New Standard Tuning

New standard
Five consecutive open-notes of new standard tuning are spaced seven semitones apart on the chromatic circle; the highest interval is only three semitones apart.
Basic information
Aliases	Guitar Craft tuning
Interval	Perfect fifth
Semitones	7
Example(s)	C-G-D-A-E-G
Advanced information
Repetition	No
Advantages	Approximates all-fifths tuning; wide range
Disadvantages	Very difficult to play standard-guitar music
Left-handed tuning	All-fourths tuning (approximately)
Associated musician
Guitarist	Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp has taught new standard tuning to three-thousand Guitar Craft students
Regular tunings (semitones)
Trivial (0)
Minor thirds (3)
Major thirds (4)
All fourths (5)
Augmented fourths (6)
New standard (7, 3)
All fifths (7)
Minor sixths (8)
Guitar tunings

New standard tuning (NST) is an alternative tuning for the guitar that approximates all-fifths tuning. The guitar's strings are assigned the notes C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4 (from lowest to highest); the five lowest open strings are each tuned to an interval of a perfect fifth {(C,G),(G,D),(D,A),(A,E)}; the two highest strings are a minor third apart (E,G).

All-fifths tuning is typically used for mandolins, cellos, violas, and violins. On a guitar, tuning the strings in fifths would mean the first string would be a high B, something that was impractical until recently. NST provides a good approximation to all-fifths tuning. Like other regular tunings, NST allows chord fingerings to be shifted from one set of strings to another.

NST's C-G range is wider, both lower and higher, than the E-E range of standard tuning in which the strings are tuned to the open notes E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. The greater range allows NST-guitars to play repertoire that would be impractical, if not impossible, on a standard-tuned guitar.

NST was developed by Robert Fripp, the guitarist for King Crimson. Fripp taught the new standard tuning in Guitar-Craft courses beginning in 1985, and thousands of Guitar Craft students continue to use the tuning. Like other alternative tunings for guitar, NST has provided challenges and new opportunities to guitarists, who have developed music especially suited to NST. Indeed, many NST guitarists have become professional musicians and recording artists.

NST has required greater tension to strings than standard tuning has. String sets for standard tuning have problems being adapted for the New Standard Tuning: With standard string-sets, the lowest string is too loose and the highest string too often snaps under the increased tension. Special sets of NST strings have been available for decades, and some guitarists have assembled NST sets from individual strings.

New standard tuning (NST) was invented by Robert Fripp of King Crimson in September 1983. Fripp began using the tuning in 1985 before beginning his Guitar Craft seminars, which have taught the tuning to three thousand guitarists.