Just Intonation

1. What is wrong with just intonation?
2. What is the difference between just intonation and equal temperament?
3. Is just intonation better?
4. How does just intonation work?

What is wrong with just intonation?

Just intonation is extremely impractical for instruments that play chords (guitar or piano), or any instrument with fixed pitches which cannot bend, such as vibraphone or marimba. How many keys do you want in an octave on your keyboard? In the Baroque period, 12-tone equal temperament had not yet been invented.

What is the difference between just intonation and equal temperament?

Just intonation requires tuning your instrument for a specific key. With standard equal temperament, you can play further down the neck in another key and not end up with different sound quality intervals between notes.

Is just intonation better?

“Better sharp than out of tune.” Just intonation is, many believe, a more “pure” way of tuning and offers greater timbral and sonic possibilities than equal-temperament—the de facto form of intonation in Western music today. ...

How does just intonation work?

In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the attempt to tune all musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and may be called a just interval; when it is sounded, no beating is heard.