Hi All
i’ve been on a bit of a journey recently into the world of intonation and tuning and its by no means over but I thought I might share the discovery of a new note. I’m working on perfecting a system of tuning the steel in Just Intonnation or as near as I can to it and setting up my Peterson StrobeHD with a custom sweetener as well as a load of mechanical tweaks to make it work. The discovery of the ‘note’ came when I was deciding how to tune 7th’s. It’s called the Harmonic 7th and is heavily used in the likes of barbershop and blues and we’ve all probably been using it for years without realising. Quite a bit flatter than an equal tempered 7th, it’s 969 cents above the root or a ratio of 7/4. If you try tuning it above a perfectly tuned major triad, you’ll know as soon as you hit it. The 4 notes are in a perfect relationship and feed off each other and form a solid lump of sound. It’s almost like when you boil a kettle!
And now to my appointment with the men in white coats.......


