The archive contains posts about teaching and alternate tuning the guitar.
Where did it come from?
Guitar is a fretted, six stringed lute-like instrument of Spanish origin. It can be made louder either acoustically or electrically, and its roots go back thousands of years.
Lute-like instruments go back to about 2000 BC in Mesopotamia. While Europe’s lute appeared around the 10th century AD.
The lute had gut strings tied across the neck as frets. This means that lute players had to tune the frets and the strings.
An ancestor of the guitar, the lute came from the Middle Eastern oud. At first called the al oud, the lute’s name gradually morphed into its current form.
The term Luthier survives as the name for modern guitar makers, even though luthiers rarely make lutes anymore.
Many antique instruments existed, such as the cittern, that had names similar to the guitar, but did not directly influence it.
However, the vihuela is widely thought to be an important predecessor. The vihuela had six strings, a similar body build, and very similar tuning.
From Spain, the instrument has traveled all over the world. Often, when instruments cross into a different cultural region, the tuning and musical style do not travel with it.
Thus, the styles most linked with the instrument (rock, blues, and folk) do not sound like the original Spanish style. Rather, Spanish styles sound somewhat similar to classical guitar music.
I once met a guitarist from Spain. And it surprised me when she commented that people in the US often said her playing did not sound like real guitar music. This shows that, while it remains a Spanish instrument, the Spanish style does not strongly influence the instrument’s current styles.
As it traveled, it has picked up many alternate ways of tuning. Blues, Rock, folk, and African world music styles all use alternate tunings. Particularly known for its alternate tunings, Hawaiian slack-key guitar has hundreds of open and alternate tunings.
Many of the posts in The Successful Music Student blog focus on better ways to tune alternate tunings.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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Are you thinking about composing in just intonation? Do you worry that just intonation is impractical? As with any tuning system, just intonation has its strengths and weaknesses. We’ll look at the pros and cons, and when you’ve gone through the post, you can make up your own mind. Read more to help you answer the question, “Is just intonation impractical?” Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
Have you ever tuned your synth to just intonation (JI), then selected a piano sound, and thought it sounded odd as you played scales? The reason many people think JI sounds strange with a piano patch is tied to how people hear melody. Read more to learn about choosing the right sound to play with just intonation. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
Do you like how Hawaiian music sounds? Do you feel frustrated that you can’t capture that sound yourself? Your tuning effects how the guitar sounds. Read more to learn how to tune C wahine like a Hawaiian. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
Does your guitar sound out of tune even when the tuner says you’re in tune? Do you have trouble tuning by ear or want to get a better guitar tone? Not all guitar tuners have been created equal. Read more to learn how to use an extremely accurate guitar strobe tuner to make your guitar sound awesome. Estimated reading time 9 minutes.
Can Supplemented Equal Temperament help you coordinate your guitar and synth tunings so they sound good? A wide range of Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET) charts and preexisting EDOs (equal-division-of-the-octave tunings) can fit under the umbrella of SET. This gives you a lot of control over how you tune your guitars, ukuleles, banjos, and synths. This in turn will allow your whole ensemble to sound better in tune. Read more to learn about the flexibility in Supplemented Equal Temperament’s theory. Estimated reading time 5 minutes.
I’m excited to share that I’ve posted my 100th blog article. My goal is to deliver fun, relevant, and insightful content that’s chock-full of soundtracks, vibrant images, and videos. I hope you like what you’ve seen so far. If you have, please visit again. Estimated reading time 5 minutes.
Do you have a hard time getting the authentic sound of bluegrass banjo? How you tune impacts how you sound. Read more to learn how to tune like an authentic bluegrass banjo player. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
Want the authentic sound that comes with Hawaiian tuning? How you tune impacts the guitar’s sound. Read more to learn how to tune your guitar like a Hawaiian.
Estimated reading time 6 minutes.
Want to get the authentic sound of country blues guitar? Frustrated that your guitar sounds different from your favorite blues artist? The guitar’s tuning impacts the sound. Read more to learn how to tune country blues guitar to achieve an authentic blues sound.
Estimated reading time 7 minutes.
Do you want to know how Alex Lifeson tunes his guitar in the sci-fi rock opera 2112? How does experience with playing the violin or viola impact how guitarists tunes? This space opera may be the only example of a guitarist’s tuning being included as part of the finished product. At the beginning of the section entitled Discovery the hero finds a guitar, then tunes and plays it. Read more to learn about 2112’s guitar tuning.
Estimated reading time 7 minutes.