What is microtonal music?

Microtonal music steps outside the familiar framework of the standard Western tuning we’ve grown up with, giving us access to intervals that sit between the notes you already know. Simple, right? Well, sort of. Here’s a little more detail…

The octave is the fundamental building block of how we listen to music. This isn’t just an arbitrary thing, it’s about maths and frequencies – if you double the frequency of a note, you go up an octave. On a guitar, for instance, your low E string vibrates at around 82.41 Hz. At the 12th fret, that frequency doubles to 164.82 Hz, which your ear recognises as the same note, but an octave higher. Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

Between those two points, Western tuning divides the octave into 12 equal steps. These form what’s known as 12-tone equal temperament. If you grew up listening to music written in standard Western tuning, that’s almost certainly what sounds “normal”.

Microtonal music is anything that doesn’t use this system.

While there are limitless possibilities when you step away from standard Western tuning, microtonal music can be separated into three broad categories. These are:

Equal Division of the Octave, usually abbreviated to EDO. Standard Western tuning is 12-EDO, with the octave split into 12 equal divisions.

Because pitch works on ratios, it’s a logarithmic scale: go up one octave, and the frequency doubles; go up a second octave, and it doubles again. This means that the note two octaves up from your original note has a frequency four times as high. So, when we talk about equal divisions, be aware that these are also based on a logarithmic scale.

With that brief physics lesson out of the way, you can divide the octave as many times as you want. A lot of Middle Eastern music uses 24-EDO, giving musicians access to quarter tones. One of the most common forms of dedicated microtonal guitar uses 24-EDO, with double the number of frets!

But there’s a downside to EDO. When you divide the octave into equal sections, you don’t get perfect ratios. With the 12-EDO tuning we’re all used to, nothing is very “off”, but some of the intervals sound a little bit dodgy. This leads on to the second type of microtonal system.

Just Intonation. This involves tuning the notes in a scale to exact frequency ratios. It ensures that every note in the scale harmonises perfectly with the others. The downside is that you’re pretty much stuck in one key!

Free Intonation is the third broad category. This is where pitches aren’t tied to a fixed system at all – it’s musical anarchy! Here, you’re free to place notes wherever they feel right, which opens up a more experimental and expressive way of working.

With an idea of the basics, it’s time for us to look at microtonal guitars and what the polka-dotted madmen of Angine de Poitrine are doing with them.

The possibilities of microtonal guitar

Microtonal guitar might not be mainstream, but it’s definitely a thing. There are more and more guitarists experimenting with the creative freedom of microtonality, and once you hear what’s possible, it’s easy to understand why.

In standard Western music, you’re working within a fixed set of notes. That’s great, and there’s a huge range for creativity and expression within that, but what if you could do more? Make sounds you haven’t heard anyone else make? There have always been guitarists looking for ways to do something completely new, and microtonal guitar is a tool that can help with the quest.

Microtonal guitar can also open up your playing to musical traditions from around the world. Many cultures use microtones as a core part of their sound, so a guitar that’s designed for microtonal playing lets you engage with these styles more authentically. I can give you scope for learning from and incorporating a broader range of influences.

And that’s really the appeal. It gives you the freedom to move beyond the limits of standard fretting and create music that wouldn’t be possible on a conventional guitar.

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Enter, Angine de Poitrine

We’ve all heard the name, and we’ve probably all watched the KEXP session that launched them from a fairly regional act to a viral phenomenon. Two musicians in masks and polka dots playing some genuinely different and interesting music.

Part of what makes them fascinating is their image, of course. The costumes, anonymity, and peculiarity of it all are immediately intriguing, but their music has the goods to back up the image. It’s weird, rhythmically complex, and full of unexpected intervals thanks to its microtonal nature.

At the heart of their sound is a custom-built double-neck instrument that combines guitar and bass. Interestingly, the first version of this instrument didn’t come from a factory or specialist luthier. It was built by drummer Klek de Poitrine, who added extra frets to an old guitar and presented it to guitarist Khn de Poitrine with the words, “You have to try this, it makes absolutely no sense.”

That alone should be reason enough to give them a listen!

Their use of microtonality is another layer to the experimental and whimsical nature of what they do. By stepping outside standard tuning systems, they’re able to do things differently, keeping the listener a little off balance. The band has cited Turkish rock and Gamelan music as influences, among others. These styles often rely on intervals that don’t exist in Western scales.

With only two musicians in the band, looping also plays a central role in how they build their arrangements. Using Boss loop stations, they layer guitar and bass parts in real time, creating dense, interlocking sections and arrangements that would usually require a much larger band.

The guitar sound also relies on a carefully thought-out pedalboard. A Moog ring modulator introduces metallic, shifting overtones, while an MXR bass octaver helps reinforce the low end when switching between parts.

Time-based effects like the Boss DD-8 delay add space and rhythmic texture. Meanwhile, a RAT distortion and Mad Professor overdrive provide different flavours of grit, letting them use different gain sounds to separate different sections and lines within their arrangements.

The signal is then split into separate bass and guitar amps – a Hartke HA2500 head for the bass side and a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 for the guitar. Both amps offer great neutral clean tones, serving as blank canvases for the pedal-shaped sounds the band uses.

All of this comes together in a complex yet intentional setup. Every piece of gear supports their playing style and serves a specific role.

Ultimately, that’s probably part of why they’ve resonated with so many players. They’re not just pushing boundaries for the sake of it – they’re demonstrating how thoughtful changes to your instrument and rig can open up entirely new musical directions for you to have fun with.

Other microtonal musicians you should know about

• King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (psychedelic rock): An Australian band known for their exploratory albums, including Flying Microtonal Banana, where they built custom instruments to play in microtonal tunings.
• Sevish (electronic/EDM): A leading figure in microtonal electronic music, Sevish creates dance tracks using microtonal tunings while still keeping them catchy and club-friendly.
• Jacob Collier (jazz/pop/experimental): A multi-instrumentalist who occasionally incorporates microtonality into his harmonies, pushing the boundaries of modern pop and jazz arrangements.
• Ben Johnston (contemporary classical): No, not the drummer from Biffy Clyro. A composer famous for string quartets written in extended just intonation, using highly precise tuning systems beyond standard Western pitch.
• Harry Partch (avant-garde/experimental): A pioneer of microtonal music who built his own instruments and developed a 43-tone scale, creating a completely unique musical language.
• Brendan Byrnes (progressive rock/electronic): Creates narrative-driven concept albums that integrate microtonal scales into progressive rock and synth-based compositions.
• Tolgahan Çoğulu (classical/Turkish fusion): A guitarist who developed an adjustable microtonal guitar, blending Turkish makam traditions with Western classical techniques.
• Aleksander Vinter (Savant) (electronic/EDM): Occasionally experiments with microtonality within his high-energy electronic productions, adding unusual harmonic colour.
• Kyle Gann (minimalism/contemporary classical): A composer and theorist who writes extensively about microtonality and composes works using just intonation and other systems.

How to play notes between notes

Microtonal playing might sound complex, but, as a guitarist, you’re probably already doing it without thinking. Subtle pitch shifts happen naturally on guitar and bass, especially when you bend a string or slide between notes. Blues music, in particular, loves a quarter-tone bend!

In fact, string bending is one of the simplest ways to explore notes between the standard frets on a guitar. By pushing or pulling the string, you can control the pitch with surprising accuracy, landing somewhere between two fixed notes.

Slide guitar takes a different approach. Instead of pressing the string to a fret, you glide across it with a slide, giving you smooth, continuous pitch changes that open up microtonal expression.

You can also look at fretless instruments, which remove the fixed points altogether. This gives you full control over pitch, but it does require a steady ear and precise finger placement to sound in tune, so it might be a challenge, particularly as you start your microtonal exploration.

Then, of course, there are purpose-built microtonal guitars available. But unless you’re deeply invested in this style, bends, slides, and fretless playing offer a far more accessible way to get started. In many cases, these techniques will give you more than enough range to experiment and develop your ear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FAQs

Is microtonal music hard to listen to?

At first, microtonal music can seem hard to listen to, but this is due to a lack of familiarity. We’re all conditioned to expect music to sound a certain way, and microtonal music steps outside what we’re used to in the West. It can be a rewarding learning process.

Is there a future for microtonal music?

Microtonal music has existed for as long as there’s been music and doesn’t show any signs of going away. Many traditional musical styles use microtonality, and even within Western music, there are artists experimenting with microtonality and the creative opportunities it offers.

What is a microtonal guitar?

A microtonal guitar is a specialised guitar that is designed to use different intervals for each fret. This can include frets at quarter-tone intervals, guitars fretted to just intonation, and even fretless guitars. All of these offer the opportunity to move away from the standard scale.

Final thoughts

Music is a tool for self-expression, and microtonal music opens up a whole new aspect for musicians to explore. In this article, we’ve looked at the different types of microtonal tunings and how artists like Angine de Poitrine apply them in a practical, guitar-led context.

As guitarists, we have access to microtonal possibilities built into the instrument, ready for us to explore. There’s plenty of room to experiment here, so if you’re interested in playing with microtones, it’s worth investigating options that suit your setup and playing style.