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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.[1] 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, A, D, G, B, and E, 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.[2]
The term guitar tunings may refer to pitch sets other than standard tuning, also called nonstandard, alternative, or alternate.[3] 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.
- ^ Denyer (1992, pp. 68–69)
- ^ Phillips, Mark; Chappell, Jon (2 October 2012). Guitar For Dummies, with DVD. John Wiley & Sons. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-118-11554-1. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- ^ Brown, J. (2020). "11 alternate tunings every guitarist should know".