Microtonal music is a type of harmony (or organization of musical sounds) that employs intervals that are smaller than those used in traditional western music. Half steps and whole steps are used to divide Western musical keys, or note patterns. Western music recognizes the half step as the smallest interval. Intervals of less than a half step are used in microtonal music.
In the Western style, an octave has 12 half steps. Scales are made up of half-step and whole-step combinations. Because smaller intervals are used and the number of intervals per scale pattern is not standardized, microtonal music has a much broader range of musical patterns. Different musicians and composers use different divisions, with the octave being divided into 19 or 31 equal steps in some cases. In other cases, the musical pattern is not based on the octave at all.
Microtones are sometimes used in music from non-western cultures. To create the sound, they may use instruments or the human voice. To play microtones, composers sometimes create their own instruments or adapt existing instruments.
Microtonal music cannot be played on all instruments. Western instruments aren’t usually suitable for this purpose, but some can be adapted. Although wind and brass players can adjust the pitch of their instruments in microtones with the use of air, mouth, and finger placement, accuracy is difficult to achieve. The trombone is an exception, as it uses a slide to adjust the length of the tubes to alter the pitch of the sound. Trumpet, tuba, and horn were more difficult to adapt.
Microtonal music can also be played on string instruments that aren’t fretted, such as the upright bass, violin, viola, cello, and a variety of other stringed instruments. Because the microtones on the neck of the instrument are extremely close together, it can be difficult for a musician with large fingers to achieve the correct position on the instrument in some cases.
Microtones are impossible to play on wind instruments like the clarinet, flute, and saxophone. The holes in a wind instrument are spaced at regular intervals along a wooden or metal tube. To adjust pitch, the holes are closed. The mechanism on wind instruments prevents this method from being used, despite the fact that covering half of a hole will change the pitch less than a half step.
Even if an instrument can play microtones, the music must be performed a skilled musician. To distinguish between tones, microntonal music necessitates a highly refined sense of hearing. Learning to play microtonal music would be difficult for a musician who has been trained to play music in the twelve note octave pattern because his ear would be unaccustomed to the tuning.