Understanding 31 EDO's Most Challenging Microtonal Scale

Exploring Heptatonic Nusecond temperament, one of 31 EDO's most challenging microtonal scales, through the lens of both an Eastern and Western compositional framework.

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#microtonal #microtonality #31edo #31tet #musictheory #musictheorylessons #microtone #xenharmonic #xenharmonics #heptatonicnusecond #nusecond #nusecondtemperament #subminor #supermajor

Timestamps:
00:00 - Understanding Heptatonic Nusecond
00:46 - Nusecond Example
01:09 - Basics of 31 EDO
02:54 - Constructing Heptatonic Nusecond
03:19 - Eastern Nusecond 7 Example
05:18 - Altered Nusecond, 31EDO Chords & Microtonal Scalesmithing
10:11 - Western Altered Nusecond Example
11:25 - Maqam Theory, Tetrachords, & East VS Western Music Theory
17:55 - Levi's Patreon Pitch!

[LeviMcClain]

Huge thanks to Margo Zelle, the Solfège Queen for her amazing vocals in the example at 10:11.

[rsvatt]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate how beautiful your compositions are in these videos? Musicianship is off the charts!

[Samuelisakson]

omg please release these as full songs

[misterguy]

Another comment: while you focus mainly on tunings and scales, you are clearly into what I call "metric awareness". I mean, "metric awareness", for me, means one does not have to be stuck in 4/4. One can use whatever one needs for a given purpose. One day, it would be cool if you take us into your take on "metric awareness"... cheers

[unhealthytruthseeker]

14:20 "Never gonna use 12 notes. Never gonna tune by rote. Never gonna cast a vote, for 12 tone."

[dainiusandhismusic]

This is amazing! The way you you transform the theory into music is great, it holds ground perfectly without having to explain the theory. The amount of work that goes into this is astounding. Keep up the great work!

[marcelominal]

The song you composed in 10:11 is amazing. It sounds really good, specially when the singer joins the song.

[NikodAnimations]

Fun fact: in 17edo, Nusecond [7] actually ahas a perfect fifth.

[BobRafferty]

Another great video! Love the observation of vertical and horizontal approaches to music. I’ve never really considered that before.

Also, I Can’t read ‘icositritonic’ without thinking it’s an ingredient in a sports drink, haha!

[rasmusn.e.m]

New favourite video of yours. I think this might have been the clearest explanation of a 31 EDO scale I've seen so far (Xenharmonic wiki is very confusing if you aren't into the jargon), and holy moly was it an interesting one. I loved the compositions and especially how you showed how to sing over it. I can't imagine how wild it must be to practice that. Sounded amazing though.

Some constructive criticism, if it's ok:

1: I think having some kind of markers around the diesis wheel (or whatever it's called) where the approximations of the relevant intervals we know from 12 edo are would be helpful for those of us who aren't used to thinking in diesis steps yet: for example, I'm pretty sure from the video that the 31 edo approximation of the fifth is around the 18th diesis step. If that could be indicated with some kind of colour difference or writing or something, I think that would be helpful when talking about the fifth. Same goes for the major or minor third when talking about thirds in general.

2: I think maybe the detour into talking about Middle Eastern music and explaining how it differs in expression from Western music felt a little bit tagged on? I at least got a little bit lost in my focus there and there wasn't really a satisfying conclusion to it, like a composition based on heptanoic nunesecond like there was with the two other approaches. It was a good explanation though.
I get that it was pretty logical to talk about it when explaining the first tetrachord, but maybe it would have made more sense to tie it in when you were already talking about how the scale doesn't really conform to a home chord, and then you could pivot to how you might approach a scale (or melodic structure) that doesn't do that by showing how Middle Eastern music does it. Then you could show how the first tetrachord looks like uşşak/bayati/shur.

Anyway, I'm only saying these things because I really hope you do more like this. It was super inspiring to watch and made me really giddy to try and make some 31 edo music myself.

[eigenstatezero]

I am going against my better judgement and trying this 31 thing out. Awesome videos!

[DanielJohnLazenby]

Astounding stuff! I really enjoy the comparison of Western microtonal theory to the music of other cultures - I feel those who are interested in the former often neglect that our interpretation of music is but one of many.

[axolotl]

that bass is sick... I want one. the vocalist really sold that... not easy. as the owner of a custom-built 31-TET guitar and a Lumatone, I'm so down for this. great stuff.

[AstaryuuGaming]

I've been experimenting recently with 15edo onyx, which through this video, I realized is essentially just 31edo heptatonic nusecond (it's formed in the same way and has the same number of notes, it's simply that 15edo's approximation of the neutral second is different from what 31edo can do). This might unironically help me make music in what I consider to be the most interesting part of my chosen slice of the microtonal world - thank you!

[Skeleton_Dork]

Damn that first song had some Claypool vibes

[YoVariable]

Another banger video! It would be cool if Nusecond temperament in 31edo also supported porcupine temperament, where 3 neutral seconds stack to a perfect 4th. Generators around 160¢-165¢ (compared to 155¢ in 31edo) are optimal for porcupine. If you want a really well-tuned perfect 5th and 4th, 29edo might pique your interest. One flaw of porcupine, however, is that the 6/5 minor third becomes sharper, typically around 320¢-330¢ (compared to the ideal ~316¢). If 31edo were to support porcupine temperament, we wouldn't have to build Icositritonic Nusecond[23] to have a well-tuned perfect 5th!

[Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

This is the first time I have seen anybody use a fretless guitar to play microtonal music.

[alexr]

great video! nusecond is a cool one, especially nusecond[8]. one really interesting alteration of nusecond[8] is actually a modMOS with steps 3 4 3 4 4 5 4 4, notes P1 m2 s3 M3 S4 P5 M6 n7 P8, so it has a major sixth chord, 6:7:9:10:11, and 11th harmonic on the root. cool scale, with similar melodic properties to an equal octatonic scale. definitely hope you get bigger, would love to see more people getting into 31edo!

[lo-fi-luna]

i wanna try to use this scale but with the unstable approach
the unaltered version

[FREEZYREVS]

Such a unique and valuable content Levi, Thank you :) looking forward to see more of this.

An interesting and very unique fact about maqam saba in arabic music is that the 8th note (octave) the root but instead its b1 which release tension more than the root surprisingly!