Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Baton Rouge, LA, USA, May 31-June 3, 2015 Major Thirds: A Better Way to Tune Your iPad Hans Anderson, Kin Wah Edward Lin, Natalie Agus and Simon Lui Singapore University of Technology and Design 8 Somapah Road Singapore 487372 {hans_anderson, edward_lin, natalie_agus}@mymail.sutd.edu.sg,
[email protected] ABSTRACT Major 3rds tuning makes it much easier for the new Many new melodic instruments use a touch sensitive sur- users to learn to play it. In the remaining portion of face with notes arranged in a two-dimensional grid. Most the introduction we will briefly describe some of the related of these arrange notes in chromatic half-steps along the hor- commercially available instruments. In Section 2, we dis- izontal axis and in intervals of 4ths along the vertical axis. cuss the origins of the Major 3rds tuning and explains why Although many alternatives exist, this arrangement, which it is uniquely suited for use on touch-sensitive surfaces. In resembles that of a bass guitar, is quickly becoming the de Section 3, we summarise some key points about the imple- facto standard. In this study we present experimental ev- mentation of our own instrument. In Section 4, we outline idence that grid based instruments are significantly easier our experimental procedure and analyse the results. Fi- to play when we tune adjacent rows in Major 3rds rather nally, we suggest future work related to the study of note than 4ths. We have developed a grid-based instrument as arrangements and of iPad virtual instruments in general.