Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Guitar tunings
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including classical guitars, acoustic guitars, and electric guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By convention, the notes are ordered and arranged from the lowest-pitched string (i.e., the deepest bass-sounding note) to the highest-pitched string (i.e., the highest sounding note), or the thickest string to thinnest, or the lowest frequency to the highest. This sometimes confuses beginner guitarists, since the highest-pitched string is referred to as the 1st string, and the lowest-pitched is the 6th string.
Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E (82.41 Hz), A (110 Hz), D (146.83 Hz), G (196 Hz), B (246.94 Hz), and E (329.63 Hz), from the lowest pitch (low E2) to the highest pitch (high E4). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning. To aid in memorising these notes, mnemonics are used, for example, Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie.
The term guitar tunings may refer to pitch sets other than standard tuning, also called nonstandard, alternative, or alternate. There are hundreds of these tunings, often with small variants of established tunings. Communities of guitarists who share a common musical tradition often use the same or similar tuning styles.
Standard tuning is the tuning most frequently used on a six-string guitar and musicians assume this tuning by default if a specific alternate (or scordatura) is not mentioned. In scientific pitch notation, the guitar's standard tuning consists of the following notes: E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 .
The guitar is a transposing instrument; that is, music for guitars is notated one octave higher than the true pitch. This is to reduce the need for ledger lines in music written for the instrument, and thus simplify the reading of notes when playing the guitar.
Standard tuning provides reasonably simple fingering (fret-hand movement) for playing standard scales and basic chords in all major and minor keys. Separation of the second (B) through fifth (A) strings being tuned in minor 3rds and second (e) following the low (E) string as the separation being tuned in 5ths, and creating as by a five-semitone interval (a perfect fourth) allows the guitarist to play a chromatic scale with each of the four fingers of the fretting hand controlling one of the first four frets (index finger on fret 1, little finger on fret 4, etc.) only when the hand is in the first position.
The open notes of the second (B) and third (G) strings are separated by four semitones (a major third). This tuning pattern of (low) fourths, one major third, and one fourth was inherited by the guitar from its predecessor instrument, the viol. The irregular major third breaks the fingering patterns of scales and chords, so that guitarists have to memorize multiple chord shapes for each chord. Scales and chords are simplified by major thirds tuning and all-fourths tuning, which are regular tunings maintaining the same musical interval between consecutive open string notes.
When barring each fret in standard tuning, all of the notes of the minor pentatonic scale based on the note of the first fret (along with its relative major pentatonic scale) are produced. For example, the open strings E, A, D, G, B, E yield the notes of the E minor pentatonic scale (G major pentatonic), and barring the third fret produces the notes of the G minor pentatonic scale (B♭ major pentatonic).
Hub AI
Guitar tunings AI simulator
(@Guitar tunings_simulator)
Guitar tunings
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including classical guitars, acoustic guitars, and electric guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By convention, the notes are ordered and arranged from the lowest-pitched string (i.e., the deepest bass-sounding note) to the highest-pitched string (i.e., the highest sounding note), or the thickest string to thinnest, or the lowest frequency to the highest. This sometimes confuses beginner guitarists, since the highest-pitched string is referred to as the 1st string, and the lowest-pitched is the 6th string.
Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E (82.41 Hz), A (110 Hz), D (146.83 Hz), G (196 Hz), B (246.94 Hz), and E (329.63 Hz), from the lowest pitch (low E2) to the highest pitch (high E4). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning. To aid in memorising these notes, mnemonics are used, for example, Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie.
The term guitar tunings may refer to pitch sets other than standard tuning, also called nonstandard, alternative, or alternate. There are hundreds of these tunings, often with small variants of established tunings. Communities of guitarists who share a common musical tradition often use the same or similar tuning styles.
Standard tuning is the tuning most frequently used on a six-string guitar and musicians assume this tuning by default if a specific alternate (or scordatura) is not mentioned. In scientific pitch notation, the guitar's standard tuning consists of the following notes: E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 .
The guitar is a transposing instrument; that is, music for guitars is notated one octave higher than the true pitch. This is to reduce the need for ledger lines in music written for the instrument, and thus simplify the reading of notes when playing the guitar.
Standard tuning provides reasonably simple fingering (fret-hand movement) for playing standard scales and basic chords in all major and minor keys. Separation of the second (B) through fifth (A) strings being tuned in minor 3rds and second (e) following the low (E) string as the separation being tuned in 5ths, and creating as by a five-semitone interval (a perfect fourth) allows the guitarist to play a chromatic scale with each of the four fingers of the fretting hand controlling one of the first four frets (index finger on fret 1, little finger on fret 4, etc.) only when the hand is in the first position.
The open notes of the second (B) and third (G) strings are separated by four semitones (a major third). This tuning pattern of (low) fourths, one major third, and one fourth was inherited by the guitar from its predecessor instrument, the viol. The irregular major third breaks the fingering patterns of scales and chords, so that guitarists have to memorize multiple chord shapes for each chord. Scales and chords are simplified by major thirds tuning and all-fourths tuning, which are regular tunings maintaining the same musical interval between consecutive open string notes.
When barring each fret in standard tuning, all of the notes of the minor pentatonic scale based on the note of the first fret (along with its relative major pentatonic scale) are produced. For example, the open strings E, A, D, G, B, E yield the notes of the E minor pentatonic scale (G major pentatonic), and barring the third fret produces the notes of the G minor pentatonic scale (B♭ major pentatonic).