The Tonality Cube

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The Tonality Cube

Рет қаралды 73,363

Күн бұрын

Have you ever considered where the notes we use come from? Why is it that pretty much every piece of music we listen to uses the exact same set of 12 pitches as its foundation, and what would it look like if we tried something different? Many people have tried exploring that space, and one particularly interesting approach comes from a theorist named Ervin Wilson: The Hexany. In effect, it's a cube (or octahedron, if you want to get fancy) where notes are plotted on a 3-dimensional shape, creating new layers of interaction and unique tonalities not found in normal systems, which sounds intimidating, but along with its other strengths, it's actually pretty intuitive too!
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Пікірлер: 249

@IanFox 6 жыл бұрын

12TONE BECAME 3 DIMENSIONAL, i wasn't prepared whatsoever

@CyberChrist 6 жыл бұрын

I read the title, so I was prepared :P

@alexandertownsend3291 4 жыл бұрын

So does that make him 12"sqrt(12)Tone?

@ISuperI 2 жыл бұрын

@@alexandertownsend3291 lmao

@jpopelish 6 жыл бұрын

Please! Not even a single example of a melody or harmony using a hexany? What does it sound like?

@lloydgush 5 жыл бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hZ2ClqV126izm5s.html

@rglover444 5 жыл бұрын

@@lloydgush I... I don't know how to feel about that... Very..unsettling to say the least.

@kraiggrady 4 жыл бұрын

anaphoria.bandcamp.com/track/a-farewell-ring using the 1-3-5-7 hexany

@chadgetjajet7033 9 ай бұрын

Its purpose is harmony. If you're interested in new melodic ideas, look into Wilson's MOS scales. Diatonic modes are a specific case of MOS scales but you can generalize the concept

@JariSatta 6 жыл бұрын

I said 'Hexany' three times. How do I unsummon it?

@tridentremixes5449 6 жыл бұрын

Say it three times backwards!

@Ghiaman1334 6 жыл бұрын

Put the cube down.

@ErebosGR 6 жыл бұрын

Play Stairway to Heaven backwards on the Genesis scale.

@robertoesquivel4447 6 жыл бұрын

I think Asher wins

@Peccath 6 жыл бұрын

You need to count down from hexany: pentany, butany, propany, ethany, methany.

@MisterAppleEsq 6 жыл бұрын

Ooh, that visualisation is really cool, and this whole thing appeals to the maths nerd in me.

@JLMoriart 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for making this! It's worth pointing out that "calculating the ratio" is probably only a tiny part of what's going on in our brains when we are determining consonance. A huge part of it is beating partials. When you play music with sounds that have harmonic overtones, those overtones line up (and so do not beat) at those small whole number ratios between fundamentals but, if your sound has inharmonic overtones, you can end up with sensory consonance at intervals that do not approximate whole number ratios. I recommend checking out "Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale" by Sethares for more info =)

@Lucius_Chiaraviglio Жыл бұрын

Makes me wonder if you used sounds that were just outright missing some harmonics, that it would make normally consonant-sounding intervals sound dissonant . . . .

@schall3603 6 жыл бұрын

Maybe it's just that I'm weird, but I always look forward to the videos about microtonality. It's someting I want to explore more, and there's not a lot of easy-to-digest material out there covering it. This feels like something I want to give a roll. Maybe even randomly...

@patonle 6 жыл бұрын

S C Hall i feel the same way, i cant find an easy way to aproach it and give it a try myself and play with it, i think 12tone is right (at the end of the video) about that we use the current system for convenience, maybe we should invest more time, dive deeper into it and see what we find

@Lucius_Chiaraviglio Жыл бұрын

I have found that venturing through microtonality has taught me a lot about what it is that makes our 12 tone system actually work. The same things that make it work (namely the tempering of common just intonation ratios that it deviates from to other reasonably consonant just intonation ratios) also enable many higher-numbered systems to work, but 12 tones per octave is easier to build instruments for (excluding those of continuously-variable pitch), so it won out.

@SCWood 2 жыл бұрын

Hexanies are honestly fantastic. Especially 1 3 5 7. It's a great way to get a very bluesy, septimal sound.

@smivan. 6 жыл бұрын

Those are some fun sounding intervals. Really wanna try writing a track in hexany now.

@SodomySnake 6 жыл бұрын

TET may work just fine, but it doesn't work **just** fine.

@alsatusmd1A13 6 жыл бұрын

SodomySnake And DNII (DMelMIX/{1L6s, 2L5s, 3L4s} most especially) may just work perfectly and *perfectly* fine regardless of whether they divide a pure or tempered interval equally or not. The problem, though, is that other people want me to prove this to them for them, but I personally believe that I cannot really prove anything to other people for them like they can prove it to themselves for themselves.

@aaeiou90 6 жыл бұрын

But it's not a reason to lose your temper.

@benjaminvroman5553 6 жыл бұрын

I’ve always really liked the sound of alternate temperaments and stuff like this and I thought this was great. I also think it’s adorable that you and your brother work together and I wish my brother and I were that close.

@alexshih3747 6 жыл бұрын

I just noticed that there's a fascinating pattern with the 5:6:7, 6:7:8, and 7:8:10. 5:6:7 is (approximately) a first inversion dominant seventh chord missing the root, 6:7:8 is (approximately) a second inversion dominant seventh chord missing the third, and 7:8:10 is (approximately) a third inversion dominant seventh chord missing the fifth. Maybe this is why inversions sound less stable than root position; the frequency ratios are more complicated.

@dutchdykefinger 6 жыл бұрын

true that, in inversions usually the notes end up a bit closer to each other, which is a recipe for dissonant kind of sound, especially in the lower registers fourier's theorum of additive syntesis also teaches overtones are linearly stacked whereas an octave is always the freqency * 2, which finally explained to me why is why you get more options to play notes closer to each other without sounding dissonant as you move higher up the octaves, you really get more harmonic options the higher you go when you hold a linear curve against an exponentional one. but yeah, "dissonant" is pretty subjective, not just to the listener, but the octave something's played on and even the timbre of an instrument can dictate it a lot, as the timbre has a LOT to do with overtone characteristics, aswell as amplitude envelope, i find the strong high attack on a piano making things a lot worse for dissonant sounds, but i like freaky chords, guess that's why i prefer the more dark sounding bösendorfer type of piano sound, i really do not like them bright. i do find inverted chords sounding a bit more clashy myself, but a lot of times inverted chords on the guitar sound really warm and awesome, especially on electric with a bit of grit those pickups can make pretty nice sounds, as they blend the sounds into 1 modulated signal rather than hearing the individual pitches, although i usually play acoustic and i play them on there just the same. then again, guitar is a pretty relative instument, and maybe i'n just subconscienciously microtuning to make them sound right, but i think a lot has to do with the fact i play fingered (without nails) so i get a more muffled kind of timbre that lends itself way better for this stuff, also, palm muting and/or using thigns percussively, out of key as they may sound, can really help sell some weird shit. i like actually like the strong clashing sound of diminshed chords, and broken unison bends, i tend to use them in my riff writing quite a bit, so i guess an inverted chord isn't that bad comparetively. well, in equal temperament that is, those other pitch relations really do not sound right to my ear, despite the fact i do microtonal blues stuff, and really make an effort to play quarter note intervals at times too (and actually like those to spice up an arabic sounding riff to sound more like the real thing) nearly anything that isn't 12 tone logarithmic equal temperament really sounds off to me :')

@mikeciul8599 6 жыл бұрын

I'm curious about your microtonal blues, Alexander. Do you have any recordings I could check out? I just made a video that could be described as "microtonal blues"... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gNhmlKqf3dfGiok.html

@QuikVidGuy 5 жыл бұрын

alex gave a complex answer with a lot of detail, but honestly... yeah, the intervals are rearranged and thus more complicated

@ieatgarbage8771 5 жыл бұрын

Alex Shih there's also stuff like Cmaj7 where the C and B form a major seventh without inversions, which is the first and 15th overtones, disregarding octaves. any voicing where the C is above the b, however, results in a minor second (15:16). We can't reduce it to 15:1, because then it would be a major seventh

@ieatgarbage8771 5 жыл бұрын

Ok, that was more complicated than it needed to be. Basically, no harmonic is a minor second above the first harmonic.

@efkastner 6 жыл бұрын

This is incredible! Thanks for tackling this one in such a fun way :) That cube was a perfect way to break out of the normally 2D world

@Moinsdeuxcat 6 жыл бұрын

Really sweet, but more music and audio examples would be nice :) If not enough time, fitting some pieces to listen to in the description would be appreciated :) Love the great work, keep doing it!

@kyle-silver 6 жыл бұрын

Is there any music written in the hexany? I'd love to hear how those chords interact

@SCWood 3 жыл бұрын

Phoxienesystems made some musical pieces which really put emphasis on the consonance of the Hexany Scales

@yourtypicalcupoftea 2 жыл бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oKmBnq-dld7Sdpc.html

@SCWood 2 жыл бұрын

@@yourtypicalcupoftea that's not in hexany, read the description

@yourtypicalcupoftea 2 жыл бұрын

@@SCWood well I think it’s hexany but no 2/1

@eljestLiv 6 жыл бұрын

This, along with the Tonnetz, is mmy favorite way of creating and visualizing non-functional harmony. Thanks for covering it, and keep up the good work, guys ^-^

@TripleTSingt 6 жыл бұрын

its functional tho, thats the whole point. the chords are all related to each other

@eljestLiv 6 жыл бұрын

not really. some chords can't be explained with functional harmony and its mode mixture.

@TripleTSingt 6 жыл бұрын

I think we are talking different things here. I think its a type of functional harmony, but not the well-tempered one we're used to where we have Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant function. In non-functional harmony (as I understand it) the chords are not connected at all. Here, they are connected by the system used to generate them, the hexany, which is different from using modes of the 12-tone system, but still functional. I also feel like "real" non-functional harmony doesn't exist tho, u can explain every chord and every change in some way. Most people just don't think about it and just play what they are "feeling", resulting in harmony that isn't "functional" from their standard.

@mikeciul8599 6 жыл бұрын

I like your approach, TTTMusic. I'm thinking about composing with the hexany, but I want to get familiar with the chords enough first so that I can identify patterns of tension and release. Do you have any thoughts on the function that these particular chords might have?

@QuikVidGuy 5 жыл бұрын

@@mikeciul8599 you may have to go back to frequency ratios

@notoriouswhitemoth 6 жыл бұрын

Rather than asking "what's the point?", I think there's a more important question to be asked: What difference does it make? what does it sound like when you use this scale? What are some examples of it in use? What does it sound like in context, and literally what is ultimately different in the listener's experience of the music?

@Yossus 6 жыл бұрын

This was really cool, the triads sounded so interesting! Also, I love your Cthulhuphant (and the drawings in general, they're great to keep ADHD brains focused on the theory!)

@gonzoengineering4894 6 жыл бұрын

It's almost criminally underselling Erv's contributions to say he was focused on Just Intonation. Erv's output was massive and diverse. It might take a hundred years of practice and scholarship to fully unpack the box of tools he left us. That said, this is a very good start.

@brunovacherot5786 5 жыл бұрын

I think it would help to answer the "Why does this matter?" by playing or linking to examples of music written using this method. It's all good to hear the triad for descriptive purposes, but I think it's reasonable that people want to hear what has been created with these ideas.

@JMnyJohns 6 жыл бұрын

Very cool and informative - as always. I think that, for me, it would have been yet more powerful if you had composed something using the Hexany to help us understand what such an approach might yield - the types of melodies, harmonies, etc. Thanks!

@ajadrew 6 жыл бұрын

I'm just gonna say your videos are great..good to see your face with Neely etc the other day!!

@MisterAppleEsq 6 жыл бұрын

That stream was so good.

@requemao 6 жыл бұрын

Etc. is perfectly acceptable unless he's trying to write a formal citation in an academic journal.

@timlagrele 6 жыл бұрын

ajadrew do you have a link for that stream please and what is wrong (apparently) with saying "etc" ?

@ajadrew 6 жыл бұрын

It'll be on Adams channel. There's nothing wrong (or right) about etc. Has a general meaning same as et al

@requemao 6 жыл бұрын

topo logic The first example given by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary seems to break that rule, so no. Also, there are not one but two people referred in that sentence, so it actually is a list anyway. At any rate, there's no place for 'et al.' in casual language.

@KaaSerpent 6 жыл бұрын

It's good to be able to visualize it....but do you have any music we could LISTEN to that is written using the hexany scale? Unfortunately, there is a group called Hexany, so Google only gives me them.

@nietzschesmustache8631 5 жыл бұрын

I feel like this video ought to be shared with Joel Quarington, at least the first half of it. A lot of the information about just tunings and stacking intervals informs the differences between tuning a double bass in 5ths (just like a cello, but an octave down) versus tuning the bass in fourths. The later is much easier to play, which is why most orchestras prefer that, but the former results in better intonation with the rest of the strings, which is a part of why people like myself and Joel tune in fifths.

@JXter_ 6 жыл бұрын

Great video! Thanks for covering this topic, I've been eyeing it on Wikipedia's list of musical scales for quite some time now and I haven't been able to wrap my head around what it is exactly. You described it in a way that I can definitely understand!

@s90210h 6 жыл бұрын

Could you give us a few examples of songs that use hexany in their composition? It helps me tremendously to hear these things in context!

@LouisSerieusement 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you !! Awesome idea to speak about microtonality system in your last videos !! Be sure that music nerds really appreciate that, and I assume that people would, at least, be glad to know that other systems exist

@johnomarlarnelladams843 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video. It gives me a new perspective on equating how tones can vary and be the same.

@jeffirwin7862 6 жыл бұрын

Fun fact: the cube is know mathematically as the "dual" of the octahedron! The six faces (or facets) of the cube correspond to the six vertices (points) of the octahedron, and the eight vertices of the cube correspond to the eight faces of the octahedron. This is why the octahedron analogy for the hexany carries over to your cube analogy.

@mothrone 6 жыл бұрын

Jeff Irwin wow, you blew my mind with something seemingly so obvious haha. And then I looked at a dodecahedron and an icosahedron. They also fit that duality. Poor tetrahedron is all alone

@jeffirwin7862 6 жыл бұрын

Possibly more interesting: the tetrahedron is its own dual!

@jeffirwin7862 6 жыл бұрын

(just upside down)

@spencerrobinson5386 6 жыл бұрын

Holy... the 6:7:8 triad has my new favourite dissonance, had to rewind this video like 10 times to hear it again

@Haeyang 6 жыл бұрын

Great message at the end.

@sylverdoqqo 3 жыл бұрын

i’m going to have that definition of notes and intervals in relation to frequencies memorized with the number of 12tone’s tuning theory videos i’ve binged

@SidharthMohan 6 жыл бұрын

Probably the most useful KZfaq channel I've subscribed to. Thank you for the knowledge!

@PFDarkside Жыл бұрын

Wow, just stumbling on this, fascinating!

@jonashalvarihansen356 6 жыл бұрын

The idea of just intonation gives quite a few different solutions: I do, however, prefer the way Eivind Groven (Norwegian Musicologist and composer) solved it. He made the just-intonated organ, which is a partially-electric organ that can play in all keys using the old tuning system (in Norway we call it Pythagorean Tuning, but I'm not sure if that's the same in English). What you do is you press a button, let's say A, and you can now play in the most perfect A major and A minor you'll ever hear. Have a modulation to Eb major? Just press the button (or have someone else press it) for Eb, and you're now playing in the most perfect Eb major you'll ever hear. At least mathematically.

@qantuum7567 Жыл бұрын

found the concept of hexany in Sevish's tuning pack... beautiful intervcals imo. I've just noodled a 4-bar in hexany 1359 and very satisfying to hear.

@quartertuned 6 жыл бұрын

Hey, 12tone! Just wanted to say thanks again for your contribution to my latest video. And keep up the great work! 😄

@tridentremixes5449 6 жыл бұрын

This was one of your best videos in a while!

@SamChaneyProductions 6 жыл бұрын

This was amazing, thank you so much. I've been toying with the idea of building a synth in my Nord G2 that would allow me to play various just intonation scales and I'm definitely going to make a patch for Wilson's scales after seeing this.

@LeiosLabs 6 жыл бұрын

Hey. Do you want to visualize higher dimensional spaces for this purpose? I would love to learn a bit more about this and I know there are probably some viewers on my side that would like something like that.

@5up3rp3rs0n 6 жыл бұрын

Yes please

@grahamconnorhudsonjameson8834 6 жыл бұрын

I didn't understand every thing but it's really cool!

@i_cam 4 жыл бұрын

“Ill just call it a...” haha he will call it a note block I get it “A tonality cube” Me: 😳

@rillloudmother 6 жыл бұрын

I really enjoy hearing these alternate systems. it shows me how 12tet centric i am.

@blacktarmac 6 жыл бұрын

I am only able to follow about half of your explanations, but man, your videos are so good!

@___Noah 6 жыл бұрын

You don't need five dimensions! You can represent it with a regular old undirected graph diagram if you wanna.

@oqsy 4 жыл бұрын

The fact that it is convenient is WHY it is the best. It would take generations to untrain the ears of all of western culture and retrain them to another intonation so they could hear/feel the intended ratios and whatever artistic content they carry. If the intention is to use another intonation to HEAR things that sound alien or unfamiliar, you have to have an intonation that IS standard and familiar, so switching all music off of the 12 tone system of the west would ALSO undermine the “odd” sound of any pieces written in the newly adopted standard. We need a standard, and we need experimenters at the periphery, but the answer is, whatever we all use and understand IS the best because it gives everyone a baseline, and experimenters a challenge. ✌️

@Ghiaman1334 6 жыл бұрын

I now want to write music using a hexany. It'd end up unsettling and jarring, but that can be the point. Also this made me remember a question I was going to ask - has there been a video about why we tune to our notes? This essentially using the notes we recognise in an unorthodox way, but what about having more than 8 notes in an octave? Specifically, has anyone tried to decimalise music? Someone in my family mentioned such a concept in the vein of "*tut tut tut* crazy stupid idea", and as I'm subscribed to this channel my first thought was "wait, why not? I think someone did it."

@sgkogan 6 жыл бұрын

Non-fretted instruments and vocalists use non-equal temperament much often. Like G# in one key is not the same as Ab in an another. There are systems which divide whole tone into one "major" half tone and the other "minor" halftone.

@TitoSilversax 8 ай бұрын

Im currently writing some music in hexany (& dekany) and I have one up currently on my KZfaq. It’s synth & digital sax … thanks for listening to my shameless plug but I saw folks asking for examples 😅

@RockyLikesPews 6 жыл бұрын

I love these videos on alternative tuning systems. I really hope western composers will adopt some micro-tonal theory, even if it's just for Hollywood films.

@Hecatonicosachoron 6 жыл бұрын

Yay! More on unusual theory!!!

@Wasabi37a 6 жыл бұрын

How do you generate the sound samples for those "odd" intervals. Is there any free software which can do this?

@moyosoofficial5042 6 жыл бұрын

Burkhard Mittelbach Audacity allows for you to make a tone of any frequency, but it's not exactly convenient for this kind of thing. Other than that, count me as in the same boat

@gargus6287 6 жыл бұрын

any DAW will probably have a sine generator

@alexshih3747 6 жыл бұрын

www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

@pleggli 6 жыл бұрын

btw. the iPad app Wilsonic is very interesting to tinker with because it has a model of Hexany and more.

@eldickboygrande 6 жыл бұрын

scala is pretty much the tool for microtonal work. it's free, but it will take some effort and determination to even begin figuring out. huygens-fokker.org/scala/ as also commented, wilsonic on ios is great, probably the most intuitive and clearly laid out microtonal tool. at +/- 3$ it's certainly worth it.

@chrisjamesr77 2 жыл бұрын

I kinda like the sound of that 5:6:7 triad...it sounds dissonant but in a cool way

@ChristopherSaraga 6 жыл бұрын

Mind blown! I think I needed that on Friday evening at 6:18 p.m. :)

@j3tztbassman123 6 жыл бұрын

The things that will keep some people up at night. But now you have a new musical die with which to compose random music with. Stress on the Random.

@random11stuff 6 жыл бұрын

Very interesting. Do you have any thoughts on the fundamental assumptions we make about rhythm? Crotchets, qquavers, semi-quavers... why are triplets easier than quintuplets, etc ?

@GuitarFunWorks 6 жыл бұрын

I like the way you make video! Great idea!

@theodoreradu8852 6 жыл бұрын

You are right, we are using equal temperament because it is convenient. It is just a habit. But if other systems do not bear stronger reasons to be used, why even bother trying to use them. No, our system is not better or more logical, but it is our system - which makes if the only one to sound pleasant to us - and that is a good enough reason to preserve it.

@ababababaababbba 3 жыл бұрын

Those chords sound amazing

@SirWhiteRabbit-gr5so 21 күн бұрын

Occam's still leads towards the Harmonic series and the Circle of Fifths.

@andythedishwasher1117 3 жыл бұрын

This was beautiful. I really like thinking about this problem from a philosophy angle because it touches on the concept of foundationalism, which is roughly the notion that knowledge must be founded or built upon some central, established fact from which all subsequent knowledge proceeds. In this case, the concept of just intonation seems to have a basis in the notion that harmony and melody, as concepts, are built solely on the mathematical relations between frequencies and have no true meaning when these relations are "corrupted" or disintegrated through imprecise measurements. When I say it like that, it almost sounds like I'm describing a sort of musical fascism, but I think that's an inaccurate and unfair interpretation of the idea. It seems to be rooted in a desire to approach music as a science, which is virtually impossible without the sort of mathematical foundations just intonation attempts to discover. However, this understandably gets a lot of pushback from musical artists who have no desire whatsoever to see their art explained scientifically because its infinite mystery is what brings meaning and passion to their existence. Personally, I can appreciate music from both angles because, in some ways, that infinite mystery is what drives my passions for science and philosophy. My first guitar solo in my bedroom was my first mystical experience as a teenager, and I've spent my life since then trying to figure out how mystical experiences work. This concept of just intonation lies close to the center of the mystery.

@HaliPuppeh 5 жыл бұрын

This is actually really cool. I'm going to have to watch it again

@thetoxbloxer503 6 жыл бұрын

I was waiting for a video on macrotonal scales, but what about other TET scales? Apparently in some cultures they used to use an approximation of 5 TET and 7 TET for tuning. Have you done a video on things like that yet?

@hunabamaya Жыл бұрын

R.I.P. Erv Wilson… and Viva México.

@-l5905 6 жыл бұрын

Great Job!

@Zyborggian 6 жыл бұрын

Shout-out to Matt Carl Earl from Hexany Audio and XANTHOCHROID

@DJKLProductions 6 жыл бұрын

I really like and somehow love your informative videos, but where the heck does your "signature" elephant comes from? (I can imagine, that you have answered it in a Q&A, but I still haven't watched them.)

@HEHEHEIAMASUPAHSTARSAGA 6 жыл бұрын

It's from a musical mnemonic, I think

@stefan1024 6 жыл бұрын

because elephants are easy enough to draw maybe?

@QuikVidGuy 5 жыл бұрын

@@HEHEHEIAMASUPAHSTARSAGA Babe, Elephants All Don't Give Candy

@flavio5046 6 жыл бұрын

I liked these hexany chords

@seancarroll9849 6 жыл бұрын

Same. Being into soundtracks, both video game and live action/animated shows and movies, I find certain parts of the score where an appropriate tone is warranted, but sometimes also sounds 'wrong' in normal application. Like with the hexany. Some of the most disturbing pieces I have ever heard also came from some of the best atmospheric movies or games I have ever touched, and I love it.

@bclislife 5 жыл бұрын

I love your videos so much!

@whycantiremainanonymous8091 6 жыл бұрын

The three subharmonic chords sounded to me like the first three chords of "All the things you are". I kid you not.

@JorikBergman 6 жыл бұрын

Omg, I was thinking the same thing haha

@ppaulisdeadd2710 6 жыл бұрын

Super fascinating concept and eccentric way to spark creativity

@stevie8271 6 жыл бұрын

5:18 that chord progression there sounds wonderfully dark, like something squarepusher would write (e.x. "freeman hardy & willis acid")

@dutchdykefinger 6 жыл бұрын

well we've had a lot of 12-tone systems and a lot have been obsoleted by better ratios i prefer to make chords that sound consonant with other tones than just perfect 5ths and octaves, because that's pretty much what they were limited to in the middle ages, so yes, i'd argue logarithmic 12-tone equal temperament is the best we have right now, albeit far from perfect. (as evidenced by the fact harmonics on a guitar start dead-on on the fret iron, but float away to the side a bit as you go higher)

@GraemeMarkNI 6 жыл бұрын

That was awesome.

@karawethan 5 жыл бұрын

Some years ago I was experimenting with hexanies (and if you add an additional factor, the 20-note eikosany). I even wrote Erv Wilson about it, and in typical fashion he mailed me back a heavy stack of papers related to combination product sets (CPS's) with no explaination or commentary. Some things I have found... 1) It's very difficult to get past the sense of having no 1:1. Every rotation of a hexany feels equally stable/unstable. Chords don't really resolve, because there is nothing to resolve *to.* Without a 1:1, there are no simple major or minor triads. Then again, if you include the 1:1 it kind of defeats the whole purpose by tonicizing a system that is mean to be rotational by nature. 2) Same issues with the eikosany, but with more pitches. 3:5:7:9 is the most stable tetrad available (a bit like a half-dimished). If you map the eikosany in terms of hexany sub-sets, it still doesn't feel like it wants to *go* anywhere. There's no harmonic drive to modulate from one hexany to another. 3) This stuff is an absolute nightmare for guitar, whether you are trying to re-refret or go fretless. Don't go down that path. CPS's are better suited to idiophones (a la Partch) or digital instruments.

@rhandhom1 6 жыл бұрын

Insightful and inspiring as always.

@Backstageish 6 жыл бұрын

I did (something like) this as a part of my degree. Love the awesome content

@AFRoSHEENT3ARCMICHAEL69 3 жыл бұрын

You take a mono chord and play an open note and when you cut the string in half and play it you get the same note only higher. That is evidence that the universe has a hidden order. Not to mention all the symmetry sound has.

@laredolenny682 5 жыл бұрын

What about John McGlaulin and Mahavishnu Orchestra ? In his workbook from 1972, he created two new scales.

@KurosakiYukigo 6 жыл бұрын

I'm... gonna have to watch this one a few times.

@mikestrauss8613 2 жыл бұрын

The visualisation makes me think of musical sudoku

@wellurban 6 жыл бұрын

Fascinating! Thank you.

@danielhayun304 6 жыл бұрын

absolute pitch warning *!!!!*

@jsf662 6 жыл бұрын

+12tone Fair enough, very interesting like every whatsoever thing you post, but this time I really missed a link to some hexanic video. I searched on youtube for "hexany music, Erwin WIlson" and could not find any. :( Do you have an example to enlight us with? Thanks in advance!

@AndyChamberlainMusic 6 жыл бұрын

have you done/if you haven't can you please make a video about how you make these videos? Like do you draw or narrate first?

@temperr.haring3508 6 жыл бұрын

Nice Mandelbrot inclusion there :)

@johnwebb6342 2 жыл бұрын

Elephants make great band mates because they never forget a chord.

@charlesrosenbauer3135 6 жыл бұрын

I take it the eikosany goes up to the 13th harmonic? (3, 5, 7, 11, 13) I haven't played much with that, but the 11th harmonic sounds nice in a major chord (once you get used to it). Check out Brendan Byrnes' 22tet stuff to hear what that sounds like. Also, for those interested, here's a piece I found that's actually in Hexany: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o9-podanzauXhWw.html

@12tone 6 жыл бұрын

You don't strictly _need_ to use primes, so you can just do 1/3/5/7/9/11, but really any six odd harmonics will do. Same with the Hexany: You don't have to use 1/3/5/7, I just did 'cause it's the simplest. You could do the same thing with, say, 37/43/51/981 and have a Hexany, it's just be a much less consonant one.

@Lennard222 Жыл бұрын

Oh yeah, my favorite part of music... MATH

@plekkchand Жыл бұрын

What is the function of the word "basically" in your semantic system?

@thecrazeecow1682 6 жыл бұрын

I wish I didn't have perfect pitch because this video makes me want to die

@ieatgarbage8771 5 жыл бұрын

The notes are out of tune with each other

@Smung 4 жыл бұрын

@@ieatgarbage8771 Yea, but it sounds kinda pleasant to my ear

@neruval8998 Жыл бұрын

You said that there is nothing close to the seventh harmonic in equal temperament, but it's not entirely true. Correct me if I'm wrong, but dominant seventh likely owes its popularity to the fact that it's close enough to the 4:5:6:7 ratio, which has enough "gravity" to be recognizable even with out-of-tune seventh (similar thing happens to undeservingly less popular minor sixth chord).

@Rain593 6 жыл бұрын

You blew my mind. I always thought you were the hand drawing elephants.

@12tone 6 жыл бұрын

I am! My brother just made the cube.

@requemao 6 жыл бұрын

I love the content of your videos, the fast, rhythmic pace, the silly jokes, everything but one thing: it really gets on my nerves how you constantly draw doodles that have absolutely no relation to the content but only to random words in your narration. You could easily make this video a lot better if you drew meaningful things, like the waveforms you talk about at the beginning, or some of the chords you didn't write on the staff.

@QuikVidGuy 5 жыл бұрын

it's super difficult to draw accurate waveforms, and the doodles give style and memorability in addition to simple visuals

@ipudisciple 5 жыл бұрын

But ... elephant thingies :)

@yourtypicalcupoftea 2 жыл бұрын

I realized that making hexany is a little like multiplying decimals

@guitarmann3001 6 жыл бұрын

I'm very interested in the idea of a 6 note octave tuning system. Are there any compositions we could hear from it?

@jericsaeyoung69 2 жыл бұрын

0:59 Mandelbrot Set

@barefootarts737 Жыл бұрын

12 tet is not 'just fine'. It is like food. If all you know is white bread and bologna than it will never let you down. Even the math is tidy compared to some. But hearing music with your ears can lead to more interesting places than theories of Practicality and blunt Order.

@Majromax 6 жыл бұрын

So different combination product sets produce different scales. Does this mean that a suitably clever composer could modulate between CPS scales in the same way composers modulate between keys in 12-TET?

@12tone 6 жыл бұрын

I suppose so! You could even pivot through a shared triad... I'd have to do a bunch of math to figure out how it'd work, but it seems plausible!

@rysea9855 2 жыл бұрын

Does anyone know how to make music using this scale? It sounds like a really fun-to-experiment-with system, but the chromatic scale seems to be hard-coded in most DAWs. I personally use fl studio, but I haven't been able to find a way to mess around with the pitches of notes without individually changing the pitch for each note, which gets really tedious and unintuitive.