Click here for a chart of the scale spellings and more detailed descriptions.
See below for advice on choosing a tuning.
Note on sample recordings: improvisations on each Halo were played by Kyle Cox without rehearsal. These are not polished performances, but samples intended to give a sense of how each tuning sounds on an actual shipped Halo. MP3s offer better quality sound than the linked YouTube videos!
SEVEN-TONE CIRCLE TUNINGS
Minor Pentatonic 9 (C) F Ab Bb C Eb F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
Classic minor pentatonic, with a wistful ninth on top. Meditative and forgiving.
Deshvara (C) F G B C D F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
A major pentatonic based on Raga Desh, which is commonly used in Indian film music. Positive, playful, and just a bit exotic to many Western ears.
Mixophonic (C) F G Bb C D E G Sample: mp3 One of the two sun-filled, happy tunings currently offered; this one evokes a golden afternoon. A hexatonic version of the Mixolydian mode of C. Undeniably optimistic, yet with enough complexity to provide intruige.
Limoncello (C) F G B C D E G Sample: mp3
One of the two sun-filled, happy tunings currently offered; this one evokes a bright late morning, not too hot, just right. A straight major C, strongly flavored by the major 7th (B natural). Refreshing!
Pygmy (C) F G Ab C Eb F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
Darker than but similar to the Minor Pentatonic 9, with a more exotic, yearning quality.
Ake Bono (C) F G Ab C Db F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
A stranger, more exotic cousin of Pygmy, with a strong Japanese feel.
Blues (C) F Ab Bb B C Eb F Sample: mp3 | YouTube
A classic variation on a minor pentatonic, with the "blue note" of the augmented fourth providing delicious tension.
Little Bear (C) F G Ab C D Eb G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
A seven-tone version of our Xiao Xiong Diao, retaining its harmonic complexity, but gaining the sonic clarity of a seven-tone tuning. Strong flavors of both Pygmy and Ake Bono emerge, the latter suggested by the pattern of the upper three notes, which echoes that which defines the Ake Bono.
Big Bear (C) F G Bb C D Eb G Sample coming soon!
A seven-tone version of our Da Xiong Diao, retaining its harmonic complexity, but gaining the sonic clarity of a seven-tone tuning. As yearning as the DXD, but with a slightly more Japanese flavor; as with the Little Bear.
Saudade (C) F G B C D Eb G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
Named after the wistful melancholy at the heart of Portuguese fado music, because it also contains a unique mix of defiance, joy, loss, and ultimately peace. Unexpected and lovely, to our ears.
EIGHT-TONE CIRCLE TUNINGS
Kiavara (C) F G Ab C Db E F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
Based on an Indian Raga (Raag Kiravani), this has a strong Perisan/Arabic flavor. It could be considedered a harmonic minor scale with no fourth, or, an Ake Bono with an added E natural.
Harmonic Minor (C) F Ab Bb C Db E F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
A mode that evokes Romany (Gypsy) music and Klezmer, it has Arabic/Persian overtones though perhaps not as strong as in Kiavara. This tuning expresses a complete eight-note scale.
Da Xiong Diao (C) F G Bb C D Eb F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
An uplifting combination of Shang-Diao-like Chinese major pentatonic coloration in the lower register, with yearning Pygmy overtones in the upper. The name is pronounced "Daw-Shawng Deeyow," which means "Big Bear Mode" in Mandarin.
Xiao Xiong Diao (C) F G Ab C D Eb F G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
This tuning is a more wistful, minor key cousin of "Big Bear Mode" which is only one note away from a harmonic minor-based Hijaz and our own Pygmy (adding a D natural). The name is pronounced "Shau Shawng Deeyow" ("shau" rhymes with "now"), which means "Little Bear Mode" in Mandarin.
Khyberi (C) F# G Bb C D Eb F# G Sample: mp3
A very groove-friendly version of G harmonic minor, with the leading tone of the F# providing plenty of tension below the root G. Named for a famous pass on the southern silk road which it evokes to our ears. Strongly accented, but not monochromatic.
Tharsi (C) F G B C D Eb F# G Sample: mp3 | YouTube
Named for the Thar desert in Rajasthan in northwest India, this unusual tuning combines major and minor colors in an evocative mix of joy and lament that would sound at home from the Arabian peninsula across central Asia. The second of our silk road series.
All of our tunings sounds different on the Halo then on a piano or other instrument, sometimes, strikingly so. Be sure to listen to the sample recordings (or other examples found online)!
We suggest you pick a tuning first and foremost based on the intuitive emotional reaction you have to recordings of (or experimentation with!) it, and not on abstract or conceptual qualities about it.
Many people (but not all) find that one or two of the tunings "call them" or "speak to them," and there is no better way to tell which instrument you will be happiest with than your own gut reaction.
If you like several tunings, or all of them, the following advice may help you decide, though.
All of the tunings we make sound good on a Halo, but some tunings are a more natural fit to the character of today's Halo.
Generally speaking, all of the seven-tone tunings offer a slightly greater sustain and clarity, and are the best choice for someone who is willing to trade harmonic complexity for the best possible timre. The difference between a seven- and eight-tone tuning are subtle but real.
Among the eight-tone tunings, the silk road tunings Khyberi and Tharsi, and the Bear siblings Xiao Xiong Diao and Da Xiong Diao offer a combinatin of specific pitches and intervals that seem particularly well-suited to the current Halo, and they offer a subtle but perceptible advantage in clarity over the harmonic-minor-based Kiavara and Harmonic Minor.
Remember, though, that these differences are subtle, and that we are proud of ALL of the tuning we offer. We are sure you will be pleased with a Halo tuned in any one of them, as long as it is a tuning that speaks to you!
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