Originally Posted by: hdoran
In these lessons you give one very interesting example I'd like to learn a little more about. Specifically, you note that the open A string rings out at 110 hertz and then at the octave (same string fret 12) we have a 2:1 ratio since it rings out at 220.[/quote]
Sounds like you are referring to this lesson:
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=13698&s_id=835
The E note on the 7th fret is the 5th of the scale and is 165 hertz. The reason I use the metaphor "as far from home base as you can get" is because it is halfway between the pitches of A above and below. The octaves of A are "home base". If you go any farther up or down you are closer to an A. So, the next thing to do is split the A & E in half.
A - 110Hz
C# - 138Hz
E - 165Hz
Halfway between the root & fifth is the major third. :) The more you study this topic, the more you grasp the basic principle of a continuum on which simple ratios forming consonance & more complex ratios forming dissonance. Music is often a process of starting on consonance, building dissonances (adding drama & tension) aiming toward consonances (resolving & releasing tension).
[QUOTE=hdoran]What I'm curious to learn more about is the other strings and the mathematical relationship between all frets.
...
Does such a resource exist?
Hermann Helmholtz wrote the first definitive book on this topic On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1862.
http://archive.org/details/onsensationston00elligoog
Here are a couple of online resources I use for the purposes of studying the relationships between musical pitches.
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(music)
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/music/musical-note-frequencies.htm
Have fun!
Christopher Schlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Christopher Schlegel Lesson Directory