Estimated reading time 5 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you want to know how to tune your microtonal keyboard so that your chords sound incredibly cool? The term microtonal covers a lot of different types of tuning systems. Some which will sound like a cappella music, and others which will sound exotic and otherworldly. Keep reading How to Tune Your Incredibly Cool Microtonal Keyboard to learn how to have beautiful sounding harmonies.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
How to Tune Your Microtonal Keyboard #1: Types of Tuning Systems
The word microtonal is a blanket term that covers a wide variety of tunings and temperaments. For example:
- Systems that divide the semitone into equal numbers of parts such as quartertones, third tones, and eighth tones.
- Schemes that divide the octave into equal parts such as 17 and 22 edo (equal division of the octave).
- Systems that narrow some intervals to make others sound better such as meantone temperament. Meantone narrows the fifths to make the major thirds sound better. This results in nice sounding chords but only works in a few keys.
- Likewise, the well temperaments narrow select fifths to make some of the major thirds sound better. These temperaments allow you to play in any key, but at the cost of making some keys sound better than others.
- Equal temperament could be thought of as a very regular well temperament where all the keys sound the same. Or it can be thought of as 12 edo.
- Still other systems combine meantone with the edo approach, such as 19, 31, and 55 edo.
- Finally, we have systems that tune pure intervals such as Pythagorean tuning and just intonation.
In today’s post, we’ll look at both just intonation and a just intonation-based system.
How to Tune Your Microtonal Keyboard #2: Just Intonation
Just Intonation Chart
Just intonation tunes its intervals pure, meaning they have no audible beating:
- Because of this, it technically has an infinite number of notes.
- However, to get an infinite number of notes, the intervals would need to become infinitely small, which would exceed the ability of the human ear to hear the differences between them.
- Therefore, we can set a limit (it’s tuning resolution) on how many notes we need by quantizing the intervals into 600 discreet pitches, yielding pure major triads.
For Partch people, the following chart is the equivalent of the five-limit tonality diamond but done in cents instead of ratios.
To download an Excel file of the full chart:
How the chart works:
- The numbers on the chart indicate cents, which you’ll use to tune your microtonal keyboard.
- Your starting place is C 0. The blue cells are all Cs. (The yellow cells are your equal tempered notes, and the gray cells are quartertones.)
- As you move to cells on the right, you go in the sharp direction around the circle of 5ths. As you move to cells on the left, you go in the flat direction.
- The light gray numbers at the edge of the chart help you to know where you need to go on the opposite side of the chart if you want to continue moving by fifths.
- To make this easier, under the “Home” menu use Excel’s “Find & Select” function with the parameter “Look in” set to “values.” This will allow you to jump to individual cent numbers.
Just Intonation Keyboard
Even when we reduce the number of notes to 600, that’s still a lot of notes:
- This means that you’ll have to choose what keys you want to play on your keyboard, because not all of them will fit.
- Moreover, while this chart allows you to have perfectly tuned triads, it’ll be difficult to fit them on a globally returnable traditional keyboard.
- Instead, you’ll most likely have to use a radically redesigned keyboard like the Lumeatone, which is fully programable, giving you a lot of flexibility on how it’s set up.
For more information on just intonation:
How to Tune Your Microtonal Keyboard #3: Supplemented Equal Temperament
SET Chart
Strict just intonation makes for beautiful, fully in-tune chords, but it comes at a cost:
- The downside to strict just intonation is that not only will you need to use a special keyboard, but you’ll also have a circle of fifths two hundred notes long.
- Conversely, Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET) has pure major thirds but equal tempered fifths, making for the normal twelve-note circle of 5ths.
- Also, this arrangement of notes can fit on a microtonal keyboard with a globally returnable traditional keyboard.
Soundtrack of a SET Tuned Microtonal Keyboard:
To download an Excel file of the full chart:
(See section #2 to read about how the chart is organized.)
SET Keyboard Tuning Templates
Both pure just intonation and SET will have their keyboards centered on a few keys:
- However, if you use a PC3K8 microtonal keyboard’s Intonation Key function, you can change tuning templates with just a few button presses.
- What’s a keyboard tuning template?
- It’s an arrangement of keys that can be easily transposed using the PC3K8’s Intonation Key.
Mobile users: for best results reading the examples, rotate your screen 90o to the right and increase the screen magnification.
For example:
The interval relationships remain the same across the templates, but each tuning template centers on a different keynote:
- The tuning templates have been set up to play (as much as possible) like a regular piano keyboard.
- However, not all keyboards will be able to play the two Ds (D 186 and D 200) from the C template.
- If that’s the case for your microtonal keyboard, you may want to substitute C# 72 for D 186, which would allow you to play in the key of D while still using the C template.
To understand Supplemented Equal Temperament better, compare the full chart with the tuning templates shown here.
For more information on SET:
- How to Micro Tune the Keyboard to make the Chords Sound Awesome
- How Chords in Supplemented Equal Temperament Work
- How to Change Keys in Supplemented Equal Temperament
- How Supplemented Equal Temperament Minor Keys Work
- Flexibility in Supplemented Equal Temperament’s Theory
- Intonation and Supplemented Equal Temperament
- Learn How to Get a Killer Sound for Your Band
Final Thoughts
The takeaway points:
- The word microtonal is a blanket term that covers a wide variety of tunings and temperaments.
- Just intonation tunes its intervals pure, meaning they have no audible beating.
- Supplemented Equal Temperament’s tuning templates allow you to fluidly change keys while using a traditional microtonal keyboard.
Have fun playing!
Related Posts
- What Does Intonation Mean and Why Is It Essential in Music?
- Tips for Synthesizing an African Balafon Style Xylophone Sound
- Learn the Secret Relationship of Timbre and Harmony
© 2025 Geoffrey Keith
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