All fourths

All fourths tuning is an alternate tuning for a guitar. It eliminates the major third between the third and second strings. Thus, the interval between each string is a perfect fourth, resulting in: E-A-D-G-C-F. It is believed that Bob Bianco pioneered this tuning.^[1] One of the most renowned guitar players using this tuning is Stanley Jordan.

The advantage of this tuning is that it allows most chords to be simply moved down or across the fretboard, dramatically reducing the number of different finger positions that need to be memorized. It also makes playing melodies and solos far faster, since all positions for fingering are exactly the same everywhere. By simplifying the transposition process for scalar patterns and chords, the fourths tuning can be especially useful for jazz guitarists. For instance: fingering for octaves (and other intervals for that matter) remains the same regardless of the pair of strings the octave is being playing on. Another very significant advantage is that all power chords can be played at any two strings as inversed fourths.

See also

• All fifths
• Perfect fourth
• Bob Bianco
• List of guitar tunings

References

Further reading

• Bianco, Bob (1987). Guitar in Fourths. New York City: Calliope Music. ISBN 0-9605912-2-2. OCLC 16526869. 

External links

• http://lilytears.com/arts/music/guitar/methods/intro/4ths.htm
• Justin Perdue: notes on tuning guitar in fourths
• Guitar Tuning in Fourths - a knol by justin perdue
• Zhille's Guitar Blog: Perfect Fourths (P4) Tuning – Basics and examples
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