[HN Gopher] Why Is The Guitar Tuned Like It Is?
___________________________________________________________________
Why Is The Guitar Tuned Like It Is?
Author : belter
Score : 117 points
Date : 2022-10-07 09:09 UTC (13 hours ago)
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| stakkur wrote:
| There are _many_ guitar 'tunings', and many predate the
| 'standard' tuning the article refers to. Also, players make up
| different ones all the time, including using capos to temporarily
| change 'tuning' on the fly. The 'standard' tuning is by no means
| the only one.
| wilsonnb3 wrote:
| Yeah but it's called standard for a reason, probably like 80%
| or more of guitar music uses it.
|
| Include a few other tunings (drop d and below, dadgad, the more
| popular open tunings) and you can bump that up to 99%.
| elsherbini wrote:
| I've experimented a lot with different isomorphic tunings on the
| guitar - that is where each string is in the same interval. The
| obvious one to try is perfect 4ths, E A D G C F. This one is
| great because the same shape works everywhere, drop 2 chords for
| instance have three sets of shapes you need to learn on standard
| guitar but only one on perfect 4ths. However, I hate giving up
| the open B and E strings. You can fix this by adding an extra
| fret on the highest two strings (or just using a capo on the
| lowest 4 strings) [1].
|
| My favorite isomorphic tuning though is minor thirds tuning,
| where each fret becomes a diminished chord. This allows you to
| explore Barry Harris' harmonic concepts really easily, which
| describes major and minor 4 note chords as combinations of two
| diminished chords. I made a video showing how this works. [2]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFX5AQRg8Ko
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kg1m5KqaoQ
| kazinator wrote:
| If all strings use the same interval, you have less variety in
| fingering; everything is the same everywhere.
|
| The M3 interval between the G and B string is useful; you can
| allocate fingerings between those two strings to play certain
| things that don't work for a pair of strings that are a P4
| apart.
| elsherbini wrote:
| Totally agree, I think regular tunings are cool and easier
| for learning in a lot of ways, but the ergonomics of standard
| tuning or other non-regular tunings make somethings easy that
| are really beautiful. I think making whatever you consider to
| be desirable on your instrument also be idiomatic and easy to
| do is good.
| smilekzs wrote:
| The minor thirds tuning is incidentally the same setup as
| chromatic button accordions (a.k.a. Bayan's)!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayan_(accordion)
| toolslive wrote:
| Bass players use "regular" tuning. Fe, 6 String Basses: B E A D
| G C
| contravariant wrote:
| I have to say the phrase 'isomorphic tunings' is very confusing
| if you have a mathematical background. It apparently doesn't
| refer to tunings which are effectively the same (not entirely
| what this would mean, I suppose you could swap a few strings).
| mrob wrote:
| Wikipedia calls them "regular tunings", which I think is
| clearer.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_tuning
| dwringer wrote:
| It means they are effectively the same as you shift
| rightwards or leftwards on the neck. So you can play a G
| major chord, move the same exact shape "down one string" and
| now it's a C major chord. This is not a feature of standard
| guitar tuning.
| elsherbini wrote:
| Totally, my mistake. The correct term is regular tunings,
| which yield an isomorphic layout on the guitar (well, it
| would if you had infinite strings). In plain english, the
| same shape always corresponds to the same intervals no matter
| what strings you are playing.
| Analog24 wrote:
| Perhaps isometric would be a better description? We're
| probably getting into the pedantic weeds here though :-)
| osrec wrote:
| Well, this is HN, afterall :p
| Sharlin wrote:
| I guess isomorphic tunings are isomorphic in the sense that
| you can move a fingering not only up and down the fretboard,
| but also from one set of strings to another, and the chord
| remains the same, just transposed.
| timdellinger wrote:
| The list of different ways to tune a guitar is monstrously long:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_guitar_tunings
|
| Same for banjo: https://zeppmusic.com/banjo/aktuning.htm
| shagie wrote:
| The original stack exchange post:
| https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/1723/why-is-the-gu...
| Valgrim wrote:
| I find it cool actually that this kind of knowledge (Q&A) can
| be readily downloaded and stored for offline consultation on
| any device.
| shagie wrote:
| If you want to spin up an instance...
| https://archive.org/details/stackexchange
|
| I will note that the kiwix.org site appears to not be
| completely correct with publicly hosting the data and the
| licensing requirements:
|
| > Ensure that any Internet use of the content includes a
| hyperlink for each author name directly back to his or her
| user profile page on the source site on the Network (e.g.,
| http://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username), directly to
| the Stack Exchange domain, in standard HTML (i.e. not through
| a Tinyurl or other such indirect hyperlink, form of
| obfuscation or redirection), without any "nofollow" command
| or any other such means of avoiding detection by search
| engines, and visible even with JavaScript disabled.
| Sharlin wrote:
| See also the great, nerd-friendly blog series "Guitar Decomposed"
| by Bartosz Milewski[1]. Yes, the same guy who wrote _Category
| Theory for Programmers_.
|
| [1] https://bartoszmilewski.com/2020/05/24/guitar-
| decomposed-1-w...
| pohl wrote:
| If you just look at the shapes of the diatonic triads on each set
| of 3 adjacent strings, you can see a good reason.
|
| On the group of 3 smallest strings, and the next group over, the
| shapes are all very reachable by the hand.
|
| On the thicker string groups, the shapes require a wider spread
| of the hand -- especially the half-diminished triad.
|
| The smaller, more comfortable shapes on the thinner strings are
| made possible by the kink between the G and B strings.
| shams93 wrote:
| The lute originally had this 3rd in its open strings, guitar came
| from the lute. Lute like guitar has all 4ths and then one 3rd.
| rdtennent wrote:
| You're speaking of the renaissance lute. The baroque lute was
| most often in an open D minor tuning for the top (fretted)
| strings: ADFADF.
| _greim_ wrote:
| With EADGCF tuning, barre chords wouldn't work so well, since the
| top and bottom strings would be a half-step apart (disregarding
| octaves) creating dissonance. Or rather, EADGBE tuning works well
| with barre chords because the top and bottom strings are the same
| note. An open-chord tuning works even better with barre chords,
| but only for that one chord shape. EADGBE gained predominance
| partly because it strikes an uneasy compromise between different
| chord shapes and barre-chord friendliness.
| CPLX wrote:
| Indeed. I've found that double drop-D has most of the same
| advantages and also is _so_ close to an open tuning that it
| gives you most of _those_ advantages as well.
|
| Worth noting. I don't know why I didn't discover it for the
| first couple decades I picked up a guitar.
| frakt0x90 wrote:
| A bit off-topic but if you're interested in some modern players
| that make heavy use of alternate tunings, I strongly recommend
| Ichika Nito and Yvette Young (Covet). Ichika has tons of videos
| of him playing in the weirdest tunings and it's quite
| entertaining.
| a4isms wrote:
| Not a modern player, but the great Joni Mitchell used alternate
| tunings so much, she claims that only a couple of her songs
| were in E-standard tuning.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| And she is sometimes credited with influencing David Crosby
| (who she was in a relationship with) to use alternate
| tunings. CSNY's use of alternate tunings certainly helped
| popularize them, at least for a bit.
|
| When Stills' played in EEEEBE tuning (which he apparently
| learned from Palmer) it almost doesn't sound like a 6-string.
| a4isms wrote:
| Her "Mingus" album from her jazz period opens with "Happy
| Birthday Rap," in which she calls out, "play that weird
| minor chord."
|
| If anyone knew weird minor chords... It was Joni.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| A popular (well, used to be) artist who does this is Chris
| Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional, huge in the early '00s, was
| _basically_ a solo act when he started, break-out and biggest
| hit was "Screaming Infidelities" which got a ton of radio
| play).
|
| I think he did it to make it easier to play+sing his songs
| solo, is all I can figure. Heavy use of multiple open tunings.
| He'll use like half a dozen tunings on one album, plays on
| stage with a rack of guitars so he can swap between songs.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| Sonic Youth is well-known for using alternate guitar tunings:
|
| http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html
|
| http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuninglist.html
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BtI2fNVAw
| tricky wrote:
| Also see Lindsey Jordan of Snail mail. Midwest emo like Mike
| Kinsellaof American Football, Owen, & Cap'n Jazz, et. al, and
| Evan Thomas Weiss of Into it Over it are also fantastic
| examples of clever tunings. My personal favorite is Chad
| Matheny of Emperor X - such a unique artist
| bmj wrote:
| Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) also makes use of alternate tunings
| (often DADGAD, but he uses others as well).
|
| Edited to add: Also check out Lindsey's teacher, Mary Timony
| (fronted Helium before becoming a solo act).
| 0x00000000 wrote:
| American Football guitar tunings: https://twitter.com/americf
| ootball/status/864900332836585475...
|
| Note that these are also tuned down a half step from how the
| songs on their first self titled LP (not to be confused with
| their second or third self titled LP) were originally
| recorded due to Mike's vocal range changing over 20 years.
| tricky wrote:
| OMG, that is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
| camgunz wrote:
| Can also recommend Covet, great songs, and the guitar work is
| pretty bonkers--really incredible what different tunings and
| tons of practice/talent can do. I watched a YT where Yvette
| Young was talking about how her 1st tele had Bill Lawrence
| pickups, which (after a truly mad dive into pickup research) I
| now also have in my main guitar (microcoils + an L45-S in a
| strat, not a tele, I'm not a monster). My point here is: be
| careful or you might find yourself up at 1am trying to decide
| what capacitors you want on your tone pots.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| Thats one rabbithole, but mine might be worse. I recently
| made my first pickups.
|
| First I made a coil winding machine, after lots of late night
| research. I bought an old sewing machine and took it to
| pieces for the main components. After my first build I
| improved my machine with some 3d printed parts.
|
| Then there is the process of choosing and sourcing the
| components, coils, wire magnets, wax...
|
| Then the actual process of getting the winding done...lots of
| broken wires later...my tele has an awesome set of pickups
| which sound so clear. The neck pickup is very non standard,
| more like a strat pickup.
|
| What a stupid hobby!
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Whatever you do, don't start building your own effects
| pedals or this probably gets exponentially worse
| jimnotgym wrote:
| Too late for me I'm afraid...I built my first effects
| pedal before I owned a guitar! I have not built that many
| since tbf, but that doesn't stop me planning to.
|
| I found my fuzz face recently that I spent forever
| characterising AC128 germanium transistors to get that
| magic combination...it still sounds completely mental!
| camgunz wrote:
| Wow that is _wild_ and I love it. See this is why I need to
| buy a house: I need space for the sewing machine I'll
| inevitably use to wind my pickups haha.
|
| I think it's a super fun hobby, I really loved the process
| of choosing tone and options and learning what affects
| what. It made my guitar feel like a real players'
| instrument, like I made my own tool. I'll almost certainly
| do it again--maybe yeah make my own pickups, but what you
| did is next level haha.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I rent a storage unit so I can have spare sewing machines
| on hand. Without that where would you keep your spare
| oscilloscope, your various antennea, and your guitar
| projects?
|
| The guitar I put them in...I made that too. To be fair I
| got some of the parts from a kit (cheap way to get some
| parts), but I modified it in a number of ways, and
| changed all of the hardware. It is a lot of fun. I did
| think about blogging about it, but I didn't think anyone
| would care
| tricky wrote:
| I love that you did this DIY. I just had a guitar built by
| a guy who also winds pickups per your specs - I loved that
| I could have him dial in the tone exactly how I wanted.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I needed a set of tele pickups. I like the sound of
| YouTube guitarist Danish Pete's telecaster. I heard it
| had a Fender 'nocaster' bridge pickup in the bridge, and
| a 'twisted tele' in the neck. Fender only sell those as
| sets of two of each, so I would need to buy 4 pickups for
| the two I needed. List price is PS200 for each set, and
| try and sell the unwanted pickups on ebay...but other
| people are already onto this and there are lots of the
| 'wrong' pickups listed.
|
| Making your own is the obvious solution!
|
| I have 2 strat projects I needed pickups for too, so it
| will begin to pay off. I reckon I broke even in equipment
| (but not time) after one pickup.
| podoco wrote:
| ive always wondered if it would be work learning the all 4ths
| tuning. seems like the guitar would be much easier to play if you
| dont need full bar chords. but it might be hard to switch back
| and forth between the all 4ths tunings and standard.
| wilsonnb3 wrote:
| I've wondered the same thing in the past, mainly because my
| primary instrument is the bass guitar which uses all fourths.
|
| Once you play guitar for long enough you will understand why
| that major third is there, though. A small compromise in the
| "logic" of the tuning gives you so much utility.
| cousin_it wrote:
| The most beautiful and unusual tuning I came across is
| alternating major and minor thirds, something like ACEGBD. Then
| you can tune A,E,B down 15 cents and each group of three
| consecutive strings (open or mini-barred at any fret) becomes a
| _just intonation_ major or minor chord. You pluck three strings
| and it's like plucking one static string, a sound hanging in
| space without movement. Major and minor just intonation scales
| are also playable, though require some jumps.
| otikik wrote:
| Please link to the original source
|
| https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/1723/why-is-the-gu...
| lioeters wrote:
| I've always wondered about that kink between the G and B string,
| a major 3rd gap, when all the other strings are spaced perfect
| fourth. It bothers me because it's an anomaly that breaks the
| symmetry and increases the number of shapes to keep in mind.
|
| The whole thread is an enjoyable read, and the answer seems to be
| - like many things in Western music theory - it was a design
| decision, a kind of legacy code, with pros and cons. "Things
| evolve to meet a need."
|
| One of the answers talked about an all-fourths tuning, that some
| instruments use such tunings as standard.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_fourths_tuning
|
| Theoretically it's more beautiful, and simplifies the shapes and
| their movements across the fretboard. It might be a pain to
| overcome years of learning patterns on the guitar _with_ the kink
| - I 'll have to try it. Sometimes it's good to shake up the
| foundation and see what new patterns emerge.
|
| Similarly, I love the logic (and I'd say even wisdom) of the
| piano keyboard - but there are some kinks in there too, which
| introduce complexity in the patterns and their transformations,
| making them harder to remember. I'm curious to try a hexagonal
| keyboard and other alternative layouts - I imagine the symmetry
| has practical advantages, and to my mind more aesthetically
| pleasing.
|
| Wicki-Hayden note layout -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki%E2%80%93Hayden_note_layo...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomorphic_keyboard
| galangalalgol wrote:
| Has anyone tried to approach music theory without any
| historical underpinnings (and preferably ignorant of it). I'm
| thinking of something that started with cog sci and signal
| processing, and maybe ML. Don't bother linking the obligatory
| xkcd. I know it is the height of hubris to think that approach
| would produce anything like quality music for decades, but I
| think it might give insight to things that were left over from
| technical limitations or random chance. How far down the rabbit
| hole have experimental composers gone in questioning everything
| down to the foundation, and then kept digging?
| jibbit wrote:
| Bohlen-Pierce
| https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/14/bohlen-
| pierce-...
| dagmx wrote:
| I don't think you can really throw music theory out because
| so much of it is inate to humans hearing and culture, and
| it's largely a formalization of such.
|
| However, the rub is that what most people consider music
| theory is western classical theory. There's a lot of
| different music theories around the world , with different
| scales, structures etc...
|
| Here's a video you might find interesting of a microtonal
| guitar https://youtu.be/OVZShd7GZAY
|
| Also a really good video on why "music theory" is often
| largely paired to western music https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA
| while there's so many alternates out there
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Some western instruments are easier to produce microtones
| on than others - violin/viola/cello/bass for example (or in
| a more rock/jazz idiom fretless electric bass).
| zokier wrote:
| The problem with creating a new music theory is the question
| what do you want the music theory to do? The main value of
| classical music theory is exactly the historical
| underpinnings that you want to drop
| dumpsterlid wrote:
| Yah, music theory is an instrument of conservatism.
|
| Most people just make what sounds good to them and that
| creates a massive power potential to extract by labelling
| some of that "good" and some of that "bad" in the eyes of
| an arbitrary system.
| randomopining wrote:
| Music theory is just a labeling of the grouping of sounds
| that sound a certain way, right? And the reasons why they
| do.
|
| Like you could combine a bunch of random notes together and
| it would sound terrible. THe reason why a certain scale is
| a scale is that it all jives together in a way that makes
| sense to the human brain.
| dekhn wrote:
| Music theory is an approximation of what the aggregate
| human preference function for music is, where the
| aggregate is over a region and time. It's not really a
| theory per se, but you could definite "learn" many
| aspects of theory from enough labelled examples. Given
| many western music examples, you would easily learn
| circle of fifths and other common details; given indian
| music, you would learn microtones and other subtle
| touches that make indian music have depth.
| analog31 wrote:
| And I would take it one step further... What do you want to
| do with music? The people I know who studied theory were
| interested in becoming better musicians.
|
| I'm a jazz musician. The people I know who can create their
| own compositions and arrangements in that genre all studied
| theory in college.
| S_A_P wrote:
| FL Studio/Fruity Loops was created by gol who had no music
| theory knowledge and was a game programmer(only) before
| starting on Fruity Loops...
| marcodiego wrote:
| No need to wonder. You can consider how different musical
| scales appeared around the world: arab, indian, different
| temperaments... A nice video I watched about evolution of the
| guitar says a bit about it:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjK4GVR1EcE and also how we
| tune modern instruments:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2jYk37Rlg
| pfarrell wrote:
| Not exactly what you're saying, but made me think of a time
| when once, in a guitar shop, the clerk was playing really
| cool sounds on the guitar. She was playing in Hawaiian Slack-
| Key tuning [0]. She said Europeans had left behind guitars
| after "discovering" the islands. The natives then developed
| their own way of tuning and playing them, outside of the
| European styles. Here's a random link to a song in the style
| I'm talking about [1].
|
| 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack-key_guitar
|
| 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqEffI9LQs
| marcodiego wrote:
| Although a different tuning, it still uses equal
| temperament. I mean, it can be played on a guitar using
| standard tuning, but will require different positions.
| gen220 wrote:
| Sounds vaguely reminiscent of Zeppelin's Bron Yr Aur (tuned
| CACGCE, iirc).
|
| The low C drones are so entrancing!
| progre wrote:
| There is plenty of music theory _not_ based on traditional
| western music.
|
| The "atom" of all music is that frequencies with simple
| relationships (for example, exactly 1/3x) sounds "nice" (we
| can hear the harmony) and frequencies with complicated
| relationships (pi x) sounds sour (used intentionaly with
| great effect by bands like Sonic Youth for example).
|
| The essence of western music is the decision to split the
| octave into 12 and have this be the notes we use (anyone who
| have tried this will discover that we run into trouble when
| our instument tonal range spans more than one octave, this is
| where "tunings" come in).
|
| But there are alternatives: Spliting the octave into 53 parts
| has way more harmonies
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/53_equal_temperament
|
| This is partialy used in turkish music for example.
| kazinator wrote:
| The split into 12 is not just in western music. 12 appears
| in the 22 shruti system in Indian music due to not all 22
| tones being used; the 22 can be seen as alterations in a 12
| framework.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_(music)#/media/File:Sh
| r...
|
| There is something "special" about 12 note chromaticism
| with 7 note diatonic scales.
| Maciek416 wrote:
| I use an all-fourths tuning on the Linnstrument and absolutely
| love it. As a person who approached both music theory and
| learning to play with their hands for the first time (after
| clicking around in a piano roll for years) with an all-fourths
| isomorphic keyboard, it removed whole categories of mental
| gymnastics and time sucks and let me pick up big chords and
| bits of jazz/rnb much quicker as a result. The benefits of
| being able to transpose and dance around the keyboard
| effortlessly without having to account for that major 3rd gap
| can't be overstated. You've got one unified mental model for
| everything and can skip directly to the good stuff. There are a
| number of grid instruments on the market that implement all
| fourths (Push, Launchpad, etc etc). If you have an iPad, Musix
| Pro can also act as a MIDI output (either for iPadOS
| instruments or for external hardware) that gives you an
| equivalent layout, but also many other interesting layouts that
| may work better for the music you want to play.
|
| As a side note, after learning linnstrument, I picked up an 8
| string guitar and found it much easier to translate my
| knowledge by tuning in all-fourths. With all-fourths, you
| really can learn chords as a set of (essentially) 2D glyphs
| that interact and fit together like Lego pieces. Inversions are
| easier to remember, transposition is always effortless,
| training your hands is quicker. Highly recommended.
| dumpsterlid wrote:
| " I've always wondered about that kink between the G and B
| string, a major 3rd gap, when all the other strings are spaced
| perfect fourth. It bothers me because it's an anomaly that
| breaks the symmetry and increases the number of shapes to keep
| in mind."
|
| One of the deeply beautiful things about the guitar is this
| "ugly" asymmetry. People with analytical minds that desire
| order always get bothered by this 3rd, why not go to all 4ths
| and be more elegant???
|
| Because art and music arent always about being elegant! Tuning
| a guitar in all 4ths lets you play like a snooty stuck up jazz
| musician, but ultimately there are so many richer bar chords
| available with that 3rd in there that who cares if it is "ugly"
| to have the 3rd. People forget a plain jane normal guitar chord
| like a G chord or something is tonally actually very complex.
| It isn't like a basic g chord on a piano G B D. The "basic" G
| chord on guitar spans many octaves and has a non-obvious
| combination of notes. The 3rd in there for guitar tuning allows
| you to explore all those complexities with the given
| limitations of the human hand best.
| lapcat wrote:
| > Tuning a guitar in all 4ths lets you play like a snooty
| stuck up jazz musician
|
| I'd love to play like Stanley Jordan, who famously uses
| EADGCF.
| KerrAvon wrote:
| Do it! Keep a spare guitar around with just that tuning!
| Even allowing for inflation, nice guitars are still
| incredibly cheap by historical standards. If you want an
| acoustic,I don't think you can go wrong with any guitar on
| this first page:
|
| https://www.sweetwater.com/c600--
| 6_string_Acoustic_Guitars?a...
|
| I'm less enthusiastic about the low-cost electrics;
| probably want to go at least $200 and maybe something from
| guitarfetish.com instead.
| elsherbini wrote:
| Lots of people have their favorite cheap electric guitar,
| but mine is definitely the Tagima TW-55 (not the
| woodstock series, has to be TW). Can often find it used
| for ~$180
| titanomachy wrote:
| > Sometimes it's good to shake up the foundation and see what
| new patterns emerge.
|
| In this vein, I'm a lifelong guitarist and someone lent me a
| mandolin... I've learned a lot from playing it! It's tuned to
| straight fifths, but since it's much smaller than a guitar, you
| can actually reach all the notes of the scale without moving
| your hand up and down the neck. (I assume this wouldn't be true
| of a full-sized guitar tuned to fifths, although I haven't
| actually tried it.)
|
| You can pretty quickly intuit how things work, and it will give
| you new insights into theory. The scales show up more simply
| and symmetrically than on a guitar. (e.g. the western major
| scale in the open position is 0-2-4-5, 0-2-4-5, 0-2-3-5,
| 0-2-3-5)
| aaroninsf wrote:
| The instrumental (ha HA) utility of the "kink" seems to me a
| natural consequence of compounding constraints:
|
| some musing:
|
| the number of strings is constrained to allow for chord voicing
| across all the strings,
|
| and to provide range,
|
| open chords with minimal fingering complexity radically
| increase accessibility,
|
| duplication is critical to support those,
|
| capping with the double octave of the lowest note makes up-and-
| down strumming work,
|
| if you're going to break pattern to coerce the highest string,
| it's extremely useful to also provide its dominant (5th) which
| makes sounding those top strings together just "work"
| (especially: with a bass note on the lowest string), with the
| side benefit that it allows learned scale patterns to work
| across those two strings, where most melodic playing will be
| up-an-down and third- fourth- or fifth- jumping or stopping,
|
| ...add all this up and it's a collection of mild but clear wins
| that together really strongly entail the current system.
|
| Robert Fripp's 500 page book on guitar playing no doubt
| explains why this is Wrong and his preferred all-fourths tuning
| etc. are Better though. :)
| lioeters wrote:
| It's been interesting to learn about the reasoning (or post-
| facto explanations) of that seemingly anomalous major 3rd
| gap. I can see its advantages, like it enables certain barre
| chords.
|
| Apparently, the tuning invented by Robert Fripp is called
| "New standard tuning", based on all _fifths_. I like the
| audacity to call it a new standard. :)
|
| > C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4 (from lowest to highest)
|
| > the five lowest open strings are each tuned to an interval
| of a perfect fifth
|
| > the two highest strings are a minor third apart
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_standard_tuning
| elsherbini wrote:
| Yeah, perfect 5ths, or the weird in-between which would be
| tritone tuning allow for really wide intervalic leaps
| really ergonomically. Since a lot of progressive music
| favors melodic lines with wide intervalic leaps, it's a
| good option for that style.
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