Ten-stringed guitar

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1 Modern/Yepes 10-string guitar
2 Other Types of Ten-stringed Guitars
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Modern/Yepes 10-string guitar

Main article: Modern/Yepes Ten-String Guitar

The Modern/Yepes 10-string guitar adds four strings (resonators) tuned in such a way that they (along with the other three bass strings) can resonate in unison with any of the 12 chromatic notes that can occur on the higher strings; the idea behind this being the enhancing and balancing of sonority.

Modern Ten-string Guitar Tuning

The correct standard tuning of the modern/Yepes ten-string guitar is:

e' - b - g - d - A - E - C - Bb - Ab - Gb

Or, written enharmonically:

e' - b - g - d - A - E - C - A# - G# - F#

Although this idea originated (and is primarily used) with the Modern/Yepes Ten-String Guitar, it is feasible that similar tuning concepts can be applied to guitars with more strings, as well. This is because the "resonance idea" underlying the concept is grounded in acoustic theory, rather than being only a feature of the Modern/Yepes Ten-String Guitar alone.

[edit] Other Types of Ten-stringed Guitars

Prior to 1963, a number of different types of guitars with ten strings were played by, among others, Johann Kaspar Mertz and Ferdinando Carulli. The first played an instrument with four additional free-floating basses tuned diatonically from [Helmholtz] D to A1. Carulli called his instrument the Decacorde, which was tuned e'-b-g-d-A-G-F-E-D-C. (The last five strings are not fretted.) Indeed, if one is to do justice to the music of numerous 19th century composers who wrote for instruments with more than six strings, these period instruments would be most suitable.

Taking nothing away from their suitability for the performance of 19th century repertoire, it has to be pointed out, however, that the concepts behind these guitars are contrary to that of the Yepes ten-string guitar, since the tunings of these instruments were not intended to resolve - and do not resolve - the problems of resonance inherent in the design of the guitar. As Yepes said about instruments that add redundant resonances such as B, A, or D: "My idea of the 10-string guitar is exactly the contrary - to provide sympathetic vibration for the notes that do not have this kind of reinforcement" (Yepes 1978: 46).

However, to complicate matters, since 1963 ten-string guitars that seem to be modern in appearance have been appropriated by some proponents of the abovementioned Romantic ten-stringed guitar, tuning the additional strings diatonically from D to A1 (a system also known by the misnomer "Baroque" tuning). This has led to some confusion between two visually similar but conceptually disparate instruments: on the one hand, the Romantic ten-stringed guitar (whose purpose is an extended bass register - one that, inadvertently, augments the guitar's resonant imbalance), and, on the other hand, the Yepes ten-string guitar, whose raison d'être is, first, linearised resonance for the entire chromatic octave, and second, an extended bass register.

Other guitarists have adopted new, individualised tunings of instruments with ten strings to facilitate the playing of their highly personal repertoires; notably Dominic Frasca and Egberto Gismonti.