The archive gathers together the posts about tuning chords.
Do you want to know how to tune chords better?
The term does not come from the word cord (i.e., string). Rather, it comes from the Middle English word cord, which means accord. In other words, the notes in a harmony are in accord, meaning they work well together.
Likewise, the term harmony, a synonym of chord, also carries the idea of notes that work well together. Therefore, harmony remains a branch of music theory that deals with how notes combine to create consonant and dissonant groupings.
The notes in a harmony can be played one after the other. However, most often harmony deals with notes that happen at the same time.
When a chord gets played as a block, it remains sensitive to mistuning. Therein lies the problem with harmony, it can be tricky to tune.
Equal temperament remains the standard tuning for instruments like the piano, organ, guitar, and xylophone. It makes compromises in the harmonies in order to keep the total number of notes to a workable amount.
Equal temperament could be thought of as a well temperament that spreads the tuning errors evenly across the whole tuning system. It has the advantage that none of the chords sound really bad. Also, all of the scales remain usable.
However, the equal tempered major thirds are just spitting distance from being out of tune.
A new tuning system, called Supplemented Equal Temperament, creates an enhanced version of equal temperament that has better sounding chords.
Many of the following posts talk about how to tune harmonies using Supplemented Equal Temperament, while other posts deal with singing harmonies in tune.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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Do you like Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” (WTC) but wonder what the “well-tempered” in the title means? Bach advocated for the well-temperaments which are circular tuning systems that allow keyboardists to play in any key without restrictions, similar to equal temperament. Thus, WTC was written to showcase well-temperaments. Keep reading “What Precisely Did Bach Mean by Well-Tempered Clavier” to learn how it works. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
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Have you ever seen a crazy chromatic scale or chord and wondered why it works? Do you want to understand how to write them? Chromatic notes and harmonies are effective because they take bad sounding dissonance and resolve it to good sounding consonance. Keep reading “Why Do Crazy Chromatic Notes and Chords Work?” to learn how chromatic harmony functions. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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Are you confused about how dissonant seventh chords work? Do you want to know how to make them sound incredibly good? Have you ever looked in a chord dictionary, seen a diagram of a crazy seventh chord, played it, and then wondered: “How am I going to use that thing?” That’s because dissonant harmony sounds tense and unstable. Keep reading “What Does Dissonance Mean for Basic Seventh Chords?” to learn how to make them sound smooth and satisfying. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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Do you need simple instructions for adjusting your synth to play Pythagorean tuning? The Pythagorean scale is based on the Pythagorean tuning ratios that are credited to (you guessed it) Pythagoras (same guy that invented the hypotenuse formula). However, it has since become popular with microtonal composers. Keep reading “Simple Instructions for Pythagorean Tuning” to learn the deep, dark secret of this scale. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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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. Estimated reading time 5 minutes.
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