Guido's Handy

Welcome to Guido's Handy

Guido's Handy helps you develop your ear for pure intervals in the just intonation tuning system used in Renaissance music. A drone plays the tonic while the melody demonstrates the target interval — your goal is to hear, match, and internalise that perfectly beatless sound.

How to Use

1. Pick an exercise from the list — full hexachord melodies or individual interval drills
2. The drone and melody start automatically — listen carefully before joining in
3. Play along with the drone, then try sustaining the note by yourself
4. Approach the note from above and below to build flexibility
5. Press the exercise button again to stop

The Three Hexachords

Exercises are organised around Guido d'Arezzo's hexachord system — the six-note scale (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la) that underpins medieval and Renaissance solfège. Each hexachord shares the same internal intervals but starts on a different pitch:

• Natural hexachord — centred on C; drone on D (re)
• Soft hexachord — centred on F; drone on G (re)
• Hard hexachord — centred on G; drone on A (re)

The three full hexachord melody exercises let you hear the complete scale pattern before tackling individual intervals.

The Intervals

Each simple interval exercise pairs the hexachord drone (re) with one target note. The five intervals covered in each hexachord are:

• re – fa — minor third (ratio 6:5)
• re – sol — perfect fourth (4:3)
• re – la — perfect fifth (3:2)
• fa – super la — minor sixth (8:5)
• re – fa♯ — major third (5:4)

The Notation

Each exercise displays period notation in the Serenissima font — a faithful recreation of Renaissance music typography. The Cantus line shows the melody; the Tenor shows the drone.

Settings

• A4 Pitch (Hz) — defaults to 440 Hz; lower to 415 Hz for period pitch
• Tempo — controls playback speed in beats per minute

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