[ELI5] What is equal temperament in music?
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Equal Temperament means that the ratio of the frequencies of a certain interval is always the same, no matter where on the scale that interval lies.
As an example, in equal temperament the fifth between C-G and that between F#-C# both have a frequency ratio of ca. 1.4983 (the 12th root of 2 to the 7th power, to be exact). A song played in C major sounds exactly the same as one in F#-major, just higher (or lower). That might sound obvious (and today it’s how the vast majority of instruments are tuned), but historically, different temperaments were used where some fifths were exactly 1.5 while others were farther off, which led to some scales sounding more harmonic while others sounded more dissonant.
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