What is the tuning of a guitar?

The strings of any stringed musical instrument, including different types of guitars, are tuned in a special way. Often, inventors or innovators took as a basis any sound intervals between adjacent strings (for example, quarts, fifths, thirds, sixths in clear, reduced or enlarged forms). As a result, the musical instrument accepted only its inherent sound set of strings, which is called "tuning" (guitar, balalaika, cello, and so on).

but on guitars, the standard (reference) tuning is often either partially modified, or altogether changed to another in order to expand the range, play convenience and for other reasons... This article discusses the types of tuning of six-string, seven-string and other types of guitars.

Guitar tuning is the pitch of the open strings in a tuned state.

Due to the fact that tuning a guitar, in fact, is not any fixed option for fixing the strings on one sound forever, the musician is given the opportunity, if necessary, to change the sound of any string to another by rotating the peg.

True, each string of the instrument has its own caliber (thickness), therefore, the range of permissible change in pitch of any of them has a slight variation - maximum tone to decrease or increase.

• Decreasing the pitch further degrades the sound quality of a weakened standard string, and may cause beats on the frets.
• If the pitch of the string is raised excessively above the standard, there is a risk of not only breaking it, but also detaching the saddle, deforming the neck, and even damaging the body of the instrument.

It should be noted that in some cases on acoustic and electric guitars with metal strings, the tuning is done below the standard by 2 tones or more.... But for this, the set of strings is changed to thicker ones.

The guitar range of musical instruments is primarily divided into typical models based on the number of strings:

• seven-stringed;
• six-string;
• five-stringed;
• four-string.

Each of the listed instrument models has its own standard action., but at any moment it can be rearranged into another within the limits of the possible string tension. The most six-string guitars are common - classical, acoustic, semi-acoustic and electric guitars, whose strings are tuned to the same tuning - classical (Spanish).

The scale designation is usually alphabetic. For example, for a 6-string guitar in classical tuning it looks like this: EADGBE. The letters of the Latin alphabet represent the sounds of the corresponding strings. In our example, the letter E is the sixth string, normally tuned to the note "E", A is the fifth string ("A"), D is the fourth string ("D"), G is the third string ("G"), B is the second string ("si"), E is the first string ("mi", like the sixth).

The letters are not taken at random, but correspond to the letter designations of the notes of the main scale in the musical notation:

• Before - C;
• Re - D;
• Mi - E;
• F - F;
• Salt - G;
• La - A;
• Si - B.

Seven notes of the scale are designated by letters of the Latin alphabet. This is an international standard... The letter designation of sounds is most often used to record the types of chords, indicate the key, and also determine the scale of musical instruments (and not only strings).

The use of electronic tuners to tune different types of instruments sometimes requires knowledge and other designations. For example, for a 6-string guitar in some types of instruments, you have to add numbers to the letter of the sound of each string in the following order: E2A2D3G3B3E4. The numbers here denote the octaves in which the sounds of the strings should sound: 2 - large octave, 3 - small octave, 4 - first octave.

In those cases when the tuning of the guitar tuning or individual strings occurs by a semitone, then in the designation of such a tuning alteration signs are possible - sharp (#) or flat (b): EADG # BE, EADGBbE.

There are other designations for the tuning of stringed instruments, but they are unlikely to be useful for a guitarist starting his musical career. And for an experienced musician, even the tuner is not so important if everything is in order with his hearing.

Now it's worth familiarizing yourself with the tuning to which musicians play different types of six-string guitar most often like to tune their guitars, and why.

The usual 6-string tuning, called "Classical" (or "Spanish"), is not the only kind of standard tuning.

If, for example, you lower all strings that have normal - Spanish - tuning by 2 tones, the result is Standard C. To obtain standard D, you need to lower all strings by 1 tone.

Of particular note is the baritone tuning: BEADF # B. It is also standard, since from the classical tuning it is 2.5 tones lower on all strings. Naturally, the strings in the set differ in their thickness. This instrument is a transition from regular guitar to bass guitar.

When raising the sound of the strings by a semitone, the result will be standard F. However, in this case it is better not to touch the tuning of the open strings, but to put the capo on the 1st fret of the fretboard.

There are 3 guitar tuning options.

1. Drop D - lowering the 6th string by 1 tone, all other strings are in the classical tuning: DADGBE;
2. Double drop d - double drop D, in which not only the sixth string is lowered by 1 tone, but also the first one: DADGBD;
3. Drop C - lowering the 6th string by 2 tones from the standard note E, and all others - by 1 tone: CGCFAD. Popular with hard rock musicians.

Low tuning gives the instrument more "weight"... Drop D is also often used in classical guitar for playing in some keys, for example, in D major. When tuned to a double D drop, in addition to the listed advantages, we can note the fact that playing the arpeggio is much easier. The latter option is especially loved by metal rock musicians.

Open tuning means tuning all the strings of a guitar to a specific chord. This scale is indicated by the word “Open” with the addition of the root note of the resulting chord.

The following settings are common:

• Open D - blues tuning option, popular also among folk music performers: DADF # AD;
• Open G - the option that fans of chanson liked: DGDGBD;
• Open C - when open, the strings sound like a C major chord: CGCGCE.

Open tunings have advantages when playing pieces with a lot of chord accords. - in this setting, the barre is easier to take, and other chord constructions are also convenient.

If the Spanish tuning is standard, and the principle of its construction is the basis for other standards, then it turns out that the already considered Drop D, Double Drop D, Drop C and any of the open ones can be considered alternative settings. They were created according to principles different from the classical ones.

The list of alternative tunings does not end there, but, in fact, every guitarist can afford to experiment with tuning a six-stringed instrument in order to invent his own non-standard musical scale - comfortable to play and beautiful in sound.

At lower settings (for example, Drop and standards) within 1 tone, it is usually bypassed to weaken the standard strings. When changing the sound even lower, it is necessary to change the string set to a thicker one.

In this case, it is also permissible to change the pitch by 1 tone. If this is not enough, then a finer gauge string set should be purchased. One more - very correct - the option is to use a capo.

There are 2 basic seven-string systems: Russian and Gypsy.

• Russian 7-string adjusts to the following classic view: DGBDGBD. The first string is played with the "D" note of the first octave. The result is a G major open tuning.
• Gypsy guitar has the following setting (starting with the 7th string): DGBbDGBbD. The result is a G minor chord.

The difference in the settings of these guitars lies in the key of their tuning: major for the Russian, minor for the gypsy.

Of the four-stringed guitars, the following may be mentioned:

• Portuguese a cavaquinho guitar, tunable for the following sounds (starting with the thickest): CGAD;
• Brazilian a kind of cavakinho with a different kind of tuning: DGBD;
• ukulele ukulele with its own tuning: GCEA (where G is the minor octave, and all other sounds are the first octave);
• bass guitar, which is normally tuned to the same notes as the 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd strings on a regular acoustic guitar, but only one octave lower: EADG.

The Brazilian baiana with CGDAE tuning is the most popular of the five string guitars.... Five-string bass guitars are not uncommon now: BEADG. The six-string bass model has the following setting: BEADGC. Standard settings are indicated, which are often changed to different drop tunings.

To find out the tuning of any string instrument, including a guitar, you need to check the sound of each of its strings.

A chromatic device in automatic mode can immediately determine the desired musical sound and display its characteristics on the display: the name of the note in letter designation and the octave number. For example, the first string of a six-string guitar tuned to a standard will show as E4. This means the note "mi" of the first octave. The sixth string will be designated E2 - a large octave E note.

When tuning and playing the guitar, it is important to remember that its part is written in the treble clef, but it sounds an octave lower than the written notes... This is done to make it easier to read guitar sheet music. Otherwise, the musical text would look very complicated - with many additional rulers under the staff.