A Basic Look at Tenor Tuning: CGDA and DGBE

In this video I take a basic look at two different tunings for Tenor Guitar - GCDA and DGBE. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the different tunings. :)
= = =
Find me on social media;
Instagram: / fourinchcats
Facebook: / fourinchcats
Bandcamp: fourinchcats.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: tinyurl.com/4u28srt7
Apple Music: tinyurl.com/387y5apm
KZbin Music: tinyurl.com/h8cn3nks
and of course my website at www.fourinchcats.com for lots of great ukulele resources!
And thank you so much for subscribing, watching and supporting my channel!
Morgana x
To get details of music, album releases, future free mini-workshops and other news, sign up to my mailing list at www.fourinchcats.com

[@aniquinstark4347]

I really like DGBE because my fretboard knowledge transfers 1:1 when playing guitar, baritone ukulele, and tenor guitar.

[@FourInchCats]

That's definitely a bonus when you can transfer and build skills :)

[@Weeb_Destroyer]

I use dgbe as I started on guitar moves over to ukulele in my 20s and progressed further as a ukulele player. So the chord shapes being ukulele shapes and simplified guitar shapes works perfectly for me.

[@iaindowling8993]

I agree with you that I like them both and to my ear the CGDA tuning is brighter and more penetrating where the DGBE tuning is deeper and mellow

[@FourInchCats]

It's very interesting to play the same tune on both and here the difference. I have since upgraded to Blueridge Tenor Guitars and will plan a second comparison video in the near future future. :)

[@iaindowling8993]

@@FourInchCats I look forward to your next comparison of the two tunings of the tenor guitar.

[@MariaCalfaDePaul]

They sounded so cool together ! I should go back and try and re learn the cgda. I have spent so long with DGBE that it will take a bit. Take care and thanks for the comparison

[@FourInchCats]

You're very welcome. I hope to do more CGDA videos in the future. :)

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

I play a Harmony Stella Tenor Guitar I strung with John Pearse Strings. I tune it GDAE (like a Violin but an Octave lower) because it mellows out the Guitar's sound

[@FourInchCats]

I would love to try a Harmony 🌸

[@richardingraham6353]

DGBE , I am old and a beginner . So like the same tuning as baritone ukulele .😁

[@FourInchCats]

Rock on!

[@BeckyTregear]

I agree with you that they both sound awesome together! If I had to pick, maybe the first one? I like the higher sound. Love your badge too, lol.

[@FourInchCats]

Thank you so much (and well spotted!)

[@MMauricette]

I prefer the lower pitch of Chicago, DGBE.

[@JackieMatthews610318]

From Japan, I play some "Japanese style" tenor guitar named "Ichigo-Ichie" (roughly meaning "Encounter" in Japanese language, with the letters "一五一会" for numbers 1-ichi, 5-go, 1-ichi, and the last for meeting) and tuned in FCFC or GDGD, or anyway roots and fifths. I prefer CGDA to DGBE because the former is similar to Ichigo.

[@FourInchCats]

Watching you video, that tuning sounds amazing! GDGD is also used for blues slide, although I haven't tried it yet. :)

[@JackieMatthews610318]

@@FourInchCats Thanks a lot for reply and I'm so happy to hear you watch my videos! I'll show you more interesting performance with Ichigoichie!

[@FourInchCats]

@@JackieMatthews610318 l look forward to it 😊🌸

[@chuckHart70]

Japanese music is beautiful!

[@s133p1ngdrag0n]

I prefer the sound of CGDA, which is what I play at home, but I can see how some might prefer Chicago. For me it was worth not playing my six string for about a year to get my head around the fifths tuning and now I can sit in a jam session with my tenor and follow the six string players by watching their chord shapes. Added value is that my mathematical mind finds fifths much easier to learn new chords and I now know many more tenor chords than I learned over a much longer period of time on the 6 string..

[@FourInchCats]

Brilliant! 😊🎼

[@andreamartini9993]

Hi ☺️It’s possibile to tune original strings to DGBE without changing strings? Thanks ☺️

[@FourInchCats]

Yes, l didn’t change strings when l tuned to DGBE. But l would change strings of tuning back to CGDA. 😊

[@andreamartini9993]

Thank you 😊 I’ll tune DGBE because I play baritone uke and i’m more confident with that tuning ☺️

[@FourInchCats]

@@andreamartini9993 You are very welcome 😊

[@stepno]

Are yours strung with the same string sets or different gauges for that higher CGDA (viola or tenor-banjo) versus the DGBE (guitar & baritone uke) tuning? Lowering the low D of a guitar set to C is easy enough, but it seems like raising the high strings to "D" and "A" would come close to breaking the strings of a DGBE set. I see the gauges for the JP "Irish tenor" string set mentioned below are .042, 030, .020, .013, for lower-octave mandolin or violin tuning, GDAE.

[@FourInchCats]

Both guitars arrived tuned to CGDA. I tuned one down to DGBE without any problems. However I found on these particular guitars the margin between CGDA being in tune and breaking point was razor thin. The manufacturer (whom I would prefer not to mention) advised D'Addario EJ66 Tenor Guitar 80/20 Bronze strings (gauge 10,14, 22, 32) as replacement strings for any that broke. I haven since upgraded both guitars to the Blueridge BR-40TCE models, again once in CGDA and one in DGBE which also use the D'Addario strings above. Again both arrived tuned in CGDA so tuning down to DGBE wasn't a problem and I find the Blueridge has more wiggle room when it comes to tuning up to pitch. I hope to do another comparison video some time in the further with the Blueridges. Hope this helps.

[@musicaabertasp8912]

Hello Morgana. My name is Davi, I'm from Brazil and I saw your video about the DGBE tuning on a Tenor Guitar. What strings did you use in this tuning since the instrument's measurement is smaller than the standard guitar?

[@FourInchCats]

Hi Davi, nice to hear from you. The Tenor Guitars came strung with D’Addario EJ66 Bronze wound Tenor Guitar Strings, which easily tuned down on one from CGDA to DGBE. Hope this helps 😊🎼

[@lynnemarriott8755]

Both lovely but l guess because l play Bari Uke l prefer DGBE😊 just beginning to get interested in Tenor Guitar (oh no) 😳 am l right in assuming the chords would be the same as Bari Uke? Are the guitars electron or acoustic please ❤️🎵

[@FourInchCats]

DGBE is the same as Baritone Uke, the frets are just a little further apart. These tenor guitars are acoustic-electric (they have built in pickups). I have since sold these two to upgrade to Blueridge Tenor Guitars which also have pickups. I’ll do a video on them soon but we’ll definitely chat 😊🌸

[@lynnemarriott8755]

@@FourInchCats thank you ❤️🎶

[@jimstyles1998]

In your video, the C G D A is brighter and more exciting than the D G B E. But have you used 'plectrum' tuning (C G B D) at all? While it seems superficially close to 'Chicago' tuning (D G B E), plectrum is very different and I think much better. Originally, being a guitar player, I started played guitar tuning on the 4-string instrument, but after a few years switched to C G D A (and loved it for many years). However I've recently changed again, this time to D G B E which involved a steep learning curve at my advanced age. This is now my favourite.

[@FourInchCats]

I haven’t tried CGBD, definitely something to consider in the future. 😊🎼

[@user-fb2kb4wp7s]

Can I tune any tenor guitar to either of these tuings, using the strings that come with it, or do I need to buy strings?

[@FourInchCats]

It very much depends on what gauge/tuning the original strings are. If it comes with the tuning GDAE then you will need to change the strings. My personal string preference for CGDA or DGBE tuning are D'Addario EJ66 80/20 Bronze with a string tension of 10-14-22-32 but there are definitely other good brands on the market. It's the string gauge that's important. :)

[@user-fb2kb4wp7s]

@@FourInchCats I;ve got one on the way and I can't find any info on what it's tuned to.

[@romelmadrayart]

Is the tenor tuning CGBA reentrant tuning it seems a lot brighter. Also is it at a lower octave range than a tenor ukulele? I know a baritone uke octve range is set to the range of the last 4 strings on a six string guitar. Also are there any chord chards or other informational resources out there that you know of ?

[@FourInchCats]

Do you mean CGDA? No, it’s not reentrant tuning. The tuning of the Tenor ukulele and tenor guitar overlap, with the ukulele higher and the tenor guitar lower. Yes there are some excellent resources, including a chord Bible for each tuning (DGBE and CGDA) by Tobe A. Richards.

[@romelmadrayart]

@@FourInchCatsThe "B" I wrote was a mistype. Thanks I was reading that the most common tuning is CGDA and it has a bright sound which I associate with the uke. per my reading " While tenor guitars can be tuned in various ways, the most common tuning is C-G-D-A, which is equivalent to the top four strings of a standard guitar but one octave higher. ", which I saw on gnb guitars website. My guess was that it was on the same octave range as a uke for example C and A chord octave range on a uke would be the same as the C and A chord on a tenor guitar. Am I right in this assumption?

[@FourInchCats]

The Tenor Guitar is tuned C3 G3 D4 A4 whilst the Tenor Ukulele is tuned G4 C4 E4 A4 or reentrant G3 C4 E4 A4. You can see there is so overlap in which octave the strings are tuned but not all so no they are not tuned in the same octave, even though they share some overlap.

[@romelmadrayart]

@@FourInchCatsThanks. Seems an interesting tuning. basically a high C3 and G3 and a low D4 and A4. which I am thinking gives it a brightness.Would be intersting to see how this works with the blues and andelucian music. Thanks for the info

[@FourInchCats]

@@romelmadrayart No, third octave is lower than fourth octave. So starting on C3 up to G3 up to D4 and finally up to A4. The brightness is due to the tuning being in fifths rather than in fourths (such as baritone or ‘standard’ ukulele tuning. Personally l prefer DGBE for Blues. (Several examples on this channel) 😊🎼

[@howlinhobbit]

I use DGBE because the shapes are the same as on my GCEA tuned ukuleles and my one that’s tuned CFAD.

[@FourInchCats]

CFDA would sound very cool :)

[@howlinhobbit]

@@FourInchCats maybe so, but I don’t want to learn a bunch of new shapes. no room for them, my brain is full.

[@debralearyan8844]

❤😎

[@truepatriot1974]

CHICAGO!!!!!

[@FourInchCats]

It’s definitely a popular one!

[@joseluisaltamirano1531]

what strings do you use to go Chicago tuning?

[@FourInchCats]

D’Addario EJ66 - l use them for both CGDA and DGBE 😊🎼

[@elizabethlamprecht120]

I think I prefer the CGDA tuning, but I suppose it depends on my mood or the piece I am playing.

[@FourInchCats]

It’s a very sweet tuning 😊🎼

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

What string gauges are you using for DGBE - thanks for the comparison

[@FourInchCats]

Welcome. I use the D'Addario EJ66 80/20 Bronze Acoustic Strings set - (.010-.032 Light) for both CGDA and DGBE tunings. 😊

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

@@FourInchCats Thank you. I did tune my Kala tenor guitar to DGBE with the strings it was shipped with (came in CGDA). Now with a longer 23” scale (recording King), I want to make sure I get the right ones. As a guitar player DGBE is easy. I play mandolin, but the stretches on tenor are quite hard in 5ths. I enjoy your videos.

[@FourInchCats]

@@stephenbouchelle7706 Thank you for your kind words and support, appreciated ☺

[@donsmith5835]

Nice job. C G D A gives a much better sound.

[@FourInchCats]

It's a beautiful sound. :)

[@danthompson5797]

I play mine in DGBD

[@FourInchCats]

Cool!

[@danthompson5797]

@@FourInchCats I think it's the same as banjo tuning

[@FourInchCats]

@@danthompson5797 Quick Google search (because I find different tunings so interesting) Open G seems to be popular with 5 string Banjo, Tenor (four String) Banjo a lot seem to use the same tunings as Tenor Guitar. Which makes sense given the string influence the Banjo had on it's development :)

[@13001958]

how about comparing it with gdae, gdad, dgbd,

[@FourInchCats]

I have my hands full with these two tunings for now! Perhaps further down the track if I get a chance to have more tenor guitars. Meanwhile check out kzbin.info/door/ctZZFbQTMD_XhERXIEJhsg for some other alternative tunings :)

[@airheartforge1796]

. . My Delta 4 Tenor Resonator (Single Cone Dobro) Is Tuned GDAE . . It would be nice to hear it compared to your two tunings . .

[@FourInchCats]

It would be very interesting. Sadly tenor guitars are very hard to find in Australia; l’ve never seen an Eastwood Tenor in person.

[@airheartforge1796]

@@FourInchCats w0w Thanks for replying . . Yes the Delta 4 has a Cool Sound . and I am just starting out and I changed the tuning to reflect a Guitar (DGBE) (as there is little in the way ov TAB for GDAE)[Total String change] but found I didn't really like the sound as much and Changed Back . . even just hearing the sound signature on a Standard Tenor is what I was Thinking . . . But That is a Lot ov work . . as the strings would be different (and I am Not asking that) . . sorry for rambling on . . the last to years have had me locked away and I haven't Interact much with folks . . I am Having Fun with Learning it . . . Bless Yer Heart and Bless Yer Soul

[@FourInchCats]

@@airheartforge1796 Welcome. :)

[@chrisnurczyk8239]

Morgana, you're a Solomon! Play both together - sounds lovely!

[@FourInchCats]

That is my favourite too :)

[@semidav1]

DGBA

[@semidav1]

Oops. DGBE. 😊

[@FourInchCats]

😊

[@davidbliss5294]

To me the CGDA tuning winds hands down

[@FourInchCats]

It’s a beautiful sound 😊🎼