The Steel Guitar Forum

Just curious, i was reading the Fender Restoration thread (Alan you are AMAZING!) and someone mentioned an Alkaire tuning. What exactly is that and how did it get it's name?!?!

Also i am wondering what does the 6 stand for in C6 tuning as well as the #13 in E 13 tuning.

Total newbie questions from a definite newbie to the whole thing.

If you number the scale like this:
C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7, C=8, D=9 etc.

You can see that "A" is the sixth note in the C scale. A C6 tuning has the sixth note added to the C major chord: C E G A. The actual order of the notes is not important.

You may also see the C6 tuning referred to as Am7 tuning. The Am chord is spellled out A C E, and G is the seventh.

The keys of Amin and C have the same notes. In ancient times instruments were made to play in only those keys. It's no coincidence that the white notes on the piano are A B C D E F G. You therefore have seven modes using the same notes, depending on where you start the scale. Thus the notes of the A min scale are A B C D E F G. The notes of the C scale are C D E F G A B .
In fact, if you use natural scales those are the only two keys you can play accurately on a keyboard instrument. Then came Equal Temperament, which is used on keyboards today, where the errors are averaged, and so you can play in any key, but they're all out of tune.

No doubt I've added to the confusion...

Hi Phillip,
Go to the Forum search link and type Alkire into the search field, you will find mega information.
Pete

No wonder i couldn't find anything about the Alkire tuning on the forum, i spelled it wrong! Couldn't figure out when i did a search before nothing came up except on the restoration thread...i mean, hey, this place doesn't miss very much.

And i (believe it or not) understand what the 6th means now, made sense of why i see it called A7th too. Thanks a lot everyone!

So, the 6th is "La."

You also asked about E13, which is a little more complicated. Chords are made of of stacked thirds (every other note in the scale) unless otherwise specified. A full E13 chord would contain every other note up to the 13th; given the E scale as: E=1, F#=2, G#=3, A=4, B=5, C#=6, D#=7

We would start with the E major chord as E G# B. To get to the 13th chord we need to add the b7, 9, 11, and 13, which spells out as: E G# B D F# A C#

An E13th tuning will have most of these notes, but probably not all. The E13th tuning used by Leon McAuliffe is (low to high): E G# D F# G# B C# E.