music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

mistuning is most generally the action of incorrectly

tuning Tuning can refer to: Common uses * Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component * Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice ** Guitar tunings ** Piano tuning, adjusti ...

or the state of being out of tune. Mistuning is also the displacement of a pitch a semitone away from its standard position in a stable tonal structure such as the most common perfect fourth or fifth, which mistuned in the opposite directions produce a

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...

. A portion of the

alpha chord An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrical ...

:E-G-C-E, may be considered an E major chord: E-G-B-E, whose members are mistuned. (Wilson 1992, p. 9) See:

alteration Alteration(s) may refer to: * Alteration (music), the use of a neighboring pitch in the chromatic scale in place of its diatonic neighbor. ** Alteration, in the mensural notation used by renaissance music, the lengthening of a breve, semibreve or ...

and

chord substitution In music theory, chord substitution is the technique of using a chord in place of another in a progression of chords, or a chord progression. Much of the European classical repertoire and the vast majority of blues, jazz and rock music songs a ...

. In

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects r ...

mistuning is a lack of symmetry present in a real object that ideally is perfectly symmetric. This phenomenon is studied in relation to turbine disks, for example; it can cause an increase of the forced response that can bring about unexpected failures due to fatigue. Mistuning is caused by manufacturer tolerances, non-homogeneity of the material, the usage, etc., and so it is unavoidable. It has been observed that the amount of increase in the forced response of mistuned turbine disks strongly depends on the physical characteristics of the disk itself: actual efforts to limit the negative effects of this phenomenon upon turbine disks focus on understanding how to design a disk that is influenced minimally by mistuning in the working rotational speed.

Sources

*Kárpáti, János (1975). ''Bartók's String Quartets''. Translated by Fred MacNicol. Budapest: Corvina Press. Cited in Wilson (1992). *Wilson, Paul (1992). ''The Music of Béla Bartók''. . Chromaticism {{Music-theory-stub