AXIS keyboard demo for BP Scale (Part 1)
Listen to a song in the BP Scale here:
http://www.ziaspace.com/elaine/BP/BPmusic/LoveSong_BPscale_EW.mp3
C-Thru Music has lent me this keyboard, called the AXIS, for a few months, and I am rearranging the keys for the Bohlen-Pierce Scale, a macrotuning based on a 3/1 frequency ratio, divided by 13 equal steps. See http://www.ziaspace.com/elaine/BP for research on the BP Scale.
This particular AXIS toured with the Lionel Richie Band on loan, went to me, and in two weeks I will be flying to Boston to give this AXIS to the Berklee College of Music, Synthesis Department – namely to Dr. Boulanger who will use it for his classes and for the new microtonal club.
I teach Electronic Music at Scottsdale Community College. Come join the fun!
Duration : 0:3:7
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@rguitar87 I …
@rguitar87 I suggest reading the book ‘How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why you should care)’. It’s an excellent overview of western temperament and easy to understand.
This is all so very …
This is all so very fascinating. I just embarked on the journey that is studying temperament.
Does Baloney run away when you play microtonal harmonies?
@JLMoriart Equal …
@JLMoriart Equal Temperament was never actually used until the 20th century, although it existed as an ideal from about 1850. There was no way to measure it precisely enough untill about 1900. J.C. Bach and Mozart advocated meantone temperaments, and a variety of compromises for keyboards. Some keyboards even had split keys! Mozart apparently hated Equal Temperament as did most composers at that time.
A lot is being …
A lot is being overlooked by acoustic scientists about tonal systems. For starters, traditional scales did not ‘grow out of major triads’ but from cycles of fifths to produce pentatonic and diatonic music. Traditional 12-tone octaves were really a western compromise for keyboards to play diatonic scales and harmony. This is only possible because each progresses to its adjacent 5th via #4 or b7. What is the equivalent of this in BP tonality? Can octaves really be ignored? (I’m just interested.)
I find that …
I find that alternative tonal systems seem to be restrictive with regard to expression. Atonal music can only express tension and unrest, whole-tone music ‘dream-like’ indifference and Pierce-Bohlen a sort of sparse, steep tangent structure. There doesn’t seem to be any restrictions with traditional tonality. There are new theories (some involving Euclidean geometry) that suggest there’s more to tonal systems than acoustic consonance. Traditional scales exist in cultures without 12-note octaves.
Thanks, JLMoriat – …
Thanks, JLMoriat – that gets me all excited again about this stuff. What could be more insightful to the laws of nature than a single vibrating string? Along comes this thing called “music” that has this mysterious ability to influence our emotional state – and anyone who has gotten this close to music knows instinctively that there’s great undiscovered scientific insight right there, right under our noses in a single vibrating string. i wish our number system was 12 base instead of 10.
So not even the …
So not even the fifth we use is the exact perfect fifth, it’s about two cents off, nor is the third, its almost 15 cents off. They just well approximate the overtones you hear in your harmonic instruments. The only perfect interval we use is the octave.
Western music is …
Western music is based off of both the ratios of the frequencies present in harmonics to the fundamental, as well as the ergonomics of musical interfaces. Because of one dimensional keyboards like the piano 12 tone equal temperament is prominent because it is the easiest for one dimensional playing surfaces while still getting close enough to those microtonal notes you hear in the harmonics. Those intervals you hear are actually the “best” ones while the ones we use are “imperfect.”
Doesn’t look like …
Doesn’t look like you have a wedding ring on…must be a lot of stupid men in your area! Looks and Brains…one in a million!
does your “keyboard …
does your “keyboard” double as a tekken 3 controller? i bet you could so a bunch of awesome combos with that many buttons.
I’m sure your …
I’m sure your computer never has any mouse problems
To clarify: when I …
To clarify: when I play a C, I can actually hear the E and G in the vibrating string but I have to listen much closer to hear even more notes that are in a single string, many microtonal. I found 12 but this could be because I was in a Western scale paradigm when I did the test. I used a No.2 pencil eraser touching all along the length of a continuously plucked guitar string and 12 notes clearly exist in one string: M3, P5 and 8va are certainly Western, more may be but others are clearly not.
I could be wrong …
I could be wrong but I don’t think the Western scale was based off of a Maj Triad, I’m pretty sure it was based off of the harmonics that exist in a single vibrating string i.e. guitar string 5th fret=8va, 7th fret=Perfect 5th, 9th fret=Major 3rd.Every note has a Western Major triad in it.On a single string, I found a lot more notes than Pythagoras did (some microtonal).Have fun, I saw all your vids and it seems like you’re searching for something totally new-I hope you find it-i didn’t lol :S
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As a …
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As a music minor at SCSU (1972-1976) in New Haven CT, I took a course called “experimental” music. The content was very similar to your discussion.
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the axis B and P …
the axis B and P scale…? what…? now I have to rethink everything… this is amazing stuff…… thank you mis.
truly innovative.
truly innovative.
Baloney? She’s an …
Baloney? She’s an itty bitty thing.. skin and bones at 16 years old! Maybe the camera makes everyone look fat.
Holy Crap! What a …
Holy Crap! What a Huge Cat!
ha! YOU’RE the one …
ha! YOU’RE the one who was doing algebra when you were 3 and programming php when you were 12 (and looking good doing it)! I always tell people my niece is a brainiack.
How did all the …
How did all the genius DNA skip me? Srsly.
The idea is to use …
The idea is to use the simplest ratios as your measure. 1/1, 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, 5/4, 7/4, 9/8, etc.
WOW, really? That’s …
Do you have any videos playing your BP guitar?
WOW, really? That’s amazing. You are one of the few… and the proud.
I love the …
I love the BOHLEN-PIERCE scale!
One of my electric guitars is refretted into the B-P scale. I also have an electic B-P bass…
Most musicians …
Most musicians would agree with you, TheNewHumanist, but my brain is wired a bit differently.. my mother is a musician/mathematician and I got her genes. I like to look at the technical side as well as freely experiment artistically (different parts of my brain). REMEMBER that the 12 tone scale you love, with it’s “major”, “minor”, triads, sevenths, etc, was dissected for centuries and it’s “theory” is now taught in school. First musicians experiment freely, then others analyze it. I do both.
Yes, this is art. …
Yes, this is art. Art to me is emotion expressed through energy or matter, and part of the beauty of art is it’s mysteriousness. To me once you start dissecting it the way people here appear to, it loses that mysterious aspect. It’s not expression but science. It’s not driven by emotion but by mathematics.