The Universal Song “Lambdoma Matrix” chime.

The Universal Song “Lambdoma Matrix” 50-note chime is the quintessential instrument for exploring and teaching overtones, undertones, and the simplest microtones of musical acoustics.

The Lamboma Matrix is a 16x16 grid of 256 squares showing the overtone multiples of a string and its undertone divisions. Of these 256 notes, 50 are one octave ratios based on numbers 2 through 16 using prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13 only. The highest numerator in any of the 50 ratios is 28 and the highest denominator in the ratio is 15.

The Universal Song “Lambdoma Matrix” chime starts two octaves above middle C at 512Hz, and ends three octaves above middle C at 1024Hz, the third highest C on an 88-key piano. When two notes are played together there are even more ratios available to study, meditate and play with, from the smallest 225:224ratio to the largest 2:1 ratio ( the octave). The ratio 10:7 is the symmetrical middle of the Lambdoma 50-note octave which descends in the same ratios from the octave C of 1024 Hz as when it ascends from the starting note C of 512Hz.

How cool it is to tune to Pythagoras’s own primary tonal matrix for teaching key musical ratios of our universe!