to have a beating relationship that creates a global vibrato). The point I was making is simply that historically speaking there are other factor that explain it's development then simply 12 tet = the most pleasing way to organise sounds.

@@ThomasdenHollander The primary sources I would point you to are unfortunatly not online, but two very interesting book on the subject, Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale by William Sethares his very interesting and is research in general is very interesting (more recently working on what a 10-tet and 7-tet system would sound like), and the second one is Musical Mathematics: On the Art and Science of Acoustic Instruments. For the harmonics of a free standing bar, you can check out hyperphysic hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Music/barres.html#c3 if you use the formulas there and apply them to a fundemental (say A 440 ;) you will get the intervals I mentioned. you can also navigate around, you will find similar graph for string, open pipe and close pipe. it's a very cool music science website. I can also point you to this articles on the harmonics of a tuned metal gong also very interesting and unexpected, asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/1.3425742

@@PierrePblais Thanks, looks very interesting!

@@PierrePblais Woud you put in a Audiosample, of a Instrument played in a nice tuning. I gooled this awhile, and it was hard to find a Song where i was shure i was hearing something special. Just place some Examples, all i hear is pretty formal Pianosongs, the one in the Video was nearly the best of them.

Thanks!

He did! By far the best video on that topic I have seen. I was already struggling with this in school. It seems pretty nonsense to learn letters and where there are on the piano without having the physical background of the frequencies and why this is so established. Now, this becomes so clear and easy. I really ask myself why nobody in school has ever taught me this in a way that David does.

Using numeric examples (frequencies here) will nail it for students struggling with the usual teaching methods.

12 tone equal temperament! Wow

The genius of Hendrix: he claimed to see music notes and tones.. as hues, or grades of varying colors inside his mind. And incorporated these into an idea he had, similar as an artist uses a colorwheel. But it came naturally to him, as he was an open channel that delivered our earth - some incredibly unique ballads and compositions. A spiritual conduit to the ear attuned.

Thank you Jakub! That means a lot!

Check out Howard Goodall's musical big bang the episode on equal temperament that is also rather good.

I know you made this comment 5 months ago but I thought I'd take a crack at the "why" behind your original question: Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. Tradition in music theory/composition is that when writing out the notes in a key, you must use each letter once - and only once. Starting with the key of "C major" and listing out the notes in the major scale gives you: C - D - E - F - G - A - B (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7) There are no sharps/flats in this key (simply because history decided to start with C.) If you were sitting at a piano and you knew the musicians around you were jamming in C major - and you knew the above - you would know that you will only be playing the white keys on the piano (because the black keys are sharps/flats.) The distance between each note in the above scale in terms of steps is Root-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole. So now let's repeat what we just did for C major with G major: Repeating the "Root-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole" pattern with the key of G major, we work out the below: G - A - B - C - D - E - F# (1-2-3-4-5-6-7) This is where we run into our first "sharp" and the "why" is because the pattern we are applying (Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole") is what you may have learned as Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. Subjectively, we enjoy what we have come to call the major scale and above intervals are enjoyable to our ear. OKAY SO WHAT? If those two things make sense, the real beauty here is that you can very quickly deduce how many sharps/flats are in a key [or identify a key if you know how many sharps/flats are in it] by learning the Circle of Fifths. The Circle of Fifths is a 360 degree relationship between each key, similar to a clock, with 1 sharp being added every "hour." In our example, C major was 12 o'clock with no sharps. To find 1 o'clock, move up a fifth from C. The "fifth" of C is G - so "G" is our 1 o'clock, 1 o'clock means 1 sharp. To find our 2 o'clock, move up a fifth from G - arriving at D. If D is our 2 o'clock that means D major should have 2 sharps, does it? D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# Yep - it has 2. The first one is the one we already identified (the F# from G, note how it has moved into the 3rd position.) And now, our new C# occupies the spot (7) previously held by F#. C = 12 PM/No Sharps, G = 1PM/Sharps, D = 2 PM/Sharps. So now to really tie this all together - this means if you ever need to quickly know the sharps and flats of any key, just apply the rules we learned. For example I'll show how to quickly list the key of A major. First, we know that ALL letters must be used, so let's do that. Starting with A: A - B - C - D - E - F - G To figure out where to put the sharps - we need to know where A is on the Circle of Fifths. It would be our 3 PM spot (A is a fifth up from D). This means that A has 3 sharps. Where do we put them? Every "hour" on the clock includes the sharps from the hours before it. So 3 PM would contain the sharps found in 1PM and 2PM. If A is 3, we know we need to include the sharps we already identified at 1 PM and 2 PM. Those sharps are F# and C#, so A major must include those sharps - plus one more. A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G Where is the 3rd sharp? When a sharp is introduced into the key, it first occupies the 7th spot (the F# in G) then the 3rd spot (in the key of D major, the F# moved from the 7th of the previous key to the 3rd in D major- and a new sharp was introduced into the 7th). After 7th, then 3rd, the sharp will arrive at the 6th. 1) List them all 2) Know the circle of fifths 3) find where your key lies on the circle, it needs that many sharps. So A: A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G# I doubt anyone will ever read this, but it was fun. Learning the logic behind the CoF makes it incredibly intuitive and really unlocks the mystery of sharps/flats.

@@donaldbryant5587 @Donald Bryant Wow thank you so much for this. This comment probably gave me more insights than some of the videos i've watched on the circle of fifths. Just wanted to thank you for it. Found it by luck but im very happy that i did.

I know exactly where you're coming from, Ron. This video has greatly clarified things for me too. Donald's Circle of Fifths explanation is excellent as well, so having the two of these is a huge help. Best wishes with your musical journey. (Ron Shaw, Australia)

@@donaldbryant5587 Awesome. Thank you !

@@IsaacAsimov1992 Huge compliment, thank you Ron. Be well.

What you're describing is Pythagorean tuning, which is a known system discovered by Pythagoras millennia ago. But 3/2 and 2/1 are ratios that don't ever meet up in the real world. I would suggest the difference between your two A's, six cents, is very noticeable, which is why Pythagorean tuning is not ideal for most Western music. Agreed about the 24 tone octave.

Pathagorean tuning is all about pure tones, but equal temperment only has pure octaves and everything else is out of tune slightly from a pathagorean pure tone. In a perfect world we would tune to pure tones (pathagorean) and have pure octaves as well, but that's not mathmatically possible.

12 EDO is only convenient since 12 fifths is approximately seven octaves and we close the circle of fifths off at that point. Pythagorean tuning, on the other hand, does not stop at 12 fifths, but at 53, at which point you're just slightly sharp of 31 octaves. Nowadays, you'd narrow each fifth by about one-fourteenth of a cent to get 53 fifths equal to 31 octaves. This is why 53 EDO can be considered a standardisation of Pythagorean tuning.

Agreed. Also, the 5th is the first non-octave harmonic on a vibrating string, this suggests that from a physics/math perspective the fifth is the most consonant (i.e. literally "harmonious") non-octave tone. Then, the fact that repeating fifths derives 12 notes in an octave as you said, no more than 12, no less than 12, this indicates why 12 divisions of an octave is optimal. And the perfect octave is necessary because that is the tone we relate all the intervals to and thus make sense of the melodies and harmonies from, so it wouldn't make sense for the octave to "drift" as it does slightly when deriving the twelve tones from repeating fifths. I feel this perspective is not as widely held as it should be, so I'm glad to see you saying it, and I wish this video did too.

My son did the same thing with a song when he was young. Played the same short song in every key till the octave. He figured it out.

Bach did one called A Well Tempered Clavier.

@@mikegacek9182 This is easy when you know the scales, but a lot of people do not realise that the notes in every scale are the same intervals apart. I only discovered this when I had not done my homework, forgot a few of my scales and had to work them out during an exam, where I did not have an instrument. Surprisingly, many professional musicians do not realise the mathematical relationship. They simply obey the scale.

Haha🐵🐵🐵 I prolly laughed more than I should.

This reminds me of a choir master who, after a particularly dissonant practice, stopped us to exclaim... "That's brilliant, you've got all the right notes - now shall we try singing them at the same time?"

Great! It can be a confusing topic so I'm glad my video helped!

And as the man says, it's that major third thing - the interval between the g and the b - I guess that's why tuning those two strings can be such a pain!

And the major third is why, for the longest time, pipe organs were tuned in quarter-comma meantone tuning instead of equal temperament, because some limitation in the usable keys was considered preferable to having the major third wrong.

Don't forget that the guitar is not in equal temperament like the piano (piano isn't truly in equal temperament as well thought, the notes are stretched) because physics. If you want to see a real equally tempered guitar check out True Temperament frets. But being out of tune is a big part of the iconic guitar sound so it sounds less like a guitar after them, more like piano or midi, so most of the professional guitarists don't like them. I personally really like the 22edo, 19edo and 31edo guitar sound with the straight frets (in this order) so the guitar sounds unique but doesn't lose it's signature sound

When I was younger, and had much more acute hearing, that "slightly out of tune" thing used to drive me up the wall. I'd spend an hour trying to tune my guitar because of it, and I couldn't understand why it was happening.

Thank you!

I agree!

David Bennett Piano the neutral third, ultra seventh, the quarter tone below the flat seventh and the quarter tone above the P4 all sound like the blues to me. That slightly bent away sounds.

He kept saying "you can't just stick extra notes in there." I completely disagree, _yes, you can,_ unless you're stuck playing a traditional keyboard. Woodwinds can hit some but not all quarter-tones without lip bending (or rolling in/out for flute) -- except for quarter tone flutes, which do exist but are rare, and slide whistles and slide saxophones and such which of course can hit any arbitrary pitch in their range. As a composer, you have to know what quarter tones are readily available and which ones are more difficult to access, so you don't write something that's such a twister as to be unplayable. This means that composition is _not freely transposable_ any longer, but that is not the same thing as saying "you can't just add in arbitrary notes". If you want a note that's 30 cents flat, and you can confirm that this is physically playable, then go for it. How you notate it is a different matter entirely, and there are several systems in common use. Even writing for trombone, you have to worry about the possibility that a microtonal shift will take the player beyond the end of the slide, either upward or downward, so that is not 100% freely transposable either. Strings you can mostly get away with calling for any altered pitch you require, any time you need it, the exceptions being if you're on an open string. (But string players tend to bend their pitches toward Just Intonation for whatever key they're in at the moment anyhow.)

@@mal2ksc I been playing the guitar since I was 8 yrs old. somewhere along the line I knew how to BEND or vibrato the strings.lol to vari degree..there's FRETLESS instruments such as the violin. Actually none of my guitar are truely in tune. I seldom use an electronic tuner..becuase when I press down on the strings..it's slighty out of tune ( the higher the action...the more out of tune

@@oneeyemonster3262 A proper setup can deal with a whole lot of the intonation issues of a deliberately high action. There are players that keep the action high because even when you can't hear a buzz, low action can limit the maximum vibration of a string. They manage to play in tune because their instruments are set up for their particular needs. But yes, of course pressing harder makes strings go sharp. It's a crucial performance technique on the sitar.

Thank you! I'm so glad that this video was accessible and straightforward! I was so worried about this video being too dense!

Tell me about it. i once spent three days (daze) trying to tune a grand piano WITH A DIGITAL TUNNER -yeah, don't do that.

Most of the theory at this level that I learned came from a book I ran across in the library, "On The Sensations of Tone" by Hermann von Helmholtz. At the time, there was no internet yet.

But the 12th root of two even spacing can sound slightly "off" in some keys, although for instruments like pianos it has to be accepted as a quick retuning is usually not possible. Take a look at the pure ratios and how close they are to the even temperament ratios. www.earmaster.com/images/book/m11639/m11639.id104934.png

@@karhukivi 12th roots of two = even temperament. They sound equally "off" in all keys.

@@RagingGeekazoid If you are a very discerning listener, yes! I often retune my guitar when I play in a different key, that's easy, but what do you do with a piano - only tune it exactly for one key?

@@karhukivi Sorry about the wording. I should have written "equally" instead of "evenly". Anyway, I was just explaining what "equally spaced" means in the video at 7:10 and 13:10. What you do with a piano is called "equal temperament", which is tuned exactly the same for all keys, which is exactly what the video describes starting at 12:35, and which is exactly what I've been explaining. Is that clear enough now? 🙄

@@RagingGeekazoid They are not "equally" off key in equal temperament. With A at 440 Hz, perfect C should be 264 Hz but with ET will be 261.6, a difference of 2.4 Hz. However perfect E should be 330 Hz but with ET is 329.6, only 0.4 Hz off. is that clear?!!

Yes but can you tune your radio?

@@natedunn51 No but you can tune into it.

@@amandaslough125 But can you tuna fish?

@@kenkinnally6144 REO good question!

Yes I was scratching my head as well. My guitar playing sounds like an 87 note octave.

That's true. You can also say that perfect intervals are more dry or shallow, while those small differences in the frequencies can make the sound richer or interesting. Like with singing and auto-tuning: when perfectly in pitch, it sounds unnatural or boring.

@@alobpreis I disagree, I find the major third in just intonation really steady and pure. I sing in a choir and often we are told to sing a little higher (or lower) to attain these just intervals. We sing medieval and renaissance music... But I agree that equal temperament may bring some charm too !

advanced musicians (choir, strings, brass, barbershop, woodwinds) will adjust to fix the minor/major thirds. advanced pianists will avoid being a third away from the melody. when they do so our ears will pick this out and tell us that the music is "better".

What is interesting to me, is that after listening to just intonation music for a while, it starts sounding good, but then going back to equal temperament, everything sounds awful...for a little while until my ears get used to it again.

@@alanedwards9578 it's mostly the thirds that sound awful

Thank you!

basically we have 12 note because of Pythagoras. When he applied the system of using only 3/2 and 2/1 ratios he completed the circle of fifths. After 12 fifth you have almost the same note . that means that (3/2)^12 is almost an even number. If we used the Chinese system at the time we would have a completely different music. Of course we might have develope the tonal system any way. But Pythagoras and his system of fifths made the breakthrough. And when we started using well tempered tuning than you could use any Key and octave and it would sound good.

I still tune to the 60Hz hum.

+ Film Scoring, raga, EDN (Electronic Dance Noise...)

Have you tried using a neutral third before?

@@ValkyRiver I prefer a flat unison

Gaint Steps Anyone?

It’s theorized that the “blue” ♭7 note is a 4:7 from the root, by the way.

It is worth noting that pianos are always out of tune. They are supposed to be. :P

Well I play the piano and they do sound out of tune for an array of reasons. One of them being that the overtones don't line up, how much depending on design, materials and string length/tension. Add to that the compromises of the equal tempered scale, which makes for example thirds and sixths sound a bit off to say the least. It's always a compromise. There are digital pianos that sound more in tune and it also sounds wrong. So tuning a piano is basically damage control.

Maybe its tuning to 440hz that gets to u. Some people with perfect pitch say 440 sounds off and 432 sounds much better to them. They sound the same to me so I couldn’t tell u.

@@crazyjhey8050 good point. Well I know that many violinists actually prefer a higher tuning, say, 442Hz or even higher. And of course a violinist has a much higher sensibility regarding pitch. I think the trouble already starts with the fifth, which is slightly off in the equal tempered scale. Try to listen to a Hammond organ with the Leslie speaker on stop. I find it in unbearable, but wonderful as soon as it starts spinning.

Usually the other way around. Violin type or any wind instrument players have to tune their ears to when a piano or electric keyboard because they are better in Tune. I had my piano teacher who also plays bassoon professionally played along with my electric keyboard and she said the tuning of her playing was somewhat off compared to the keyboard. So you just have to get used to playing with what is in the room. My keyboard could of been too perfect, not sure at the time.

Thank you!

Wow! Thanks Brian, that really means a lot 😃😃😃

I just stumbled onto this site, courtesy of the RU-vid algorithmic spirits, and already I'm wondering if this is the music equivalent of 3brown1blue's superb math videos.

What an oddity, never thought I'd see that one German podcast I used to listen to when I was going on an exchange to Hamburg to comment on a music theory video. Small world

I learned the chromatic intervals by associating each with the first two notes of a famous melody +12 "SOME WHERE over the rainbow..." +7 "DO_YOU HEAR_WHAT I hear?" "GOLD FIN-ger" "MOON RIV-er wider than a mile" +2 "DOE A deer a female deer" (Sound of Music), "ROW_ROW_ROW YOUR boat" +4 "DAH_DAH DAH dah dah" (Blue Danube - Strauss) "YOU CAN'T always get what you want" (Rolling Stones) +5 "A ROUND the world I searched for you.." (Around the world in 80 days movie) +3 "HEY_MAMA_DON"T_YOU TREAT me wrong" (What'd I Say - Ray Charles) +6 "MA RI a , I just met a girl named Maria" (West Side Story) +9 "Somewhere over the rainbow, BLUE BIRDS fly" "NBC chime" +1 "I LEFT my heart in San Francisco" (Tony Bennett) Others feel free to add on.

@@pbierre I believe that is called Relative Pitch, which is how most adults learn to recognize pitch. Perfect Pitch involves recognizing any single note that is played without the need for a reference note. I believe perfect pitch is normally only seen when music is introduced to children at a very early age. I am not a music major, just studied theory for a while when I was taking lessons.

when i have perfect pitch: this is an easy question... LOL i know not everyone has it

I taught myself how to find or jump intervals without having to think of any other songs by just assigning a number from 1 to 8 to each of the scale degrees and then singing them with each number and then jumping from first the first and fourth (“One - four - one - five - one - six” etc., then trying the sharp and flattered intervals as you go until you are familiar and be able to jump from 1 to say 6 easily or one to the small seven or the big seven. Then start learning how to sing the extensions 1-2, 1-9, 1-10, 1-flat 9, 1- sharp nine, etc. Also if you play an instrument you'll likely be visualizing those intervals as you go along. It’s possible to do this all to the point where it becomes instinctual and practically instantaneous. I’ve found this excellent for singing or playing harmonies on the fly.

You might like this too- the energy of your cell phone (radio), your microwave oven, and light from eg the sun, are only different because they’re of different frequencies…

This is actually related to the physics of strings under great tension, and not because of an attempt to create pure intervals. Piano strings tuned to the integer ratios described in this video will still beat, necessitating that the piano be tuned "slightly out of tune."

Your dad was absolutely right. Especially if you play music from the romantic period an equal tunig it is tantalising to (especially my) ears. The spreading makes the piano sound more brilliant and richer.

I'm assuming Elton John uses that technique.

I envy anyone who can hear a song and know it’s in 7/8. 3/4 or 7/4 I might pick up on but 7/8 is tough.

@@jonde4445 That's interesting. A bar of 7/4 takes long enough to go by that you might never notice the time signature except by counting, whereas 7/8 music, if it tries to have a strong beat, will have a distinct limp you can't miss.

Jacques Shellacques Yeah I know all that, I guess I just need more practice listening for it. I disagree that 7/4 sounds just like 7/8 though.

​@Jacques Shellacques I guess you need the other bars of the song for context. I would count 4/4 as *1*2*3*4 I would count 7/8 as *1*2*34 I would count 7/4 as *1*2*3*4*5*6*7 If you have a song in 4/4 and add a bar of 7/8, you're adding a shorter bar. If you add a bar of 7/4, you're adding a longer bar. In other words, you could say that a song with 7/8 is the same as a song with 7/4, but with different tempos. If you have one tempo though (established by a bar of 4/4) 7/8 and 7/4 (or 14/8) now sound different.

Jacques Shellacques That makes sense.

Thanks Raph! That means a lot! I was nervous making the video as it’s such a big topic! But I’m glad people are happy with the result.