Okay, I used to try and play the 5 string banjo. A great instrument that is tuned in open G. I haven’t played seriously in years, but the other day, I stopped and bought a little cheap Horner ukulele.
Uke’s use a C turning, but it is not open C, and that makes chords just plain stupid.
On the banjo, if you need a C, fine and dandy. If you need a D, you can just move the same finger position up two frets and ta da, you have a D. Plain, simple, and happy. On the Uke though, that does not hold true. Only a few chords share the same finger position. Just plain dumb if you ask me.
So, why is it that some instruments don’t use open tunings as the standard tuning? Is there something that I am just missing?
If ‘open tunings’ means tunings that correspond to a major chord, then most instruments don’t. The benefits of having a readily availalble chord can very quickly become a problem when needing more complex harmonies.
On a guitar its not typically tuned to an open chord, although it can be. I believe that the reason is it makes it easier to play scales. If you tune it open then some of the strings are seperated by more than 5 half steps. In a normally tuned guitar you can play most scales using all 4 fingers without having to adjust your hand position on the neck. if you have open tunings than you end up moving your hand back and forth in order to play chords which can be difficult.
In addition, besides the open chords, you can play most chords easily with the same fingerings. you place your index finger all the way across a fret, and then your other three fingers form basically an open E major chord but in relation to the fretted first finger rather than the nut. To play E-minor remove the index finger.
I think this is the main reason, scales are easier to play and it becomes easier to switch between major/minor. If you try to play a minor key in a guitar thats tuned to a major chord you start to have real difficulties.
In additionn to playing scales and other runs. On the guitar it is hard to play a chord in open tuning with one finger. It is very hard on your hand to play with that much pressure on one finger. Your hand is likely to get tired beofre the end of the song. It is also difficult to do hammer-ons and such.
Open tunings for guitar are, however, great for slide.
The banjo is tuned in thirds, like the dobro, pedal steel and some other instruments. This greatly facilitates simple (triadic) chordal playing. However, it requires more effort to play scales, and complex chords (anything beyond a 7, basically) get difficult too.
The violin/mandolin/cello/other strings etc. are tuned in fifths, which makes it very simple to play scales and arppeggios, but complex chords are tougher.
Guitar is somewhere in the middle, tuned in fourths with a bastard third in there just for fun. This allows much more complex chordal tones that can be fingered with one hand, and still gives a decent scalar fingering.
For true harmonic complexity, you need an instrument tuned in semitones that can be played with all ten fingers. The piano and its relatives are the only ones that come to mind.
Also, it is difficult to alter a chord in an open tuning. You might need to play a minor chord, or add a 7th, or an augmented 4th. Easy to do in standard tuning, but not easy in an open tuning.
This is very true - but apart from the mandolin, these instruments have a fundamentally different origin (from viols and earlier bowed instruments, rather than from lutes) - and the crucial difference is the curved bridge. They’re designed essentially for not playing chords.
Fffft. All you need is a Bach fugue for violin or cello, and you’re sorted.
Also for guitars, maybe the standard tuning it makes it easier to play scales and certain chords in phrygian mode.
I think of the guitar as Spanish, and a lot of the characteristic Spanish or Flamenco sounding guitar music is played in phrygian mode, I think. It might be really tough to get those sounds out of an open tuning.
Just a suggestion. (But it then leads to the question, was the instrument tuned for the music, or did the music fit the instrument’s tuning?)
Actually, on a banjo anyway, the strings are most commonly tuned D-G-B-D (plus a fifth drone at G), which is an open G major chord. The strings are separated by five frets, four frets, and three frets respectively.
I wasn’t saying that Banjos would be easier to play in non-open tunings. Obviously they’re reasonably easy to play as is. The OP was asking for reasons why SOME instruments use non-open tunings, and I was just trying to explain why I generally use standard tuning on my guitar.
As is the viola da gamba! I was so psyched when I got to fool with one, and I knew almost instantly where to put my fingers…almost bought the thing on the spot it was that much fun…
