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#1
03-25-2019, 11:55 PM
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Is C4 middle C or... what?
I was looking at a chart of alternate tunings at HERE. However, the site's note numbering system confuses me. I always thought C4 meant middle C on a piano. Thus, I thought "standard tuning" for a guitar would be E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. However, the site shows it as E1 A1 D2 G2 B2 E3. Is middle C notated as C3 or C4 or what? And why?
Can someone provide a simple explanation of the numbering system, please? 
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#2
03-26-2019, 12:25 AM
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Your link incorrectly states the notes of standard guitar tuning are E1 A1 D2 G2 B2 E3.
Not so according to the universal convention used by professional piano tuners/technicians. Using their designations for piano notes, the standard guitar tuning notes are E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. Last edited by Tico; 03-26-2019 at 05:36 PM.
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#3
03-26-2019, 12:52 AM
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** We were answering at the same time but I'm the slower typist haha.
That webpage is incorrect about guitar standard tuning which is E2 A3 D3 G3 B4 E4 (bass guitar tuning is E1 A2 D4 G4). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/guitar Yes, middle C is in the 4th octave thus C4 of the eight octave piano scale. The middle note of the piano is A5 (440hertz symphony standard) which is the first note of the 5th octave). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/piano_tuning Middle C is the approx "middle" of human singing voices, and is within the ranges of bass, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano etc voices. Voice (and percussion) are the earliest and best understood instruments and it's characteristics were used to anchor music theory as other instruments evolved. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vocal_range. Cheers. . Last edited by casualmusic; 03-26-2019 at 01:12 AM.
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#4
03-26-2019, 01:26 AM
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Quote:
Per the standard note designation used by every piano technician, guitars are tuned to E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. BTW your wiki source, which includes this chart, does label them correctly. Attachment 20798 FWIW people using incorrect note names is very common. It happens when someone starts counting note names from the left of a standard 88-note keyboard without being aware of the history of how and why note designations that don't make sense today got set in stone long before our great grandparents were born. If a person counts notes on today's pianos (starting at the left bass side) they will understandably make the mistake of calling the A that is 440 Hz A5. After all, it is the fifth A on today's pianos. But its proper name is A4 because the first A is called A0, not A1. Here are the names of the lowest notes on today's standard 88 note piano: A0 A#0 B0 C1 C#1 D1 D#1 and so on But why? What's up with those 3 zeros? The first piano in 1720 had only 54 keys. Higher and lower notes were gradually added over time. I suspect the reason today's lowest 3 notes have that confusing zero designation is: on pianos long ago, the lowest note was a C. For whatever reason the zero-designations of those lowest 3 notes just stuck, even to this day. Perhaps for many generations the lowest note on those pianos was a C. To keep the previous and familiar note designations, when those 3 lowest notes were added, they had to designate them with some number lower than 1, hence the zero. At least that's my guess. Quote:
Ask any real piano tuner. Last edited by Tico; 05-27-2019 at 01:54 PM.
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#5
03-26-2019, 06:47 AM
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I agree with the web-page. That is the best way to describe the tunings. The web-page author is adhering to the communications rule of K.I.S.S (Keep it simple stupid!)
Writing the tunings in the correct form will only confuse people...the majority of people, who will start asking additional and obvious questions, e.g why is the lowest string an E2 and not an E1? Then you'll have go into explanations involving 88 key pianos, music theory and physics... In short, the author has given you the template for the standard tuning...which we all know and love. So now you can figure out the other tunings using that template.
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#6
03-26-2019, 08:41 AM
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Quote:
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#7
03-26-2019, 10:41 AM
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I'd be less surprised if they had gone the other direction - and erroneously identified the low E as E3 instead of E2, since the lowest open string in standard tuning is notated for guitar the same way an E3 is notated for piano.
It kind of seems to me that maybe the author of that site wasn't familiar with scientific pitch notation at all and just decided to use "1" as shorthand for the lowest octave on a guitar.
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#8
03-26-2019, 10:56 AM
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"As already explained the A that vibrates at 440 Hz is properly designated A4, not A5.
Ask any real piano tuner." Real piano tuner here! Yes, A440 is A4 and all above about lowest A on piano being A0 is correct. However........there may be some confusion because if a keyboard person who reads the musical staves sees guitar music written as the dots on treble/bass clef, it is shown an octave adrift....... By the way, if you are tuning to a piano, best not to try tuning the six strings to the six notes of the piano. Just pick one note (for instance the g) tune that to the piano then tune the guitar separately. This is because the piano strings are at vastly higher tension than guitar strings so the octave stretch required over the three octaves covered by the six open strings of the guitar, is very different. Nick
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#9
03-26-2019, 02:53 PM
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Quote:
Last edited by Kerbie; 02-23-2020 at 09:07 PM. Reason: Edited.
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