Utilising instruments that deviate from the 12-tone scale (such as microtonal or non-Western instruments) alongside traditional 12-tone scale instruments can add unique textures, tonal colours, and musical dimensions. Here’s how you can blend these diverse instruments effectively:
1. Microtonal tuning and instruments
Microtonal Instruments: Instruments that use smaller intervals than the typical Western semitone (e.g., quarter-tone pianos, Turkish baglama, Arabic oud).
- Integration: Compose music that combines traditional instruments with microtonal instruments, allowing for pitch bends, slides, and unusual harmonic structures.
- Techniques: Microtonal instruments can be used to create tension, atmosphere, and other-worldly effects. You can have microtonal lines in the background or weave them into melodies or chords.
2. Non-Western scales and instruments
Non-Western Instruments: Instruments like the Indian sitar, Balinese gamelan, or Persian santur, which use non-Western tuning systems and scales (e.g., raga, maqam, slendro/pelog).
- Integration: When combining them with 12-tone instruments, use modal or drone-based harmonies that are flexible with pitch. This creates a rich blend of traditional Western harmony and modal, non-Western tonalities.
- Techniques: You can contrast Western harmonic progressions with the sustained, floating nature of non-Western tunings. Use the non-Western instruments for melodic embellishments, rhythmic motifs, or even to lead melodic content in unconventional scales.
3. Harmonic and melodic hybridisation
Harmonic Fusion: When mixing instruments from different tuning systems, try using open intervals or drones to create a harmonic foundation that is more universally consonant. You can combine instruments by:
- Drone-Based accompaniments: Use drones or pedal tones from one instrument (e.g., traditional Western instruments) while microtonal or non-Western instruments play above or around it.
- Polymicrotonality: Experiment with the juxtaposition of different tuning systems playing together, creating dense harmonic textures. For example, microtonal instruments can create harmonics or dissonances that evolve and resolve over time.
4. Rhythmic and textural layering
Non-Western instruments often bring unique rhythmic structures that can complement Western ones.
- Polyrhythms: Use instruments from non-Western traditions to create complex polyrhythms, layered over the more regular rhythmic patterns of Western instruments. This creates an intricate, multi-dimensional sound.
- Textural Elements: Use the timbral contrasts between the instruments to create textural variety. Microtonal instruments, for example, can provide an ethereal or "otherworldly" sound that contrasts with the more familiar timbres of 12-tone instruments.
5. Electronics and processing
Digital modulation: You can use software to microtune traditional instruments or digitally process their sound to match or complement microtonal or non-Western scales.
- Pitch shifting: Subtly shifting the pitch of a 12-tone instrument to create microtonal intervals or harmonies with non-Western instruments.
- MIDI-Controlled instruments: Using MIDI to control tuning and pitch modulations, you can simulate microtonal scales even on 12-tone keyboards or synthesisers.
6. Improvisation and experimentation
Collaborative Improvisation: Encourage improvisation between musicians familiar with different tuning systems. This creates spontaneous interactions and explorations of the harmonic possibilities.
Experimental Composition: Write music that alternates between tonal centers or scales from both 12-tone and non-12-tone traditions. This can result in sections of the piece that feel familiar, interspersed with more exotic-sounding sections.
7. Phasing techniques
Phasing: Using instruments with different tuning systems, play the same melody at different pitch levels or tunings and slowly phase them together. This can create a gradual, evolving effect as the two systems interact.
8. Live performance techniques
Live pitch manipulation: Use pitch bend or modulation on electronic instruments to mimic microtonal inflections in real time, allowing you to interact with microtonal instruments without losing the flexibility of traditional 12-tone instruments.
By blending these instruments thoughtfully, you can enrich your music with new harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic possibilities, creating a distinctive sound that merges the familiar with the unexpected.
