Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
My submission for the Hardware Jams “Melody” Weekend Challenge.
Why limit your melodies to 12 notes when you could have 31 notes in an octave! Why not increase the difficulty of a melodies challenge with even more frequencies to choose from! Well a good reason to do these things is that my hexboard arrived this week and I’ve been looking forward to exploring microtonal music. I’ve been learning a bit about 31 EDO tuning recently and so decided to start with that tuning and play around to see what I could make. Also I nearly always stick to 4/4 in my music so decided to challenge myself further by trying to write in 3/4. And so this waltz was born. It starts reasonably close to 12 tuning and then modulates part way though to move one of the parts down a diesis (one division in 31 edo). This leads to a more unusual tuning between the parts and I built on this with more unusual parts.
I hope you enjoy this exploration of melodies in different tuning systems and in 3/4.
This week’s challenge prompt:
This weekend your challenge is to make a jam focusing on melody. Make a jam that sings, a jam that will leave us humming the melody afterwards. Create a memorable melodic hook to captivate the listener and make the jam support and highlight it. This challenge is also a chance to develop your skills as a musician, maybe make an effort to go deeper into a melodic approach.
Always Learning
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I'm a strong believer in continuous improvement and always trying to learn something new. This week was the first time I’ve written anything in 31 EDO and the hexboard is such a fantastic tool for microtonal exploration. Definitely lots of learning this week!
My submission for the Hardware Jams “Melody” Weekend Challenge.
Why limit your melodies to 12 notes when you could have 31 notes in an octave! Why not increase the difficulty of a melodies challenge with even more frequencies to choose from! Well a good reason to do these things is that my hexboard arrived this week and I’ve been looking forward to exploring microtonal music. I’ve been learning a bit about 31 EDO tuning recently and so decided to start with that tuning and play around to see what I could make. Also I nearly always stick to 4/4 in my music so decided to challenge myself further by trying to write in 3/4. And so this waltz was born. It starts reasonably close to 12 tuning and then modulates part way though to move one of the parts down a diesis (one division in 31 edo). This leads to a more unusual tuning between the parts and I built on this with more unusual parts.
I hope you enjoy this exploration of melodies in different tuning systems and in 3/4.
This week’s challenge prompt:
This weekend your challenge is to make a jam focusing on melody. Make a jam that sings, a jam that will leave us humming the melody afterwards. Create a memorable melodic hook to captivate the listener and make the jam support and highlight it. This challenge is also a chance to develop your skills as a musician, maybe make an effort to go deeper into a melodic approach.
Always Learning
════════════
I'm a strong believer in continuous improvement and always trying to learn something new. This week was the first time I’ve written anything in 31 EDO and the hexboard is such a fantastic tool for microtonal exploration. Definitely lots of learning this week!
