Ostrich guitar

Trivial tuning
Trivial tuning contains only one note, for example C.
Basic information
AliasesOstrich (D-D-D-D-d-d)
IntervalUnison
Semitones0
Example(s)C-C-C-C-C-C
Advanced information
RepetitionImmediately
Left-handed tuningTrivial
Associated musician
GuitaristLou Reed
Lou Reed plays guitar.
Lou Reed played the ostrich tuning D-D-D-D-d-d on The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow’s Parties".
Regular tunings (semitones)
Trivial (0)
Minor thirds (3)
Major thirds (4)
All fourths (5)
Augmented fourths (6)
New standard (7, 3)
All fifths (7)
Minor sixths (8)
Guitar tunings

The ostrich guitar or ostrich tuning is a type of trivial tuning. It assigns one note to all strings, e.g. E-E-e-e-e'-e' or D-D-D-D-d'-d'. The term "ostrich guitar" was coined by the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed after the pre-Velvet Underground song "The Ostrich"[1] by Lou Reed and the Primitives, on which he first recorded using this tuning, the first known commercial composition to make use of a trivial guitar tuning.[2]

  1. ^ Reed, Lou. "The Ostrich b/w Sneaky Pete". Youtube. Pickwick Publishing Inc 1965. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  2. ^ Bockris, Victor (1995). Lou Reed The Biography Fully Revised Edition. London: Vintage. ISBN 0-09-930381-7.