Among

guitar tunings Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By ...

, all-fifths tuning refers to the set of tunings in which each interval between consecutive open strings is a perfect fifth. All-fifths tuning is also called fifths, perfect fifths, or mandoguitar. The conventional "

standard tuning In music, standard tuning refers to the typical tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired instrument. Viol ...

" consists of

perfect fourth A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to ...

s and a single major third between the ''g'' and ''b'' strings: :E-A-d-g-b-e' All-fifths tuning has the set of open strings :C-G-d-a-e'-b' or G'-D-A-e-b-f', which have intervals of 3 octaves minus a half-step between the lowest and highest string. The conventional tuning has an interval of 2 octaves between lowest and highest string. All-fifths tuning is a tuning in intervals of perfect fifths like that of a mandolin or a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

. It has a wide range. It was used by jazz guitarist

Carl Kress Carl Kress (October 20, 1907 – June 10, 1965) was an American jazz guitarist. Music career Kress started on piano before picking up the banjo. Beginning in 1926, he played guitar during his brief period in Paul Whiteman's orchestra. For most ...

in the form : B'-F-c-g-d'-a'.

An approximation: new standard tuning

All-fifths tuning has been approximated with tunings that avoid the high b' replacing it with a g' in the New Standard Tuning of King Crimson's

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

, which has been taught in

Guitar Craft Guitar Craft (GC) was a series of guitar and personal-development classes, founded and often presented by Robert Fripp, who is best known for his work with the rock band King Crimson. Guitar Craft courses introduced ...

courses.. Guitar Craft, which has been succeeded by Guitar Circle, has taught Fripp's tuning to 3,000 students.:

Relation with all-fourths tuning

All fourths tuning in the chromatic circle

All-fifths tuning is closely related to

all-fourths tuning Among alternative tunings for the guitar, all-fourths tuning is a regular tuning.: In contrast, the standard tuning has one irregularity—a major third between the third and second strings—while having perfect fourths between the ...

. All-fifths tuning is based on the perfect fifth (the interval with seven

semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

s), and all-fourths tuning is based on the perfect fourth (five semitones). The perfect-fifth and perfect-fourth intervals are inversions of one another, and the chords of all-fourth and all-fifths are paired as

inverted chord In music theory, an inversion is a type of change to intervals, chords, voices (in counterpoint), and melodies. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of inversion also plays an important role in ...

s. Consequently, chord charts for all-fourths tunings may be used for left-handed all-fifths tuning.

Notes

References

External links

Guitar Tunings - Guitar School Online

{{Guitar tunings, Regular Regular guitar-tunings

An approximation: new standard tuning

Relation with all-fourths tuning

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links