#1339546 - 06/15/01 07:35 PM
What is it about standard tuning...
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AlChuck
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Hey all,
A bass player friend asked me the other day, "so what is it with the guitar with that major third inetad of a perfect fourth between the third and second strings?" And I opened my mouth and said, "Well, I... uh..." and my jaw hung slack and i scratched my head and I realized... I don't rightly know why. I just kind of accepted from day one that that was how it was and there must be a good reason for it... probably something to do with making certain intervals more readily available in that register... but I honestly don't know why.
Can anyone here explain it to me? So I can then explain it to my bass player friend (who thinks its the weirdest thing in the world...)?
Thanks!
-AlChuck
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#1339547 - 06/16/01 12:09 AM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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gtrmac
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Your bass player friend doesn't have to play chords. I have a friend who has tuned to fourths for many years. He cannot make a barre chord, Well he can but it sure sounds different than mine.
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Mac Bowne
G-Clef Acoustics Ltd.
Osaka, Japan
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Mac Bowne
G-Clef Acoustics Ltd.
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#1339548 - 06/22/01 04:36 AM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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d gauss
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tune to open g or open d and barre chords aren't even an issue!
-d. gauss
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#1339549 - 06/22/01 05:26 AM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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fantasticsound
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Originally posted by gtrmac@hotmail.com:
Your bass player friend doesn't have to play chords. I have a friend who has tuned to fourths for many years. He cannot make a barre chord, Well he can but it sure sounds different than mine.
I'm no expert, but I believe this is correct. Most other western stringed instruments are designed to play only 2 strings simultaneously. (violin, viola, cello, double bass) They are tuned to straight 4ths for more consistant linear motion on scales.
Any experts want to agree/disagree?
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Neil
Reality: A few moments of lucidity surrounded by insanity.
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#1339550 - 06/27/01 09:30 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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AlChuck
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Thanks for the replies...
At first I thought, barre chords?
Then I sat down with a neck diagram and wrote some 5-6 string moveable forms and considered how the fingering would have to change to "make" the chord. To play the same voicings with a straight-4ths tuning would be nearly impossible.
We would all have to have hands like Allan Holdsworth to play simple E major chords and such...
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#1339551 - 06/27/01 10:16 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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Tedster
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I think fiddles are tuned to fifths, aren't they???
At any rate, a fifth sounds good...(falls under table)...
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#1339553 - 06/28/01 02:20 AM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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fantasticsound
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Originally posted by Tedster:
I think fiddles are tuned to fifths, aren't they???
At any rate, a fifth sounds good...(falls under table)...
Fiddles are tuned, Ted?
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Neil
Reality: A few moments of lucidity surrounded by insanity.
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#1339554 - 06/28/01 02:39 AM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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Tedster
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Depends on how mush o' that fifththth I'fff f- finished...
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#1339555 - 06/28/01 02:12 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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AlChuck
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Tedster,
Well, if you stand on your head or go downwards or backwards or however you want to express it, a fourth is a fifth...
If you tuned from high to low you'd be tuning by fifths...
But actually I don't know, maybe fiddles really are tuned in ascending fifths... anyone know?
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#1339556 - 06/28/01 08:42 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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sign
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Hi
Violins are tuned in fifths.
Peace.
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The alchemy of the masters moving molecules of air, we capture by moving particles of iron, so that the poetry of the ancients will echo into the future.
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#1339557 - 06/28/01 09:43 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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Tedster
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Yep, aware of that AlChuck...but I was thinking low pitch to high pitch...whish makesh me want to drink a fiffthh...
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"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine...(WAH WAH WAH WAHHH!)"
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#1339558 - 06/28/01 09:47 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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Tedster
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Probably has something to do with scale length...mandolins are tuned to fifths, too. That'd be a heckuva stretch on something with a scale length as long as a guitar...but on a short mandolin or violin neck it's no problem.
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"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine...(WAH WAH WAH WAHHH!)"
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#1339559 - 06/28/01 10:31 PM
Re: What is it about standard tuning...
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AlChuck
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I'm >>hic<< on my fourthhh fifthhh >>hic<<
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