Registers, part 1

 

In music, a register is defined as a pitch- or pitch-class range.  In this illustration, you can see registers for voice and their location and range on a piano.  Each shaded green area is a register.  For more reading about registers, you can refer to:

• Registers on Wikipedia
• Octave Registers and the Piano

I think about registers a lot.  I have to, as my instruments occupy several of them.  Starting with the Contraguitars, then moving up through the Baritone guitars, Alto guitars, and Soprano guitars, I'm covering far more registers than a 6-string guitar.  

Registers are fascinating to me.

Each instrument in the orchestra occupies a specific range or registers.  With different registers comes different colors, textures, and timbres.  With different registers comes many possibilities.  That's where it gets interesting for me.

I tune my instruments my own intervallic tunings, and none of those tunings are registerally duplicated.  In other words, each register has a different tuning instead of using the same tuning across multiple registers.  The only exception to this is tuning in fifths, which I use on one of the Contraguitars and one of the Alto guitars.  I plan on putting one of the baritones into fifth tuning very soon, so this would provide the fifths tuning in three different registers.  

Some tunings speak better in some registers than others.  Finding which register works better for which tuning takes a commitment of time and experimentation.  And a lot of strings.  But it is very worthwhile, as the end result is that each tuning is in the register wherein it works best.  

Once I've found the register for a specific tuning, this isn't to say that this tuning/register becomes permanent for that instrument.  I change tunings all the time, based on compositional requirements, various recording projects, and more.  I have a whiteboard on the wall that displays the tuning and register for each instrument so that I can more visually keep track of tunings, and it helps me to actually hear each voice just by looking at the whiteboard.

It is very much like an orchestra.  The colors and fabric available across an orchestra are frequently how I think of my instruments.  

Of course this also impacts how I approach each instrument and to some extent, what is possible on each instrument.

Obviously, different tunings and varying registers also require different string gauges and even string winding compounds.

Registers and tunings are endlessly fascinating to me, and are as much a part of my music as the actual strings and instruments themselves.

-kk