19 Equal Divisions of the Octave

Please enjoy this taste of the exploration!

Sounds weird, right?  THAT, my friends and loved ones and enemies, is a piece composed in 19-Tone Equal Tempered tuning, or 19-TET for short.

Sometimes it's also called 19-EDO, which is short for 19 Equal Divisions of the Octave.

Now, if you know anything about octaves, you know they're always divided into 12 equal divisions; you start on one note, then go up in tones twelve times and you will hit that note again (except it's the lady version).

Shut up, no they're not.

They can be divided by any number, but the man arbitrarily decided to keep us down by limiting our music to only the 12-TET standard.  WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!

So what you heard in the above video isn't psychedelic music played deliberately out of tune, those are actual classical explorations of music using the available notes in the scale.

Why 19?

If you ask someone who plays with "microtones" why they used the number of divisions they used, most of them parot back with the same answer: "Well, why 12?"  Turns out, they have a point.

19 is actually the next number up from 12 that has a complete circle of fifths.  Theoretically, anything you can play in 12edo, you can play in 19edo.  But you'll have some extra notes to work with.  In fact, on top of the minor and major scales, you also suddenly have sub-minor and super-major scales.  Imagine if minor and major fell into a vat of radioactive waste and all their natural abilities became amplified.

Or better yet, imagine this:

THAT, lovelies, is a Cembalo Cromatico.  A 19edo piano.  As you can see, everywhere where there WOULD be a black key if you were playing any old piano at a piano store for normies, there are now TWO black keys.  One to keep the other company.  There's also a pesky black key hanging out in the places where there never used to be, like it's some sort of alleyway creeper.

That's two black keys where there should be one, and one black key where there should be none.

Or to put it another way, you know how C# and Db are the same note (a black key)?  Well, now they're NOT the same note.  There is both a C# and a Db, and they each have their own black key.

Has that song finished yet?  You're probably wondering why it sounded like a midi file.

That's because it was programmed.  See, of the people that have heard of microtones, few people play with them, and of THOSE people, few people stick to one number EDO.  Therefore, instead of building instruments to explore the scales, it makes more sense to go digital and use programs that will switch between various EDO whenever you want.  Not mainstream programs, mind you, open source programs that basically play whatever you program them to using midi sounds.  Therefore, of the people that have written songs in 19edo, very few are played with a warm instrument.  And also, very few of them are very good.  If you search for songs uploaded in 19edo, a lot of them just sound like someone making noises playing with the extra notes.

Here, check THIS out!

I believe that one got programmed in one of the aforementioned programs, and then processed through a professional program to give it that organic piano sound.

Not a fan of classical?

Try THIS ONE.

That's a link to this guy's soundcloud account who calls himself Omega Nine.  He's done some work in 19edo that is more attentive to hooks.  Here's some slower, prettier pieces he's done:

What about on guitar?

Some people have already transformed their guitar into magical 19edo machines.  You can find them pretty easily.  In fact, this is something I intend to do for myself, finances allowing.  All one would have to do is put frets on the neck so that there are 19 frets per octave.  You can find the measurements online for it.

In fact, if a stringed instrument is already fretless, like a fretless bass, violin, cello, etc... you can already play it in 19edo!  It just takes some practice figuring out where to put your fingers.

Why 19?  Why not 32?
This is a project I am taking on myself, along with whoever else wants to (here I'm namedropping Xander, who I credit for mentioning to me that 19edo existed in the first place).  I intend, finances allowing, to get a guitar done so that it can play in 19edo, then write and perform music that way.  All goes well, I'd love to play with a band that way too (again, namedropping Xander, and possibly Dave); have multiple instruments translated to 19edo.  I selected 19 because:

a.) I like the sound of it.
b.) Any more tones per octave would be too many frets on a guitar.  32 frets per octave? Count me out!
c.) I'm committing to only one new EDO.  I don't want to fry my brain on possibilities, I'd rather pick one, write good music in it, best as I can, and see if I can get a movement going.  I think of it like a contribution I can make to our culture.  Worst case scenario, it doesn't catch on, and I'm just a guy with a gimmick.  But I don't see it as a gimmick.  I see it as a good next evolution for western music to take on.

For more detailed information about the theory behind 19edo, click HERE for the Xenharmonic wiki page about 19edo, or check out this video:

Thanks for humoring me!  And if you're interested in talking to me more about it, feel free to drop me a line!

--J.m. Gatewood