Tuning Systems, Perceptions of Dissonance, and Mathematical Models of Consonance
May 15, 2026
30 minute read
This is not a formal research paper published in an academic journal; this is mostly a result of my interest in musical dissonance and psychoacoustics,
particularly in the context of microtonality / xenharmonic music, and is also a product of my AP Research class.
Background
I took AP Research my senior year of high school. During that time, I found myself heavily interested in what I like to (arbitrarily) call “low-level” music theory, which includes
alternative tuning systems and other principles. So, I decided: why not make my research paper about that exactly?
So, here’s my ~5000 word paper on the aforementioned topic! PDF ■
