Chiff and Fipple Forums

Anyone here play guitar tuned in all fourths? Comments?

One of the original Kingston Trio members, Dave Guard, put together a method for teaching guitar based on colors. It required tuning all the strings in fourths, so you ended up with non-octave notes between the highest string and the lowest string. I could never warmup to it.

By the way, I heard (from Dave) that in order for his book publisher to put out this guitar method, Dave had to use it on the publisher's son and teach him guitar. The story goes, that it was a disaster - the publisher's son was color blind. : )

Hm. Transposing would be a breeze, for sure. It would be like a chromatic button accordion -- just one pattern to learn for each kind of scale or mode or chord, and move the pattern around to change keys. Check it out:

D: XX0221
A: X02214
E: 02214X or XX2443 -- the second shape is the same as the D chord, moved up two frets.

It would be a great tuning for jazz. 3- and 4-string closed voicings would be a breeze, I think:

DM7: X546xx
D9: X5454X
D13: X5X566
Dm7b5: x5655x

All of which could be moved up or down or across the fretboard as needed. Pretty cool! It's the anti-DADGAD.

Well, it would be just like bass guitar (a 6-string bass guitar).
That'd be very easy to get around.
There's also an all-fifths (or almost "all") tuning, "New Standard Tuning" by Robert Fripp and some of his King Crimson pals use it. That's a mind-set like a mandolin, except that the reach is greater.

would some kind soul, explain tuning all fourths in laymens terms

EADGBE standard

DADGAD traddy

CGCGAC bassy open

but what's fourth's mean, sorry musical theory was never a strong point.

thanks for any advice or info.

EADGCF, low to high. There's an interval of a fourth between each open string.

hi there
upooper wrote

“would some kind soul, explain tuning all fourths in laymens terms

EADGBE standard

DADGAD traddy

CGCGAC bassy open

but what's fourth's mean, sorry musical theory was never a strong point. “

upooper, iz yo guitar teacher Ash Brown ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpLCl8taa7E&NR=1


brewerpaul
Guitar comes from Lute tuning (six string) which was EAD#FBE and is this way so we can play in all keys ( for classical music) with the scale length of a guitar.
In traditional and folk music we don't need to play in every key so we can concentrate on melody and “settings” - accompanying harmonies.
To my knowledge only guitarists limit themselves to approaching music via chords, of course other instruments can play chords but the players generally think in terms of scales and intervals.
I play acoustic guitar and never play in “standard” tuning, I make up the tuning to best suite the piece, based on the intervals in the melody and the harmonies and bass that I want to play. These fall into groups and I suppose I have it down to a dozen tunings I use (from about fifty).
upooper is asleep by now - I can tell
Oh - fourth's I’ve tried but fifths is better.
yours un.

PS. two tunes on acoustic below
The Tree of Strings and
Warrens Clean Slate