source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 21:29:46 -0700 Subject: 88CET #12: Experimental Chord-Finding From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> Probably the easiest and most productive, but least predictable, way to find new chords in 88CET is simply by experimentation. Most of the really surprising chords I've located thus far have come from mere experimentation, and really don't match any of the above formulas, except in fragments. As in traditional tunings, an easy way to locate potentially interesting 88CET chords is to start with a chord from a known formula and change a few intervals around. One scenario that often produces interesting results is turning a perfect fifth within a chord to tritone or a minor sixth. That also often produces interesting chord variants in traditional tuning, but 88CET has subtly different-sounding tritones and minor sixths from most traditional tunings. When locating 88CET chords from scratch, you often have to work with what I jokingly refer to as "landmines". This again refers to the problem of avoiding those false perfect consonances. Consider the task of experimentally choosing a chord in isolation, without regard to voice-leading with the chords around it. Before you choose any chord tones, all pitches are available. As soon as you choose one pitch, that pitch lays down landmines at pitches 13, 14, 22, and 27 88c steps above and below that pitch. If the resultant chord steps on those pitches, it's dead! So you have to choose pitches other than those. As soon as you choose another such pitch, it too lays down its own landmines. One of the most important aspects to bear in mind from this regards chord-tones thirds apart, and the landmines for the false twelfth and double-octave, and to a lesser degree the sharp false-octave. With the landmines for each single tone a fourth and a fifth apart, and those between notes thirds apart, the choices available for tones in those pitch ranges dwindle rapidly. This can often lead to widely-spaced chords. Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 21 Sep 1995 23:46 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id OAA28609; Thu, 21 Sep 1995 14:46:45 -0700 Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 14:46:45 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu