Tuning Theory 0: A Primer ("Microtonal" Theory)

Some introductory information you'll need for the later videos on tuning theory.

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in this video series I plan to cover in
moderate depth

some of the driving concepts in today's
tuning theory

before I can do that however you need
to know a little about standard tuning

and some basic acoustics

sound is waves of pressure that
travel through the air

the rate at which the high and the low
pressures alternate

is referred to as the sound's frequency

note that the word frequency though
often used synonymously

with the word pitch actually refers
directly to how frequent

the pressure oscillations are

frequency is measured in the unit called herz
which denotes the number

of oscillations per second

when those high and low pressure waves
make contact with our ear drum

it flexes in accordance with those waves
and sends that information to the brain

this is where frequency

immeasurable phenomenon becomes pitch. a
subjective experience

the pitch of a note refers to how
high or low it sounds

and changes in
pitch

a.k.a. intervals
are measured in the units called cents

where there are twelve hundred cents per
octave

pitch and frequency are related
logarithmically

meaning that linear changes in pitch
like going up in octave

are actually multiplications of frequency

octave specifically are a doubling
of frequency for instance

from 400 to 800 herz is heard as an
octave

and so is from 800 herz to 1600 herz

because each is a multiplication by
two

western music uses a collection of pitches

that divides the octave
into 12 equal parts

100 cents each
makes all intervals multiples of 100 cents

this is only one option however

out of an infinite number of possible ways
to choose what intervals to include in

your music

that is to say it is only one possible
tuning

among an infinite number of tunings
this twelve-tone

equal tuning is so ubiquitous in the
West however

that most musicians are unaware that it
has a name

and the alternatives even exist

up next we dive into a fundamental
concept in the world of tuning

just intonation