Types of Tuning Systems |
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With the trend toward modulation in Western culture it has become practical to tune to Twelve Tone Equal Temperament (12TET). Guitars, pianos, and other fixed pitch instruments are tuned (more or less) to this system. This system sacrifices the pure consonances of Just intervals in favor of a system which sounds equally good (or bad) in every key.
Many Eastern musics work primarily within a single key and make use of the purity of Just Intervals instead. Modern Composers and some ethnic music (such as Balinese gamelan) base their tuning systems on other criteria such as matching the tuning to the tonal qualities of the instruments, often with great success!
Tuning systems can be grouped into 3 general categories:
There are no hard and fast rules about how to create a tuning system. One could interpret the branching of a tree, or any mathematical formula as a tuning system. Other systems can spring up from everyday objects, or be completely random. Thadd Comstock plays a guitar with each fret an inch apart with a 25 inch scale length - every string plays a different scale in every octave!