Kathleen's Place

Evelyn at "Victory Lutheran"

this is where I'm teaching guitar Wednesday night down in Devon

Achieving "Just Guitar"

Well whoever is reading this has endured my writing about "Just Intonation" and the "Harmonic Code"...wait a minute, have I mentioned that? Anyways, I think I've made a breakthrough, (at least for now) with my 57 Martin.

For one I took the frets off a couple weeks ago and continued my harmonic tuning of the instrument. 1/1 , 3/2, 2/1, 5/6, 3/2, 2/1 . I think is how it would described in ratios but I may still be off on that here's an image of a diagram from Partch's book to demonstrate the obvious need for a paradigm shift to appreciate ratios in music:


Actually I can certainly say I am off on those ratios so I'll put it into standardized "music theory" language (Sorry Harry).

E String : Drop Db
A String : Ab (tuned to the "5th" harmonic on the low D) that's located roughly over the 7th fret
D String : Db up the "octave" match 5th fret and 12th fret harmonics
G String : F (matched with the harmonic 3rd found near the 4th and 9th frets
B String : Ab (up an octave from the low Ab)
E String : Db (up an octave from the middle Db)

This gives us a most beautiful "Major Chord" that is Justly Intuned. Monphonic in the sense that each open string is tuned to a naturallly occuring harmonic found on the 1/1 or the fundemental tone, in this case a Db. really the chord structure is the same as what is supposed to be heard when we pick up a standardly tuned guitar and strum a standard "E chord" on the guitar. (of course to be from the same fundemental you'd have to tuned your guitar down to Db)

The difference, however, between a justly tuned chord and a bastardized, distorted evil tampered chord is more than astonishing.

So now with a Just Chord to begin with and no frets to force the ratios out of wack, I can play with total freedom.

I'm going to try to take some pictures and maybe play a few samples for next time

Monophony is back

huh! you mean "monopoly is back" like on all the McDonald's signs? No I mean monophonic music. Huh what you mean one speaker instead of two as in "stereo". No I mean the beautiful sounds that are possible within the "monophonic fabric".

mono = ONE. One word, one sound.


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jhn 1:2
The same was in the beginning with God.

Jhn 1:3
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Jhn 1:4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Jhn 1:5
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The word, the sound, the ONE.

From the Center

In faith, I am now blogging from the center at (you guessed it!) From The Center
I've even changed my location, (as you may have noticed) to Winnipeg Manitoba.

I believe that "Winnipeg Man Can" in Winnipeg Man Can. I know the new abreviation is "MB" for Manitoba but whatever.

Manito = Manitou = Great Spirit
ba = speaks & moves

I believe this is the month that it's going to happen, I am thanking God for it now as if it is already an actuality.

2 years ago (2005) Lydia Penner (Winter) died. When I returned home there was an unconscious call "home". Last year Oct 2006 I was in Red Deer where I had a bit of a meltdown, but also met several Manitobans. It was shortly after that that Debbie and I made the decision to move to Manitoba. Sooooo....according to my "calculations" this is the appointed time.

So aside from dropping back in here at "radiance creative" to adjust or respond to various posts you can find me over at From the Center

see you there

Genesis of a Music, by Harry Partch

I ended my last post with a mention of Harry Partch. 2oth century composer, author, instrument builder and theorist. I heard about him from a guy named Chris who I had met a couple times at La Tienda cigar shop. He (Chris) is a drummer and Tambora player. The first time I spoke with him one of the things he mentioned as important to the preservation of real soul music (corpereal) was "Untempered Tunings"of the Celts and other northern peoples. That was well over a year ago and at the time it didn't mean much to me and I continued on playing and instructing in ET (Evil Tampering) of music and the guitar in particular.

Anyways more recently I stopped by La Tienda (the reason being that I have a free specialty drink coupon) and I saw Chris there again. When I said that I have been exploring "Just Intonation" he immediately informed me of "Harry Partch" who in his opinion was one who brought more Justly intuned music and instruments into actuality than anyone else. I went (and so can you) to youtube and Wikopedia to find out more about him and of course began searching for his most significant book "Genesis of a Music".

News Flash, I can be a little Scottish at times and love a good deal. As such I do not own a Public Library card. I do, however, have a "Neos" card which I can use at several Libraries (King's Univeristy, Concordia, Taylor etc.) So one day I drop by King's to find the book. My library card is no longer valid but the sweet lady at the desk shows some kindness by extending it (FREE OF CHARGE!) I find that there is a copy of the book down at Taylor College and Cemetary...whoops I mean "seminary". So I go there on my way to Devon. So there is is sitting on the shelf! I turn to the back to see how many times it's been signed out...get this! ONCE! When you ask? Nov 23rd 1979. 4 years after the authors death. Of course my card has been updated but I just have the number. The lady there at the desk, rather annoyed with me at my lack of card with comments like "most people bring there library card with them when they come to the library" and "we are really not supposed to do this" "espesially to an outside borrower." Well after slapping me on the wrist a number of times and wagging her finger she finally gave me the "OK I'll do it this one time".

So here I am with this treasure of a book, delving into a whole new (to me) world of sonic potentiality and actuality. simple, simple, SIMPLE RATIOS.

The impact of this is far too great to sum up in a mere blog post like this and it's about a lot more than "music". In particular as a side bar, it's got me considering my personal journey from Abstraction to Actuality. and what better friend to meet with yesterday than Ben Tremblay. Of course the journey is far from over but I finally am conscious of the vast difference between the abstract and the actual. And at this juncture (work wise) I am having to deal with actuality after actuality as I support our families needs through carpentry work. There is nothing abstract about roofing a garage. Although roofing 93 year old, spiritual sage, Kathleen's garage has sure made room for some significant spiritual learning. This connection, (and several others as of late) have brought to my awareness so many things about our move to Manitoba.

More on that in my next post.