User:Kaiveran/A discussion of partial skip-frettings

In the original article on skip fretting, Jeff Brown mentions the possibility that this procedure could be applied to an instrument only partially – that is, retaining all the frets in the lower octave or register, while skipping some in the higher one to ease playability.

While no examples were extant at the time of his original writing on the subject, the microtonal band Angine de Poitrine has since gone viral for (among other things) their 24edo doubleneck bass-guitar combo, which is visibly skip-fretted in its upper-registers. This practical exploration of partial skip-fretting will address that elephant in the room first, before expanding and applying the concepts to different tunings.

24edo

Non-isomorphic, partial skip-2 (the AdP approach)

The case of Khn de Poitrine's instrument is especially notable because (as far as I know) they play in standard EADG[BE] tuning, and the cardinality of the EDO and the gap is not co-prime.

[elucidate]

This all has the net effect of making the keys already found in 12edo to be the most practical to play in, by far – although those keys will all have a decently-sized zone where all 24 intervals are available. For AdP's style of music, this can and does work quite well! If someone wants more freedom of modulation, however, they will likely be more interested in an isomorphic system, which will be explored in an upcoming section.

Guitar/bass asymmetry, & feeling out minimum fret clearances

Khn's instrument is also notable in that the two necks actually differ in where the break point is between regular and skip fretting. On the guitar side it is at 15\12 (or a minor 10th up), whereas on the bass side it is 13\12 (or minor 9th).

[go into possible reasons, e.g tessituras and string gauges]

[note implications of "border keys" differing]

[note the specific ~3/2 ratio of minimum fret clearances and posit your own standard]

Isomorphic variants

[~3 tuning primarily]

31edo

[my turn!]