What scale should a Koto be tuned to

[Constructed Identity]

Classical Koto sound
https://samplefocus.com/samples/japanes ... cal-melody

[FranklyFlawless]

Hirajōshi scale:

• Hirajōshi scale - Wikipedia (on my Wikiless instance)

[harryupbabble]

depends on the composer?
some composers don't want to be shackled?
and any scale is the way to go?
some don't even pay attention to scales?
just whatever sounds good to the composer?

[digitalboytn]

Tune it up to 11

[Constructed Identity]

Hirajōshi scale:

• Hirajōshi scale - Wikipedia (on my Wikiless instance)

Thank you. Now to see if I can upload that to my Prologue

[BertKoor]

What's there to upload? There's no "tuning" involved afaik, it is merely a selection of five tones from the twelve we have in western Equal Temperament tuning. It's a pattern of intervals: 2-1-4-1-4 semitones.
See page 65 of the Korg Prologue owner's manual if you want to create a "User Scale" for this.

[jancivil]

He's tuning by ear, so one doubts his ear is finding intervals from "12 tone equal temperament". because except for a 2:1 octave is all out-of-tune. We're accustomed to it but objectively the irrational 12th root of two does not produce natural consonances except the one. He does have an electronic tuner to start with, he mentions 'if you're in an ensemble' so like anything else you establish a basis. A U. of Stanford article asserts the tuning is A = 430.

if the goal is to be authentic, the expression is largely from bending strings, and the stylistic thing done is predominantly a quick semitone sort of grace note, eg., D-Eb-D. Do this by ear, it wouldn't be very meaningful to nail down a single interval definition as though this is a piano. You probably have a pitch bend wheel.

A lot of what you'll see such as in the 'wikiless' article is confusion of terms. The differences are going to be because one 'scale' tends to be type of modalization of another. "can be derived from" this or that western mode is not incorrect but it's not particularly useful to the point. The Stanford entry does a bit of this. Might be distracting.

[Constructed Identity]

What's there to upload? There's no "tuning" involved afaik, it is merely a selection of five tones from the twelve we have in western Equal Temperament tuning. It's a pattern of intervals: 2-1-4-1-4 semitones.
See page 65 of the Korg Prologue owner's manual if you want to create a "User Scale" for this.

Yes, found out. Turns out a koto wasn’t a good fit in the song I am working on anyway. But it is nice that I have two ‘koto’ sounds inside of two of my hardware synths. For years I had it in my romper Yamaha workstation.