Introduction

The 12-tet tuning system has become so ubiquitous that many musicians take it for granted without realizing that there are alternatives. Yet 12-tet is a relatively new development in music.

Although 12-tet was first developed in the late 1500's (both in Europe and China), it only gained widespread acceptance in Western music over the latter half of the 1800's.[28] In the intervening centuries, meantone tunings other than 12-tet dominated Western music. By the early 1900's – only 100 years ago – the increasing centrality of the piano-style keyboard, and later of the guitar fret-board, drove 12-tet to become the standard tuning system that it is in the Western world today.

It is important to recognize, however, that this convergence on 12-tet was not an evolution towards a musical ideal, but rather a compromise between human ergonomics, the physics of music, and the existing technologies of musical interfaces and sound production. Since the late 1800's, human ergonomics haven't changed, nor have the physics of music – but advances in the technologies of sound production (electronic music synthesis) and musical interfaces (the ThumField) allow this technical compromise to be reconsidered.

Using tunings other than 12-tet is hardly a novel idea. Non-12-tet music is played all over the world every day, in the music of non-Western cultures.

For example,[29] the Indonesian gamelan emits a sound spectrum that is most consonant with 5-tet tuning, and that's the tuning that most closely approximates the average gamelan orchestra's tuning. The central musical instrument of Thailand and parts of Africa is a marimba-like instrument which is most consonant in 7-tet, which is indeed the scale that they use. On the other hand, Western instruments have co-evolved with the West's use of 12-tet, with which they are therefore most consonant. Different cultures – including historic instances of European culture – have divided the octave differently, in a co-evolution of instruments and tunings.

ThumFields and Meantone Tunings

Many of the world's most popular tunings – today and in the past – are meantone tunings (remembering that 12-tet is also a meantone tuning).[30] The ThumLattice – and therefore the ThumField – is the same for all meantone tunings, including non-equally-tempered meantone tunings. Even if one divides the octave into 31 tones (31-tet), the intervals most often used in tonal harmony are clustered tightly around Re, just as they are in 12-tet. Therefore one can play tonal music in any meantone tuning, and always with the same fingering, even if the tuning has more notes than the ThumField has buttons.

The consistency of the ThumField across alternative meantone tunings could make these tunings much more accessible to the average musician. One need only flip a switch to make a “tuning change,” after which could continue playing with exactly the same pattern of finger-movements as if one were playing in 12-tet. Such tuning changes could become an important part of Thummer-based music – an aspect of music that would be essentially impossible to play live on any other mainstream musical instrument.[31]

Similarly, tonal music notated in ThumLine (using triangular note-heads for chromatic notes as described above) is the same in all meantone tunings, in addition to being the same in all keys and registers.

As a result of this consistency across alternative meantone tunings, the ThumMusic PLUS System is ideal for teaching, learning, and playing the music of many cultures and of many times. With it, one can study the music of Indonesia, Africa, Thailand, the West (past and present), etc., all on a ThumField-based instrument. This removes the necessity (while preserving the option) of mastering a given culture's instruments in order to study that culture's music. Would studying many cultures' music on the Thummer capture the pure experience of playing all of their unique instruments? Of course not. But even if the experience is limited, it is a far more accessible experience than would otherwise be available.

New Frontiers for Musical Creativity

When developing the ThumMusic System, I did not expect that tonal structures would retain their shapes across alternative tunings. The first hint was when I realized that the ThumField's note-layout was the same in 19-tet as in 12-tet. What a shocker! Perhaps someday this will seem obvious, but it sure wasn't obvious to me at the time.

The consistency of the ThumMusic System's presentation of the structures of tonal music across so many variables strongly suggests that it captures something deeply meaningful about the structure of tonality.[32] As such, it is not “just” a system for teaching music to novices, but also a powerful tool for exploring new creative frontiers.

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