In the late 1970s, Blackwood won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to investigate the harmonic and modal properties of microtonal tunings. The project culminated in the Microtonal Etudes, composed as illustrations of the tonal possibilities of all the equal tunings from 13 to 24 notes to the octave.
In the late 1970s, Blackwood received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to examine the harmonic and modal features of microtonal tuning systems. The project resulted in the Microtonal Etudes, a set of compositions demonstrating the tonal capabilities of different tunings spanning 13 to 24 notes per octave.