Among

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 c ...

, 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" consists of

perfect fourth A fourth is a interval (music), 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 int ...

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 fifth In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval f ...

s like that of a

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

or a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. It has a wide range. It was used by jazz guitarist Carl Kress 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, which has been taught in Guitar Craft courses.. Guitar Craft, which has been succeeded by Guitar Circle, has taught Fripp's tuning to 3,000 students.:

An approximation: through the looking glass guitar

All-fifths tuning has been approximated with tunings in the Through The Looking Glass Guitar of Kei Nakano, which has been played by him since 2015. This new tuning is like a mirror to all kinds of string instruments including guitar. Also it can adapt to any other tunings of guitar. If tuned to normal guitar for the right handed person, it is able to use for lefty guitar in general, and vice versa.

An approximation: fifths with a unison pair for standard string sets

This tuning combines the wide 5th intervals with the possibility of close intervals that allows the pair of unison 3rd and 2nd strings (A). When playing in unison, this tuning also allow a chorus-like effect similar to the sound that the unison produces in 12 string guitars, but in a much smaller scale. It was developed to be used with a standard set of strings, for example a hybrid set of 0.9 strings, and without lowering too much the range of the electric guitar. It has a range that starts from two tones lower than the standard E tuning (C2 instead of E2) for the 6th string, but the 1st string is tuned to the same note (E4). It also shares the 4th string tuning (D3) with the E standard tuning. C-G-D-A-A-E

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 t ...

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

semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, 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 ...

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 rearrangement of the top-to-bottom elements in an interval, a chord, a melody, or a group of contrapuntal lines of music. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of i ...

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