How To Really Tune To 432!

There is one piece of information about 432 tuning that I really have not seen anywhere online.

About how to tune. It is there, of course, but not clearly spelled out, and very few that talk about the tuning even touch on the subject. That I have seen or heard…

I am talking about the temperament!

Musical temperament is probably best explained as the relative distance between each note in a scale. And what many people do not know is that there is many different systems to do this. Many different temperaments! And they all sound the same to untrained ears, but the differences are definitely there and when you are looking for perfect harmony it becomes important.

Most modern music and instruments are tuned to what is called equal temperament. It seems to me that what many people do is tune their instruments down to 432, but not alter the temperament in any way. This gives you some of those sweet notes that you are looking for but it does not give you a perfect 432 scale!

So what temperament gives us the perfect 432 scale?

As I have mentioned in another post, no scale will ever be 100% perfect. Pythagoras tuning and the whole Harmonices Mundi theory seems to be tunings that gives the best results in my experience. I am far from a mathematical genius so in the end I trust my ears and body on this. I will say that many other temperaments will work better than the equal temper, in fact I will argue that equal temper is quite dissonant. It is sort of a compromise (well, they all are really, but...) since perfectly tuning an instrument is in fact an impossible task. Exactly why will have to be another post. If you are new to this and curious you will find loads of info if you do an internet search on some of these terms.

And how to figure out and alter the temperament in your instruments?

A computer is by far the best tool. And without it I would honestly be pretty helpless in figuring out how to alter temperament. The whole math thing... Singingbowls are freaking awesome but you can do anything with a computer! Instruments like pianos or harps can be tuned very well. A standard guitar unfortunately is not very well adjusted for this, but hey, guitars are nice, no need to give up on it! Singing bowls and stuff… trial and error. Sometimes you compromise a bit, and there is no need to lose sleep over that. Do the best you can and it will be awesome, but always strive to come closer to that perfect harmony. And know your frequencies!

Speaking of computers, I use Logic Pro X and can easily alter the temperament. I do not know but I would bet that you can do the same in all professional music production software. A frequency generator is also a great tool if you are going down this rabbit hole! I just have a free app on my phone and it works fine.

Why have I not seen this info this clearly explained before? Is it just me that have done a poor job looking? I would really like to know! If you have any info on this at all please contact me. On instagram, Facebook, comment here… anything.

Ok. Short and sweet. How we like it;)

Thank you for reading and I will be back with more soon!

Jonas