An Intro to the Majestic Microtonal Universe of 22EDO

[@The1stMrJohn]

An amazingly gorgeous looking instrument, and the raised fretless plate matching the fret hight is such a great idea. I'm fascinated by the physics and music theory behind all instruments, and this is a great video helping to explain these concepts. I recently had a guitar built, but mine wasn't such an unusual build. Mine has True Temperament Frets, which has actually improved my hearing accuracy, amongst other positive things that i wasn't expecting. It's a neckthough construction and it also has an Evertune Bridge, locking tuners and interesting electronics.

[@markfdesimone]

Thank you so much for this video series! It's super informative and accessible. This kind of deep dive really helps me to assimilate xenharmonic music theory into what I already understand. The short piece you played at the beginning was lovely too! I don't know if it's because I'm in my 40's and my brain is less plastic than it used to be, or maybe that self-guided learning of this sort of thing is just tough, but xen theory is frustratingly difficult for me to wrap my head around. I mean, classical and jazz theory in 12-tone music is tricky enough. But with xenharmonics, add in tuning theory (an unbelievable rabbit-hole), and the endless possible pitch relationships, and it's like a musical multiverse. I guess what I'm saying is that folks like you are our Dr. Stranges!

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

It’s great to hear that you found this useful! I was a bit worried that videos like this would only be of interest to a handful of people with 22edo guitars so I tried to make it more broadly helpful to anyone interested in microtonality. Glad to have you on board for these explorations!

[@romeolz]

I like the sound of alternating between 6:8:11:15 and 8:11:15:20

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Yeah that's beautiful! If you throw in the 17th harmonic on top you can get some fun movements too.

[@girllloyd1214]

thanks for the video! love your music, your explanations are great + very useful! xenharmony is such a beast of a topic to try and study on one's own, so it's always a godsend to have videos like this that identify starting points.

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Thanks a lot and I'm glad it was useful!

[@tapewormsaga]

Gotta say, I'm impressed that you managed to attract grumbling in both directions that you went "too far" and "not far enough" at the same time, well done. The opening bit is nice, is it part of a full song?

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

I know right I feel like I’m depriving Goldilocks of that perfect baby bear porridge. No full song for this one. I’ve got a few other projects on the go right now but who knows maybe I’ll come back to this eventually.

[@dejaliloquy]

Mind bending

[@amj.composer]

Wow this is insane. We should collab in the future if an opportunity arises!

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Thanks!! Shoot me an email. I think you can through KZbin, otherwise on Instagram 🙂

[@theuniverseofmusic]

Great informative video! I’d love to do a collab with you. I’m finding my 22EDO guitar to be more difficult to come up with ideas than my 19EDO guitar, which retains Meantone. Hopefully you’ll have some valuable inspiration for me and help me get out of my comfort zone. Cheers!

[@johnmcguire9349]

Thoroughly enlightened - or at least made aware that I need to be. Thanks a lot.

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@galoomba5559]

Glad to see someone else using quartertone accidentals for 22edo. I like them because I find them more readable than arrows, but i've had people call them wrong because a sharp isn't 3^7/2^11.

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Yeah I mean there isn’t a right or wrong. It’s the music that matters and if the notation works it works. I also much prefer quarter tones. Some people want functional mapping but it certainly doesn’t need to map perfectly. The ups and downs system is very beneficial though if you use a lot of different edos

[@ascendedalchemist2551]

I notate it like 24edo but without the notes between E and F and between C and B

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

@ascendedalchemist2551 yeah that’s how it’s notated here. That always seemed logical to me and then to simply accept the differences with 12edo in terms of diatonic interval structures. This makes more sense if you specialize in just one edo and don’t use all kinds of different tunings. If 22edo was the standard tuning this is how I think it would be notated. If you use lots of different edos however it makes it confusing.

[@偲旎-o8i]

The problem is this will make, e.g. G major scale with a sesqui-sharp rather than a sharp, which is inconsistent with other tuning systems

[@偲旎-o8i]

The standard circle-of-5th notation weights harmonic consistency more than melodic size, but somewhat vise versa for this notation

[@killers31337]

Sounds great! Have anyone recorded albums in 22EDO?

[@Kaiveran]

Not entirely, but Brendan Byrnes uses it a lot.

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

Thanks! I did recently release my single Pogo Grit that's entirely in 22EDO, which is available on Bandcamp: samueltaylor.bandcamp.com/album/pogo-grit. Sevish has produced lots of amazing 22EDO music spread across multiple albums (each album features works in various temperaments).

[@TachyBunker]

Not entirely, but it's the major tuning of my frantic horror synth bossfight song Kilocides :)

[@melody3741]

These songs really sound like just regular key songs that have notes transposed up or down but held back just to where it is listenable. It doesn’t feel like you are really “taking advantage” of the microtonality, more like you are shoving it in and leaning heavily on regular keys to keep it remotely enjoyable

[@MicrotonalMaverick]

The intro music starts in a G 1/4 sharp superpyth (not diatonic/standard) Dorian mode, and literally doesn’t use a single chord that is well approximated in standard tuning. Every harmony here is unique to 22edo, including the chords in the second half as they utilise 22edo’s unique 9/7 and 5/4 major thirds (actually voiced as 5/2 here). Your comment about keys, in which you seem to have misunderstood the definition of a key, doesn’t make any sense as there is no G 1/4 sharp Dorian in standard tuning.

[@PCFROMVCS]

Tbf I think youre probably just hung up on the rhythm. Hes playing typical guitar stuff in terms of rhythm, so even with complex tonality it still comes across as a typical sounding guitar riff. Its a little hard to say whats really "taking advantage" of microtonality when its so new and complex to everyones ears, but Id say this is appropriate