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by chrispeel 2829 days ago
If you take the log of the frequencies in Hz [1], then the difference between notes is a fixed step. A fixed step means that you can index the notes with an integer. So this notation is close to representing things in Hz. It's fairly easy to interpret each note as a duodecimal integer and write an equation for the corresponding frequency in Hz. BTW, why 'dozenal' and not 'duodecimal'?

A more interesting question in my mind is if you're going to change things up, why keep 12 notes per octave? Why not 8 notes per ... octave :-) Or 16?

Also, since this is a log scale, could we write a new notation which indeed does have 8 notes per 'octave', but which uses a different definition of an 'octave', and could be used to write the same music we play today.

[1] http://pages.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
2 comments
code_duck 2829 days ago
It’s the use of 0-9, a-b that I find awkward and object to.

Why not have 16 notes per octave? Uh... wow, well, because it sounds bizarre and would make it difficult to play all existing western music in addition to confusing to every musician practiced in contemporary standard music. Why not 8? Hmm. Are you actually a musician or just speculating?

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chrispeel 2828 days ago
Not a musician at all. See my other comment which contains links explaining the utility of 12-note octaves.
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code_duck 2828 days ago
Your opinion on this resembles a blind person who has never painted deciding that painters could use 5 primary colors instead of 3. Or, maybe we should make do with 2 because it works out cleanly.

12 note octaves are not ‘utility’, it’s how almost every single piece of music you’ve ever heard was constructed. Breaking the octave into smaller units creates sounds that are off putting and unfamiliar. Check out ‘microtonal’ music. There is also Indian music that uses divisions like 20 per octave.

It seems your analysis and suggestions are based purely on mathematical concepts of this notation. However, it’s not useful to consider this this notation divorced from its implementation.

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chrispeel 2829 days ago
Regarding why there are 12 notes per octave, I found answers for my own question.

https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/24/why-are-there-t...

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/11669/mathematical-...

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code_duck 2828 days ago
In my opinion those do a terrible job of explaining why we have a 12 note system of music.
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