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Help: Fingerer, fractional intervals and scales

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written by: MattWalton

So, I rewrote it to assume the user has a chromatic scale. This works much better (I juggled the fingerings too, I suspect I'll be doing that for a while).


[chromatic whistle]
#
#Fingering patterns
finger 1 = 2,2 * +13.0
finger 2 = open * +12.0
finger 3 = 2,2 2,3 * +11.0
finger 4 = 2,1 * +10.0
finger 5 = 2,1 2,3 * +9.0
finger 6 = 2,1 2,2 * +8.0
finger 7 = 2,1 2,2 1,5 * +7.0
finger 8 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 * +6.0
finger 9 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 * +5.0
finger 10 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,6 * +4.0
finger 11 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 * +3.0
finger 12 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,7 * +2.0
finger 13 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 1,7 * +1.0
#
#Additions (add to the base note in scale increments)
addition 1 = 1,8 * +12.0
addition 2 = 2,8 * -12.0
#
#Modifiers (add a modifier signal), usually but not always in
#semitones for a scale
modifier 1 = 2,4 * +0.5
#Polyphony
polyphony 1 = 1,1 * +3.0
polyphony 2 = 1,2 * +5.0
polyphony 3 = 1,3 * +6.0
polyphony 4 = 1,4 * +7.0


I'm a bit disappointed though that "modifer 1" doesn't support +0.5 properly - it does the same thing as if it was +1.0. Fractional modifiers would be great fun for having a whistle setup that could play quarter-tones... without having to first define a quarter-tone chromatic scale and rebase the fingerer setup on top of that.

I'm not quite sure at the moment what to do with 1,1 through 1,4, as the polyphony keys there are almost impossible to actually play, so maybe if I view it as an alternative top course (and maybe likewise with 1,5 to 1,7) I can do something interesting there.

written by: MattWalton

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:21:39 +0100 BST

I'm trying to put together a sort-of-recorder-ish fingering pattern. It's actually more like 'enhanced tin whistle' because without a pinchable thumb hole and half-holes the recorder's fingering can't be replicated. And why would you want to anyway, it's pretty nasty. So think of it as a super tin whistle fingering. I'm not going for fully chromatic crossfingerings, but a reasonable selection which lets me stray a bit away from the root key and play a much wider variety of tunes.

However, floating-point offsets are working slightly unexpectedly. Here's my setup so far (I have not added all the notes I want yet).


[recorder]
#
#Fingering patterns
finger 1 = open * +7.0
finger 10 = 2,2 * +6.5
finger 2 = 2,1 * +6.0
finger 3 = 2,1 2,2 * +5.0
finger 9 = 2,1 2,2 1,5 * +4.5
finger 4 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 * +4.0
finger 8 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,6 * +3.18
finger 5 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 * +3.0
finger 6 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 * +2.0
finger 7 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 1,7 * +1.0
#
#Additions (add to the base note in scale increments)
addition 1 = 1,8 * +7.0
#
#Modifiers (add a modifier signal), usually but not always in
#semitones for a scale
modifier 1 = 2,4 * -1.0


Now, "fingerer 8" is the odd one. It's supposed to represent a semitone below "finger 4". I initially tried it at +3.5, but that was incredibly sharp compared to the note expected, and compared to the note produced by playing "finger 4" using the flatten modifier key "modifier 1". +3.18 is slightly sharper, but not quite.

This surprised me, because I thought that EigenD worked using equal temperament, and half of an interval which is defined in the scale to be a whole tone would be a semitone, so I could just say +3.5 and get the same thing as +4.0 with -1.0 modifier on it. Clearly this is not the case, so I'd be interested in an explanation of what's going on here.

Or, would I be better off driving a chromatic scale with a fingering like this? In a chromatic scale setup, would "+2.0" reter to (if the scale root is D) a D#? I admit I've not actually tried that yet.


written by: MattWalton

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:56:34 +0100 BST

So, I rewrote it to assume the user has a chromatic scale. This works much better (I juggled the fingerings too, I suspect I'll be doing that for a while).


[chromatic whistle]
#
#Fingering patterns
finger 1 = 2,2 * +13.0
finger 2 = open * +12.0
finger 3 = 2,2 2,3 * +11.0
finger 4 = 2,1 * +10.0
finger 5 = 2,1 2,3 * +9.0
finger 6 = 2,1 2,2 * +8.0
finger 7 = 2,1 2,2 1,5 * +7.0
finger 8 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 * +6.0
finger 9 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 * +5.0
finger 10 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,6 * +4.0
finger 11 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 * +3.0
finger 12 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,7 * +2.0
finger 13 = 2,1 2,2 2,3 1,5 1,6 1,7 * +1.0
#
#Additions (add to the base note in scale increments)
addition 1 = 1,8 * +12.0
addition 2 = 2,8 * -12.0
#
#Modifiers (add a modifier signal), usually but not always in
#semitones for a scale
modifier 1 = 2,4 * +0.5
#Polyphony
polyphony 1 = 1,1 * +3.0
polyphony 2 = 1,2 * +5.0
polyphony 3 = 1,3 * +6.0
polyphony 4 = 1,4 * +7.0


I'm a bit disappointed though that "modifer 1" doesn't support +0.5 properly - it does the same thing as if it was +1.0. Fractional modifiers would be great fun for having a whistle setup that could play quarter-tones... without having to first define a quarter-tone chromatic scale and rebase the fingerer setup on top of that.

I'm not quite sure at the moment what to do with 1,1 through 1,4, as the polyphony keys there are almost impossible to actually play, so maybe if I view it as an alternative top course (and maybe likewise with 1,5 to 1,7) I can do something interesting there.



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