On a

stringed instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play so ...

, a break in an otherwise ascending (or descending) order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning which does not order all the strings (or more properly the courses) from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch (or vice versa). Most common re-entrant tunings have only one re-entry. In the case of the ukulele, for example, the re-entry is between the third and fourth strings, while in the case of the Venezuelan cuatro it is between the first and second strings.

Instruments

Instruments usually tuned in this way include: * Baroque (5-course) guitar * Five-string banjo * Charango * Cittern * Venezuelan Cuatro * Laouto * Lirone * Mexican Guitarrón * Mexican vihuela *

Rajão The rajão () is a 5-stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal. The instrument traces back to the country's Music of Portugal, regional folk music, where it is used in folklore dances of Portugal in addition to other stringed instruments from ...

Sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...

* Theorbo * Tonkori * Soprano and concert ukuleles * Tres Cubano/Cuban Tres Instruments often (but not always) re-entrantly tuned include: * Tenor guitar * Ten string classical guitar * Tenor and Baritone (occasionally) ukuleles * 10-bass Gibson Style U Harp guitar Instruments not usually considered re-entrant, but which have common re-entrant alternate tunings: *

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

( Nashville high tuning and Joe Beck's alto guitar tuning) * Pedal steel guitar ( C6 tuning and

E9 tuning E9 or E-9 may refer to: Roads and trails * European route E09 * European walking route E9 * E9, the Besraya Expressway in Malaysia * Kyoto Jūkan Expressway, San'in Kinki Expressway and San'in Expressway, route E9 in Japan Vehicles * BMW E9, a two ...

) The standard tunings for instruments with multi-string courses, such as the twelve string guitar, eight string bass, or Colombian tiple are not considered re-entrant, as the ''principal strings'' of each course are ordered from lowest to highest.

Ukulele

Ukuleles other than the tenor and baritone are most commonly tuned in re-entrant fashion; the tenor often is as well, and occasionally the baritone. These conventional re-entrant tunings G₄–C₄–E₄–A₄ are sometimes known as ''high 4th tunings'' or ''high G tuning''. Non-re-entrant tunings, also known as ''low 4th tunings'', exist for these instruments.

Charango

The Andean charango, a small 5-course, 10-string guitar frequently made from an armadillo shell, is most usually tuned in re-entrant fashion, with re-entry before and after the octave strung third course. Other members of the charango family, such as the hualaycho and charangon are usually similarly tuned; the ronroco is often, but not always tuned re-entrantly.

Ten-string guitar

The ten string classical guitar was originally designed for a specific re-entrant tuning invented by

Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish classical guitar, guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, ...

, now called the ''Modern'' tuning also. Both this and other re-entrant tunings, such as the ''Marlow'' tunings, are now used, as well as non re-entrant tunings such as the ''Baroque''; nevertheless the advantage of the Yepes re-entrant tuning over the other tunings is that it provides sympathetic resonance over all the 12 notes of the scale while the rest do not. These tunings may also be used on related instruments, such as ten string electric and jazz guitars.

Cuatro

The Venezuelan cuatro is a member of the guitar family, smaller in size and with four nylon strings. It is similar in size and construction to the ukulele. The traditional "Camburpinton" tuning is re-entrant (A–D–F–B), but with the re-entry between the second and first strings, rather than between third and fourth as in the ukulele. The results are very different in tone. Other tunings of the Venezuelan cuatro are not re-entrant, however they are not as popular as the "Camburpinton" tuning. The Venezuelan instrument is one of several Latin American instruments by the name of ''cuatro'', which is Spanish for ''four''. Despite the name, not all instruments called 'cuatro' have four strings. The ten-string, five-course Puerto Rican cuatro is not tuned re-entrantly, but in straight fourths. The ''cuatro Cubano'' also is not tuned re-entrantly.

Tenor guitar

A variety of tunings are used for the four string tenor guitar, including a relatively small number of re-entrant tunings. One example of a re-entrant tuning for tenor guitar is D₄–G₃–B₃–E₄ with strings 3–1 as for the normal 6-string guitar, but string 4 tuned to D an octave above the 4th string of the 6 string guitar.

Banjo

The fifth string on the five string banjo, called the ''thumb string'', also called the "drone string", is five frets shorter than the other four and is normally tuned higher than any of the other four, giving a re-entrant tuning such as the bluegrass G₄-D₃-G₃-B₃-D₄. The five string banjo is particularly used in

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African America ...

and

old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering ...

. The four string plectrum banjo (more often used in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

) and the four string tenor banjo (common in

Irish traditional music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there we ...

) lack this shorter string, and are rarely tuned in re-entrant fashion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reentrant Tuning Musical techniques String instruments