TET for Tat: Why Do We Use 12 Notes?

12 notes is such an ingrained part of modern music that we don't even think about it anymore, but really, doesn't it seem a bit... arbitrary? There's lots of ways to split up the octave, why choose 12? And are there better choices out there? Well, turns out there are! Sort of, anyway. Depends what you want to do. 12 notes is a very good solution, but it's not the only one. There's a whole world of systems out there, generally called TET systems for "Tone Equal Tempered", and if you set your priorities just right, 12 isn't even the best choice! But, like, it's still pretty dang good.

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Sources:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/edac...
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculat...

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold and Inés Dawson for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!