4ths Tuning...Is it for everyone?

4ths tuning is a guitar tuning where all strings are-you guessed it, tuned in 4ths! E A D G C F instead of E A D G B E.

For those of you that don't already know, I am a 7 string guitar player-so I tune B E A D G C F. I design guitars and play my own instruments exclusively without exception. I mention this because I think it's important to understand that I don't like following anybody. And if you are more of a follower (nothing wrong with that by the way!) I still think 4ths is the way to go!

I didn't go to music school and am predominatly 'self taught', if there is such a thing. Of course I had lots of help from people and studied everything from Kiss to Coltrane. Now onto my own discovery of 4ths.

After years of die hard shredding I discovered jazz. I listened to some Dimeola in the past, but never the likes of Trane and Sonny Stitt. I proceeded to do what many people do and practiced my ass off. I had to start over. My picking was designed for sick distortion. My 'lines' were just mad arepeggios and massive scale runs. I found that jazz required a ridiculous amount of study and patience. It was just the challenge I needed!

After a few years of 8+ hour days practicing, transcribing and studying, I remember finally feeling really good about my drop 2 and drop 3 chord voicings. I was then incorporating the arpeggios and scales. So many shapes. Melodic minor scales were a damn maze from hell. Chords with 4 shapes-that I had to learn 12 shapes for due to that damn 2nd string! Drop 2's and 3's, scales, arpeggios, lines,fragments, sequences...I had to learn and relearn 1000's of shapes. Until I read an article on the internet about symetrical tunings.

I can't remember the article. But it mentioned 4ths tuning and I was converted in a matter of seconds. No hesitation. No whining about 'what I already know'.I knew the road ahead had no end. I knew that 4ths would shave hours and years off the time it took me to assimilate concepts. So here I am about 8 years later spreading the gospel.

I could go on for months about the benefits of this tuning over standard. Now standard tuning is ok too-and has its own strengths. But I feel 4ths is a Ferrari and standard tuning is a Honda Accord. (just a speed reference folks).

Take an open E chord. Open A. Open D... 3 different chords? standard tuning YES. 4ths tuning? NO! In 4ths all 3 are exactly like the E. You must be careful to only play 4 strings, but you just cut your shapes down by 66%!

How about more jazzy chords? Play a Cmaj7#5 1st inversion on the bottom 4 strings. Now play all the inversions on the bottom strings. It's a pain in the neck. Now what? In 4ths you are ready to play these chords on all strings in all keys because the shapes are the same. Are you STILL in standard tuning? Good luck learning 12 shapes instead of 4. Oh yeah, also add the b5. And the dozens of other chord types. Now start your arpeggios. How about working on your triad pairs?

The bottom line is 99.999% of guitarists use standard tuning. Pat Metheny, Joe Pass...Almost everyone. But I recommend you look past this and start the process of thinking ahead rather than behind. Whatever your potential may be, 4ths will get you there 3 times faster or 3 times farther-maybe both. Open your mind and give it a shot. I don't think you'll ever look back!