Just intonation

Just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by whole number ratios. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval; in other words, the two notes are members of the same harmonic series. Although in theory two notes tuned in the frequency ratio 1024:927 might be said to be justly tuned, in practice only ratios using quite small numbers tend to be called just. Intervals used are then capable of being more consonant.

Bagpipe tuning

In bagpipe tuning, just intonation is possible, and more and more readily used. In the past old instruments seem to have used a folk scale with many irregular intervals, e.g. the fourth sharp. Today though, because much of the tuning is done by ear, and presumably because many pipers are exposed to other music, the process of tuning the chanter (melody pipe) to the drones lends itself to just intonation.

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