Bass Player article bout Fifths and Devil's triad

[Brando_Beast]

There was an article in Bass Player mag about 10 years ago at least.



Archimedes, Nope it was Pythagorus,
got us in wrong tune and we been in wrong tune ever since.
talked about intervals and then the way that a fifth is a perfect mathematical ratio.


It was covering the idea of a power chord too, then talked about thirds.


I love love love this article, it was so inspiring. I can't find my copy. Does someone have a copy or know which issue?


Thanks!!!!

 

[SteffanB]

It's 10yrs old? So you got it in the mail last week?

 

[mambo4]

got us in wrong tune and we been in wrong tune ever since.

Typically when people try to discuss how we tune "wrong" in modern music, they refer to equal tempered tuning, which is an adjustment from the "perfect" Pythogrean ratios aka just intonation. Either that or the baseless hippie nonsense of 342hz tuning.

 

[mambo4]

talked about intervals and then the way that a fifth is a perfect mathematical ratio.

Not sure what the article may have meant by "perfect ratio", but many of the intervals are simple ratios. In general, the smaller the integers involved in the ratio, the more consonant they sound:

from wikipedia:
"When a musical instrument is tuned using a just intonation tuning system, the size of the main intervals can be expressed by small-integer ratios, such as 1:1 (unison), 2:1 (octave), 3:2 (perfect fifth), 4:3 (perfect fourth), 5:4 (major third), 6:5 (minor third). Intervals with small-integer ratios are often called just intervals, or pure intervals. To most people, just intervals sound consonant, i.e. pleasant and well-tuned."

The problem with just intonation shows up when you want to change keys. If you tune a piano for the key of
C using just intonation, it will be slightly out of tune when played in another key. Modern even tempered tuning adjusts the "perfect ratios" to be equally , slightly out of tune in all 12 keys.

 

[mambo4]

a lot of people when they discover Just vs Even tempered tuning are like
"OMG guys we are all playing music wrong!
We defy the ancient ways and offend the music gods!"

It's balderdash of course. Even tempered tuning is centuries old and most people can't hear difference of a few cents.
Fun to experiment with though

 

[Gsnorgathon]

Typically when people try to discuss how we tune "wrong" in modern music, they refer to equal tempered tuning, which is an adjustment from the "perfect" Pythogrean ratios aka just intonation. Either that or the baseless hippie nonsense of 342hz tuning.

I'll have you know the Schiller Institute people are neither baseless nor hippies! They're based out of their minds, and I dunno what they are, but hippies they ain't.

 

[Brando_Beast]

It's 10yrs old? So you got it in the mail last week?

Nah, I read it back in 2010 when I first started learning music theory. I was in college and had been playing from tab since I was 14. this Bass Player article was there in the early days of me learning about 4ths and 5ths.

 

[mambo4]

I'll have you know the Schiller Institute people are neither baseless nor hippies! They're based out of their minds, and I dunno what they are, but hippies they ain't.

I have never heard of the Schiller Institute, but I googled it and read their landing page. It's clearly nonsense of one stripe or another, but perhaps you are correct that it is not necessarily hippie flavored baseless nonsense. Adam Neely goes into depth about 342 hz