Re: Ukulele string tunings

[David Kastrup]

Choan Gálvez <address@hidden> writes:

> On 5/12/12 16:08 , David Kastrup wrote:
>> Choan Gálvez<address@hidden>  writes:
>>
>>> Current tunings for tenor and baritone ukulele are string
>>> reversed. From `ly/string-tunings-init.ly`:
>>>
>>> %% ukulele tunings
>>> \makeDefaultStringTuning #'ukulele-tuning \stringTuning<g' c' e' a'>
>>> \makeDefaultStringTuning #'ukulele-d-tuning \stringTuning<a' d' fis' b'>
>>> \makeDefaultStringTuning #'tenor-ukulele-tuning \stringTuning<a' e' c' g>
>>> \makeDefaultStringTuning #'baritone-ukulele-tuning \stringTuning<e' b g d>
>>>
>>> Those two last tuning should be<g c' e' a'>  and<d g b e'>  respectively.
>>>
>>> In addition, I'd say those two tunings are weirly named -- from the
>>> same file, all guitar tunings are named `guitar-something`, all banjo
>>> tunings `banjo-something`.
>>
>> But those are not tenor or baritone tunings of a ukulele, but rather
>> tunings of the tenor or baritone ukulele.  Namely different instruments.
>
> Yes. And no. The most common tuning for ukuleles --soprano, concert
> and tenor-- is <g' c' e' a'> (C reentrant tuning).
>
> The one which is currently defined as `tenor-ukulele-tuning` is used
> in soprano, concert and baritone too: <g c' e' a'> (C linear tuning).
>
> And the most used tuning for tenor ukuleles is <g' c' e' a'>
> (currently ukulele-tuning, that's fine).
>
> The `baritone-ukulele-tuning` is used --as far as I know-- only in
> baritone sized instruments, as the pitches are too low to sound nice
> in small instruments. But... there is an "A linear tuning" for
> baritone too.
>
> I'd use the following naming strategy:
>
> * Start with "ukulele-"
> * Use "pitch-" when the tuning is other than the common C tuning (C6)
> * Use "linear-" when the tuning is linear instead of the more common
> reentrant tuning
> * Finish with "tuning".

I find "linear" weird.  But it is not relevant what _I_ find weird if
that is what Ukulele players associate with it.

Programmers of LilyPond rarely know all the instruments that they are
writing support for.  If you have a development version of LilyPond
checked out, I would suggest preparing a patch/issue using git-cl.
Otherwise, submitting a careful proposal to the bug list should get your
issue added to the bug database, but it will depend on someone picking
it up to get a fix created.  So proposing a patch yourself will speed up
the process and make sure that the code corresponds best with what you
consider useful for your instrument.

-- 
David Kastrup