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Scale tuning system
A tuning system is the system used to define which tones, or pitches, to use when playing music. In other words, it is the choice
of number and spacing of frequency values used. The equal temperament (has only one tuning method, and is suitable for
keyboard) is the common musical scale used at present, used for the tuning of pianos and other instruments of relatively fixed
scale. One of the advantages of the equal tempered scale is that it is the same in any musical "key", so that compositions may
be freely transposed up or down without changing the musical intervals.
Especially for piano, equal temperament is widely used and taken for granted. But people used several other scales to compose
and perform before adopting the equal temperament. This piano has been equipped with 6 scale tuning systems, you can select
one to reappearing its matched chord of the melody at that time.
Characteristics of Different Scale Tuning Systems
Pythagorean
The Pythagorean tuning, named after the ancient mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, is based on a stack of intervals
called perfect fifths. It is particularly well suited to music which treats fifths as consonances, and thirds as dissonances.
Pure Major & Pure Minor
In music, just intonation (sometimes abbreviated as JI) or pure intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes
are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a pure or just interval. And the major scale
which consisted of just intonations especially for this triad chords: Root, Third, Fifth are sounded extremely harmony. The just
intonation must be the most natural temperament.
Meantone
The Meantone System is a musical temperament which is close to just intonation. Used to tuning pipe organ in 16th century
Europe. These musical scales which based on the Pythagorean System, minus quarter of common comma for once, are
extremely approaching just intonation. So, use this system to create musical scales are sound beautiful and pure, just like a
perfect triad chord.
Werckmeister
The Werkmeister was named after Andreas Werckmeister, and this scale was created as an improvement on the Pythagorean
scale. This tuning collapse comma maxima, created by Pythagorean, into four perfect fifths, the rest fifths still remain their
Pythagorean scale characteristics. Werkmeister Tuning can tune scale from harmonic to melodic by increasing tone number,
making each tonality sound distinct, this is the important gist for classicists and romanticism tonality music to name the tone
name.
Kirnberger
Kirnberger temperament is an irregular temperament developed in the second half of the 18th century by Johann Kirnberger
and regarded as an improved version of Meantone temperament. It makes possible to switch different tunes freely when
performing.
Twelve-tone equal temperament
In twelve-tone equal temperament, which divides the octave into 12 equal parts, the width of a semitone , i.e. the frequency ratio
of the interval between two adjacent notes, is the twelfth root of two. There is minute difference of the same amount between
each two intervals.
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