New Standard Tuning - Properties

Properties

New Standard Tuning has many of the properties of all-fifths tuning. The lowest four strings are tuned just like a cello, i.e. in fifths from a low C. The next-to-highest string is another fifth up from the A to an E, and the first string is a minor third up from the E to a G. Since the lowest five strings are tuned in fifths, guitars with NST can be played with the fingerings for chords and scales used on the violin, cello, and mandolin. Like all-fifths tuning, NST has a greater range than the Old Standard Tuning, approximately a perfect fifth greater (a major third lower and a minor third higher): The expanded range allows NST guitars to play music like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", which is normally played on a piano and is beyond the reach of a traditional guitar.

Scales across two strings in NST form tetrachords (four-note patterns). Whole and half-tones exhibit symmetry for the first five strings, like other regular tunings. On the first five strings, chord-patterns may be moved around the fretboard, facilitating improvisation.

Like other tunings whose intervals exceed four steps, NST has wider harmonic intervals between consecutive strings than standard tuning; consequently some closely voiced jazz chords become impractical in NST and all-fifths tuning. The minor third between the top strings allow denser chords in the high range of the scale, and easier access to some elementary chord tones (typically the thirteenth for chords with the root note on the sixth string, and the ninth and flat ninth for chords with the root note on the fifth string.