It’s the Western Scale that has only 12 intervals. As someone has already pointed out other cultures have more intervals. I have a baglama which is a Turkish instrument, it has 17 intervals in an octave. Below is some more info:


Here is a pic of my baglama [Linked Image]

I’m not sure how well you can see but here goes: It has 3 pairs of strings. There are various tunings you can opt for but I went for A D E. It has 17 frets covering a western octave. The octave mark is the dark shaded area on the neck. The workmanship may look a little primitive but it stays in tune brilliantly.

Here is how the 12 step octave maps onto the fretboard. The red-fret notes are no man’s land in western music smile

[Linked Image]

Papagato
Muse Abuse

Follow me on Twitter