Guitar tuning
All Fourths Tuning
E·A·D·G·C·F
All Fourths keeps the bottom four strings of standard tuning and raises the top two: the B goes up a semitone to C, the high E up a semitone to F. Now every string is a perfect fourth above the one below it — E, A, D, G, C, F — with the odd major-third gap between the G and B strings removed.
That one change makes the fretboard regular. A chord shape or scale pattern means the same thing on every string pair, so there is far less to memorise, and a line can be transposed by sliding it sideways. Stanley Jordan built his two-hand tapping style on it; jazz and fusion players like Tom Quayle and Ant Law use it too. The cost is that almost nothing transfers from standard tuning — the first months are a genuine relearn.
How to tune to All Fourths
From standard tuning:
- 6th (lowest) E — unchanged
- 5th A — unchanged
- 4th D — unchanged
- 3rd G — unchanged
- 2nd B → C (up a semitone)
- 1st (highest) E → F (up a semitone)
Open—Shape’s tuner listens for one string at a time and tells you which string it is and how far off — including in alternate tunings like this one.
What All Fourths does well
- One shape, every string. With no major-third gap, a chord or scale fingering is identical on all six strings — learn it once.
- Lines transpose sideways. Move a phrase up a string and it is up a fourth, with the same fingers — useful for fast, symmetrical playing.
- A near-free retune. Only the top two strings move, each up a semitone; the bottom four are exactly standard.
- Wider reach up top. The high F extends the range a little and keeps the tuning’s logic intact all the way across.
Common chords in All Fourths
All-fourths shapes do not match standard ones — but they do match each other. The grid shows the easiest voicing the engine finds for each chord; tap to browse the rest.
Numbers read low string to high; 0 is open, × is muted.
A progression to try
A ii–V–I in C, in all-fourths shapes:
Songs in All Fourths
- Stanley Jordan’s catalogue — “Stairway to Heaven,” “Eleanor Rigby”
- Much of Tom Quayle’s and Ant Law’s fusion work
- Widely used for jazz single-line and two-hand tapping
Players who use All Fourths
Stanley Jordan above all, plus jazz and fusion players — Tom Quayle, Ant Law, Alex Hutchings — and educators who value the regular fretboard. It stays a minority choice because the relearn is real, but the ones who switch rarely go back.
Open a All Fourths canvas — a tuning module already set, wired to a starter progression, every shape recalculated for you.