Subject: RE: Theory: Tuning Intervals, Guitar
From:
JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 06:18 PM
The common concept is that the "melody" instruments, like fiddle, are tuned in fifths since 3 or 4 notes is about all you can play on one string without moving the hand. You thus play up through the fourth, and then go to the next string. Tuning in fifths gives the greatest range - from lowest note on the low string to highest "first position" note on the top string.
With strings tuned in fifths, however, it is virtually impossible to play full (triad) chords, since two of the notes in any triad always fall on the same string (unless you can reach both ends of nearly an octave span, to play one of the notes an "octave up" on a lower string).
The interval of a fourth, between strings, is simply the widest string-to-string tuning that allows you to invert any triad to some form that can be played (all 3 notes) on three adjacent strings, or at least on some three strings you can reach. You could use any smaller interval, say a third, between strings, and it might even make chording simpler(?); but that would reduce the total range of notes you can play (without going down (up?) the neck). In the extreme, you could reduce the interval to a semitone - but then you'd need a separate string for each note and you'd have a piano strapped around your neck.
The "tuning in fifths" used on the "melody" instruments has the advantage that, for scales in "first position" at least, when you move to the next string in a scale you're at the same "fret positions." With tuning in fourths, when you move to the next string, you also have to shift to an adjacent fret. This makes it a little awkward to play a melody line, hence the "drop" in interval on the B string. Most melody lines are played in the top pitches, and the shortened interval between the G and B strings "lines up" the frets used in typical scales played across those two strings. (It may also help with the "adds," since the 6s and 7s, out of normal triad spacing, are usually tacked onto the "top" of a chord.)
This is a pretty simplistic outline of what's been given me as the "traditional" explanation. The real answer to why that's the way most people do it is "because it works pretty well."
Alternate tunings (Scordatura, for the theory snobs) have been used for centuries. von Biber wrote several pieces in the 1600s(?) for which he demanded that the fiddles tune to his unusual specifications - and tabbed the finger positions they should use.
It's also a well established and fairly common procedure for folk fiddlers.
John
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sj
