source file: mills3.txt Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 17:41:38 +0100 Subject: Re: What do you play? From: "Bob Lee" John Starrett wrote >One of the impedimemts to the growth of microtonal music is the >lack of microtonal instruments. In the spirit of a new year, it would be >nice to hear from all of you what microtonal instruments you own and >play, and how you obtained/modified these instruments. I bought my first lap steel in a pawn shop and tuned it JI to A C# E G# B E. Steel is naturally a microtonal instrument, so I've spent the last 25 years learning to play it "in tune" with 12TET bands. I still tune my non-pedal instruments JI, but I've gone to meantone on my pedal steels. I think that the steel guitar is the best microtonal instrument "out of the box". Nearly every other instrument has to be custom made or modified. Steel, like the violin, is microtonal by nature, but goes beyond the bowed string family with its chord capabilities. I was working up "Remington Ride" with the band the other night and noticed that there's a quarter tone (actually, it's probably an 11/9) in the melody. I tried to use it to discourage the fiddler and the guitarist from playing bad harmony lines with me (EVERYONE wants to twin the steel on that tune). No such luck - the fiddler found some harmony note right away, and the guitarist did a horrible string bend that he thought worked pretty good. This band needs a dictator! -b0b- // http://wco.com/~quasar/allstars SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: "kris peck" Subject: instruments PostedDate: 03-01-98 18:10:13 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 03-01-98 18:07:45-03-01-98 18:07:46,03-01-98 18:07:05-03-01-98 18:07:05 DeliveredDate: 03-01-98 18:07:05 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C1256581.005E15F0; Sat, 3 Jan 1998 18:09:36 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04337; Sat, 3 Jan 1998 18:10:13 +0100 Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 18:10:13 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03378 Received: (qmail 4937 invoked from network); 3 Jan 1998 09:10:09 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 3 Jan 1998 09:10:09 -0800 Message-Id: <199801031704.LAA11479@riptide.wavetech.net> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu