Guitar tuning
New Standard (Fripp) Tuning
C·G·D·A·E·G
New Standard Tuning is Robert Fripp’s reworking of the guitar, developed in the early 1980s for his Guitar Craft courses. The strings are C, G, D, A, E, G from low to high: a run of perfect fifths — the interval a cello or mandola is tuned in — for the bottom five, then a minor third up to a high G. The low C sits a major third below a standard 6th string, and the range from bottom to top is much wider than standard tuning’s.
The fifths give it a bright, open, faintly severe character: chords spread into wide voicings, and single lines cover a lot of ground with little hand movement. It also demands a specific string set — a heavy low C and an unusually thin top G — and stretches that can run a fret wider than standard. Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists, the California Guitar Trio and later King Crimson parts all live here.
How to tune to New Standard (Fripp)
From standard tuning:
- 6th (lowest) E → C (down a major third)
- 5th A → G (down a whole step)
- 4th D — unchanged
- 3rd G → A (up a whole step)
- 2nd B → E (up a perfect fourth)
- 1st (highest) E → G (up a minor third)
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 New Standard (Fripp) does well
- Fifths, like an orchestral string instrument. The bottom five strings are tuned in fifths, so scale and arpeggio patterns are symmetrical and lines move economically.
- A very wide range. The low C and the reach above it give roughly a fourth more compass than standard tuning on the same neck.
- Wide, ringing chord voicings. Notes spread further apart than in standard tuning, so even plain triads open into spacious, resonant shapes.
- A fresh logic. Nothing transfers from standard tuning — which is the point; it forces new fingerings and breaks old habits.
Common chords in New Standard (Fripp)
New Standard Tuning shares nothing with standard shapes. The grid shows the easiest voicing the engine finds for each chord — several want a wide stretch. Tap any chord to browse the rest.
Numbers read low string to high; 0 is open, × is muted.
A progression to try
A I–V–vi–IV in C, in NST voicings:
Songs in New Standard (Fripp)
- Much of the California Guitar Trio’s repertoire
- Robert Fripp’s Soundscapes and Guitar Craft pieces
- Later King Crimson guitar parts
- The League of Crafty Guitarists catalogue
Players who use New Standard Tuning
Robert Fripp, who devised it, and the Guitar Craft lineage he taught — the California Guitar Trio, Trey Gunn, Steve Ball and hundreds of course students. Rare outside that world, because the string set and the relearning are real commitments.
Open a New Standard (Fripp) canvas — a tuning module already set, wired to a starter progression, every shape recalculated for you.