Just Intonation: system of tuning in which the distances between pitches are based on the natural harmonic series instead of the octave being equally divided
Now, can anyone explain to me the meaning of terms like 5th's, 3rd's, 7th's, etc? I know we said in class that 3's are 5's and 5's are 3's to remember that two particular ratios were called a perfect 5th and a perfect 3rd (at least I think we said it was 3 and 5), but that really doesn't mean anything to me. What is a 5th and whats a 3rd?
In the Just Intonation article 5th's, 3rd's, 7th's, and a myriad of even stranger terms were equated to all sorts of unusual ratios. Now I couldn't see any obvious correlation between the factors of these ratios and the 5th, 3rd, 7th, etc being used to describe it. Therefore when he started speaking in terms of these constructs I really couldn't follow along - I'm sure he was making a very interesting point but I don't have a clue what he was trying to say.
Any help out there?
2 comments:
I would just like to second your confusion on the matter. I think it would be nice to talk again about what these ratios mean and how to use them in practical terms.
They are talking about the place in the scale which it resides. Usually scales reagardless of their intonation have anywhere from 2 to 43 elements but they are named 1st second, third, fourth, fifth etc...
so when they say the 7th they usually mean the 7th tone in the scale. In western music in a scale from C to C' you could have
C D E F G A B C'
D would be the 2nd, G the Fifth and B the 7th.
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