12-TET

12-TET is an abbreviation of 12 Tone Equal Temperament, which is the common Western logaritmic scale and tuning as can be viewed on the fretboard of a guitar. Each fret becomes slightly smaller and the octave is divided in 12 tones. When people talk about 12-TET it is often opposed to Just Intonation, a tuning based of equal frequency ratio’s (3/2, 4/3, 5/4, etc.) instead of logaritmic relations.

Piano and Guitar are examples of instruments that work with 12-TET. The sharp and flat notes are equal in 12-TET, these are not equal in the Just Intonation scale.

Not only the 12-TET is used. Also other logaritmic scales are used in microtonal music, like the 19-TET, 24-TET and 31-TET. The 24-TET is also present on some Indian instruments. The pro of this 24-TET system is, that is allows musicians to play regular 12-TET on it. Only 12 of the 24 frets are being used in that case. If a more Eastern sound is desired the musician can use some of the additional frets, causing the typical small interval sounds which reminds Western people to Arabic music.

The diagram above only shows the positions for 12tET and LucyTuned 19, 25, and 31, frets per octave. These 19, 25 and 31 are not TET scales, but these are called Lucy tunings. In TET scales the fret intervals become smaller at each following rising tone.

The ultra cool looking Ivor Darrreg is known for using all kinds of TET scales like the 5-TET and 7-TET and other scales. He wrote extended explanations about alternate scales.

For These Are Powers I’m developing a 10-TET scale instrument. Neptune has built an guitar with a 13-TET scale.

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