Everything about Enharmonic Scale totally explained
An
enharmonic scale is a musical
scale in which there's no exact equivalence between a sharpened note and the flattened note it's
enharmonically related to.
As an example, F sharp and G flat are generally equivalent in a
chromatic scale, but they'd be distinguished in an enharmonic scale.
Consider a scale constructed through
Pythagorean tuning. A Pythagorean scale can be constructed "upwards" by wrapping a chain of
perfect fifths around an
octave, but it can also be constructed "downwards" by wrapping a chain of
perfect fourths around the same octave. By juxtaposing these two slightly different scales, it's possible to create an enharmonic scale.
The following Pythagorean scale is enharmonic:
| Note |
Ratio |
Decimal |
Cents |
Difference (Cents) |
| C |
1:1 |
1.00000 |
0.00000 |
| D♭ |
256:243 |
1.05350 |
90.2250 |
23.4600 |
| C♯ |
2187:2048 |
1.06787 |
113.685 |
| D |
9:8 |
1.12500 |
203.910 |
| E♭ |
32:27 |
1.18519 |
294.135 |
23.4600 |
| D♯ |
19683:16384 |
1.20135 |
317.595 |
| E |
81:64 |
1.26563 |
407.820 |
| F |
4:3 |
1.33333 |
498.045 |
| G♭ |
1024:729 |
1.40466 |
588.270 |
23.4600 |
| F♯ |
729:512 |
1.42383 |
611.730 |
| G |
3:2 |
1.50000 |
701.955 |
| A♭ |
128:81 |
1.58025 |
792.180 |
23.4600 |
| G♯ |
6561:4096 |
1.60181 |
815.640 |
| A |
27:16 |
1.68750 |
905.865 |
| B♭ |
16:9 |
1.77778 |
996.090 |
23.4600 |
| A♯ |
59049:32768 |
1.80203 |
1019.55 |
| B |
243:128 |
1.89844 |
1109.78 |
| C' |
2:1 |
2.00000 |
1200.00 |
In the above scale the following pairs of notes are said to be enharmonic:
- C♯ and D♭
- D♯ and E♭
- F♯ and G♭
- G♯ and A♭
- A♯ and B♭
In this example, natural notes are sharpened by multiplying its frequency ratio by 256:243 (called a
limma), and a natural note is flattened by multiplying its ratio by 243:256. A pair of enharmonic notes are separated by a
Pythagorean comma, which is equal to 531441:524288 (about 23.46
cents).
The
enharmonic genus is only loosely related to enharmonic scales, being a scale that has a pitch distinction too fine to accommodate with flat and sharp notation.
Musical keyboards which distinguish between enharmonic notes are called
enharmonic keyboards.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Enharmonic Scale'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://enharmonic_scale.totallyexplained.com">Enharmonic scale Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
