# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Tenor Guitars >  Tenor tuning survey

## Michael Eck

OK folks. I'm curious.

Tenor guitars and banjos are commonly tuned three or four different ways -- CGDA, GDAE and Chicago (DGBE). I know there are also a few common modal/open tunings.

i would like to conduct a simple survey.

Which instrument?
-tenor guitar
-tenor banjo
-both

Which tuning?

Style of music?

Here's my response, as a sample:

-tenor guitar and tenor banjo

- currently CGDA and GDAE, although I've used Chicago for solo singing accompaniment.

- jug band (using banjo in GDAE) and folk/old time - songs, not tunes (using tenor guitar in CGDA).

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## Ed Goist

Great thread! Thanks for starting it Michael.




> Which instrument?
> -tenor guitar
> -tenor banjo
> -both


*Tenor guitar only. (acoustic & electric)*




> Which tuning?


*GDAE*, with gauges 42W 30W 20 13. 
I also sometimes tune down the high strings one step for Blues slide in (*GDGD*)




> Style of music?


*Blues, Classic Rock, Psychedelic.*

Michael, I see you play the tenor banjo tuned in octave mandolin GDAE. I find that very interesting...So, my answer to your first question may change at some point!  :Smile:

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## Michael Eck

Ed,

Actually, I currently play tenor banjo in both tunings, Irish for the jug band and CGDA for the duo. I'm sort of waffling between both, which is one of the reasons I'm curious to see folks' responses.

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Charles E., 

Roman Pekar

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## Ed Goist

Thanks Michael.
I am a GDAE guy all the way - Having the low G is very important for me, plus I really like having immediate access to everything that is out there in mandolin notation/tab.

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## Lulu

I'm newly obsessed with stringed instruments -- started on a ukulele in January and got my first tenor guitar a month ago.  Thus:

Tenor guitar  (Blueridge -- bought after reading recommendations here)
DGBE (like a baritone uke)
Beginner's folk, blues, and sing-along with the family stuff

When I first bought my guitar it was tuned CGDA and I learned lots of chords, but had a much harder time finding tabs and instructional material.  (I'm learning to read music, but I'm SLOW.)  I intend to get a second tenor guitar and try out the DGdg tuning that Mirek Patek recommends and see if I can follow his youtube and written instructions.  (I'm open to other suggestions, though!)

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## Charles E.

Tenor Guitars tuned CGDA. Used to play Old time, Swing and Jugband.
Tenor Banjo ( Gibson trapdoor ) tuned CGDA. Used to play Dixiland.
Tenor Banjo (custom by Tim Curren ) tuned GDAE. Used to play Old Time and fiddle tunes.

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## Jayyj

Tenor guitar (electric and acoustic) and viola
Standard tuning for me is BbFCG, alternatively CGCG, CGDG or CGDA with a capo at the second fret
A kind of goth / folk / post-rock sort of affair

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## Beanzy

Tenor Guitar tuned CGDA

Play Bluegrass; American, Irish & English folk and classical (cello pieces on TG)

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## Seonachan

Tenor guitars (acoustic & electric) both currently tuned GDAD - though I have a guitar background, I'm coming to tenor from 3-stringed instruments (strumstick, cigar box guitar) tuned DAD, so GDAD is an easy transition, but I'd like to get into GDAE and CGDA eventually.

I play folk, Gaelic airs, Beatles covers, and whatever else strikes me at the time.

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## rico mando

tenor guitar cgcg usually and sometimes cgda  . sometimes I like to tune down to b flat/ f b flat/ f . my electric tenor is gdae but I do not play it a lot

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## JeffD

Sold my tenor guitar. It was CGDA

I play a tenor banjo. CGDA. Old time, Irish, and noodling.

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## djweiss

Tenor Guitars (Acoustic & Electric);
FCGDA and FCGD, relatively speaking;
Country and Swing.

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## Mike Snyder

Tenor banjo and neglecting a good mandolin. GDAE on ITM, contradance stuff and lots and lots of old-time. Got the Orpheum banjo in response to a wanted ad here at the cafe.

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## Handy Hummingbird

Tenor guitar, tunes GDAE/GDAD and used for gypsy jazz, breton dance, bluegrass and irish/folk.

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## wistah

Tenor Banjo tuned CGDA.  I play americana folksy stuff.

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## ak_hepcat

Plectrum banjo, CGBD  for rag-timey shounding stuff
Mandolin in standard tuning for bluegrass and Irish
Tenor in CGDA (36W 24W 15 9.5) that i'm just starting to learn.  Brain keeps shifting up a 5th...
  but I'm really interested in using it to play swing/jazz  ala Two Man Gentlemen Band

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## Michael Eck

Ah, TMGB is from right across the tracks from me, in Great Barrington, Mass. Fun stuff. I actually picked up an Epiphone archtop tenor (which I'll be putting CGDA) in that town a few weeks ago. There's a plectrum banjo I was looking at more locally but -- fingers crossed -- I may be scoring a National tenor soon (which will also likely go CGDA).

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## John Flynn

- Tenor banjo (although I plan to get a tenor guitar at some point and the answer will be the same)

- GDAE all the way, I'm a creature of habit where that's concerned

- Irish and old-time music

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## Pete Martin

Tenor guitar, CGDA, Texas style fiddle backup.

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## Dolamon

Pete - are any of your many books directly pertinent to CGDa tuning? I know how to convert and shift around on mandolin oriented music but my brain seems to be aging faster than the rest of me ... 

Dion - Chicago coming from almost fifteen years of strangling a mandola.

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## Paul Merlo

I've got a tenor guitar and tune it CGDA.  
I thought about tuning it GDAE like my mandolin, but I don't play it very often, or with others yet, so I left it CGDA for now.

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## Richard Singleton

Have a sixties Stella by Harmony tenor flattop and tune it CGDA.
My tenor banjo is a 1927 Gretsch Orchestrella tuned GDAE

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## germano

For what it's worth...

I play a Baroque viola, tenor banjo, mandola and cigar box tenor guitar.  All in alto clef and all are tuned cgda.  If you had such a selection to choose from, it would boggle you to experience that Bach sounds just fine on a tenor banjo, very old-time jazz sounds fabulous on a tenor guiter and any viola music (from exercises to sonatas/concertos) sound wonderful on a mandola.  Stick with the same tuning, learn the notes on the fretboard and the world is your oyster...for me anyway, ymmv.

I'm sure this will draw many negative comments but it works for me.

germano
_____

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## Martin Jonas

Tenor guitars (one acoustic and one resonator), both tuned GDAE, used for melody playing of Irish, Scottish, Early Music, Latin, German folk and old-time tunes, and as strummed backing in anything else that catches my fancy.

Martin

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## Jayyj

> For what it's worth...
> 
> I play a Baroque viola, tenor banjo, mandola and cigar box tenor guitar.  All in alto clef and all are tuned cgda.  If you had such a selection to choose from, it would boggle you to experience that Bach sounds just fine on a tenor banjo, very old-time jazz sounds fabulous on a tenor guiter and any viola music (from exercises to sonatas/concertos) sound wonderful on a mandola.  Stick with the same tuning, learn the notes on the fretboard and the world is your oyster...for me anyway, ymmv.
> 
> I'm sure this will draw many negative comments but it works for me.
> 
> germano
> _____


Ah, this is way too friendly a place for negative comments! 

As far as classical music on tenor is concerned, I've spent many an hour over the last year or so working on the Bach D Minor Partita on mandolin - but I can't imagine being able to manage large sections of it on a tenor scale length. Even on viola the chordal parts are too much for me, although I'm assured more talented (or perhaps just larger handed!) violists can turn in a decent version. 

Although thinking about it, a tenor in EBGD tuning would be great for Renaissance guitar music...

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## Martin Jonas

> Ah, this is way too friendly a place for negative comments! 
> 
> Although thinking about it, a tenor in EBGD tuning would be great for Renaissance guitar music...


Speaking of renaissance music on tenor guitar, I tried this 16th century keyboard piece (The Short Mesure Off My Lady Wynkfylds Rownde)a while ago -- works just fine on the reso tenor in GDAE:



Martin

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## Will Morgan

Tenor banjo, by Jason Romero, tuned GDAE
Tenor guitar, by Jayson Bowerman, tuned GDAD
I use both for Irish trad, primarily. I hesitate to call the guitar a tenor, as it has a full size
guitar body and a scale length of a little over 24'. It is a marvelous instrument for accompaniment, bouzouki style,
and playing melody lines is not as confusing as one might think.

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Ed Goist

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## Baron Collins-Hill

I tune (my Blueridge 40t) GDAD. I mostly use it for accompaniment, but do like to play melody on it as well. It took a little while to get used to the high D string for melodies, but its not so bad once you are expecting it.

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mandrian, 

Will Morgan

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## Mike Crocker

GDAE for tenor banjo and my weird guitar shaped mando-cello/bouzouki/octave mandolin.

Peace.

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## John Kelly

Tenor banjo, tenor guitar (plus mando, octave and bouzouki) all in GDAE as I like to keep things as simple as possible and this tuning suits my Scottish and Irish dominated repertoire.

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## SGraham

Tenor guitar: *CGDG*

It took some getting used to, but I'm not breaking my top string all the time now (I play pretty hard).

Style of music: Old time fiddle tunes, folk, corrupted bluegrass

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## Charles E.

[QUOTE=SGraham;1085976]Tenor guitar: *CGDG*

It took some getting used to [quote]

That would be a mind bender for me.   :Smile:

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## journeybear

Steel tenor guitar (National Triolian)

CGDA - never had much interest in other tunings; regular fifths intervals are what made playing string instruments possible for me. A mandola was attractive due to the inherent key changes associated with the lower tuning, then the Triolian to add to my arsenal while playing in a jug band. I also played this on a couple tunes while recording with the _other_ jug band, even slide - not my strong suit but worked out well enough, I think.

Blues, ragtime, jug band, American, country, rock

BTW, I am surprised to see so many people tuning GDAE or similarly. I had no idea these could be tuned so far from what I thought was normal. Is that the same as a mandolin or an octave lower? I would think the first option would put too much tension on the strings and neck and the second option would make the strings too slack. Could some of you explain which you are doing? (Should this be a secondary or corollary survey? Maybe a fourth question?)

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## John Kelly

> Steel tenor guitar (National Triolian)
> 
> BTW, I am surprised to see so many people tuning GDAE or similarly. I had no idea these could be tuned so far from what I thought was normal. Is that the same as a mandolin or an octave lower? I would think the first option would put too much tension on the strings and neck and the second option would make the strings too slack. Could some of you explain which you are doing? (Should this be a secondary or corollary survey? Maybe a fourth question?)


The GDAE tuning is an octave below standard mandolin tuning.  My 2 tenors, both self-builds, have scale lengths of 540mm (same as my octave), one with a zero fret and one without.  I have single octave strings on the one without the zero fret and slightly heavier strings on the one with the zero fret.  Both seem to have no problems regarding buzz or string tension, though one is just a year old and the other a few months.

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## Ed Goist

Journeybear; Using gauges 42W-30W-20-13 to tune GDAE on a 23" tenor guitar gives one string tensions of:



```
    42-30-20-13	
    G: 18.39 #		
    D: 21.45 #		
    A: 24.02 # 	
    E: 21.63 #	
Total: 85.49 #
```

In my opinion, these gauges with their fairly low tensions are very comfortable to play, and make for easy and effective bends, slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.

The 42 G is still a little _"loosie-goosie"_, but not to the point where it's an issue. At some point I may try a 44 on the G (tension 20.59 #) and a 19 on the A (tension 21.96 #). This would make the tension across all the strings almost equal.

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## SGraham

[QUOTE][QUOTE=SGraham;1085976]Tenor guitar: CGDG

It took some getting used to 


> That would be a mind bender for me.


The fingerings are the same as the GDAD tuning that a lot of octave players use. I find four advantages with this tuning: 1) it makes possible some interesting open chord possibilities, 2) fiddle tune melody fingering is still pretty intuitive--given that the only change from traditional tuning is a one-step-down difference on the top string, 3) string breakage is rare for me now (I can use a heavier gauge top string), and 4) I'm not playing in the same range as the guitar player with resulting muddiness in the sound.

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## journeybear

Thanks for the info, guys. I love this place! I learn so much about stuff I would never have thought of doing. Not that I'm against experimenting - _au contraire_ - but I had no idea that was possible, and so never thought to try.

Speaking of which - I may just have to go and do that. As much as I like the mandola, I have never been real comfortable about taking leads - always have to keep calculating in my head what the notes are. With the mandolin it's automatic, of course, for the most part.  :Wink:  Stringing the Triolian down another fourth might make it more natural. Besides, I already have the mandola for the key changes that tuning provides. I'll have to measure the scale length and see what I've got. It's a lot longer than the mandola's, which is really not much longer than the mandolin's. This will bring it right into the guitar's range, though, so I would lose the wide audio spectrum provided by the bass-guitar-mandolin trio instrumentation. Hmmm ...  stuff to think about ...

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Ed Goist

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## Michael Eck

Thanks to all for weighing in. Please keep the responses coming!

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## Rvl

Tenor banjo CGDA
archtop guitar FCGD
archtop guitar FCGDA
long scale tenor guitar FCGD
long scale tenor guitar GDAE
plectrum banjo FCGD
plectrum banjo GDAE
tenor resonator GDAE

I sing and play folk/old time and sing

Thanks 

Robert VanLane

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## MirekPatekdotcom

Tenor banjo, less frequently tenor guitar (modified from child-sized classical guitar by narrowing the neck).

Exclusively *DGdg* tuning.

Many fingerpicking and frailing styles, see http://www.mirekpatek.com

Mirek

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## Bob DeVellis

Tenor banjo: GDAE.  Tenor guitar:DGBE.  I don't play much tenor anymore but when I was playing Irish dance music on tenor guitar, I found the Chicago tuning to make the stretches a lot easier.  My tenor banjo is short scale, so GDAE works for that.  

My journey with tenors sort of echos the instrument's original history.  The original progression was the development of tenor banjos to allow mandolinists to be heard in orchestral settings with familiar tuning in 5ths.  The tenor guitar was to bring tenor banjoists to the guitar  -- first the tenor with tuning like the banjo and then the 6-string.  So, tenor banjo and tenor guitar were stepping stones to 6-string.   I was trying to learn an Irish tune on mandolin and found a version of it played on tenor guitar.  After I learned it on tenor and mandolin, I thought I'd giver it a go on 6-string.  I did, and I liked it.  And thus I have come to play guitar much more than mandolin at present.  But I still love 'em all.

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## Jim Gallaher

- Tenor Guitar
- GDAE
- Swing

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## Paul Brett

-Tenor Guitar
-CGDG
-accompaniment on folk/Irish songs

I play an OM GDAD so it's pretty much the same just think transpose all the time. I play mandolin GDAE.

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## bratsche

> Ah, this is way too friendly a place for negative comments! 
> I've spent many an hour over the last year or so working on the Bach D Minor Partita on mandolin - but I can't imagine being able to manage large sections of it on a tenor scale length. Even on viola the chordal parts are too much for me, although I'm assured more talented (or perhaps just larger handed!) violists can turn in a decent version.


For me, Bach is usually most difficult on mandolin and violin, easier on viola, and easiest on mandola.   It's not so much an issue of big hands (which I don't have, as an average-sized female), as much as it is of micro-adjustments of the finger positions necessary to make all those chords (and make them in tune, on the non-fretted instruments).  I had a lot of physical tension as a violin player, largely due to this, which all but disappeared when I took up viola.  Even so, there's a limit to this, and I'm not sure what the scale of a tenor banjo or guitar is, but if it's too much longer than mandola, all bets are off. As in all things, YMMV, of course.

bratsche

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## Clockwork John

Tenor banjo, tuned GDAE, for ITM, celtic folk, and folk punk. Recently got my hands on a second one, so maybe I'll play around with Chicago tuning some, since I'm also a guitarist.

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## Mike Snyder

17 fret Orpheum tenor banjo in GDAE for ITM, Scottish pipe tunes, old-time, jazz and 70's AM radio rock. The bluegrass banjo guys have a fit when I bring it to b-grass jams.

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## SailorUke

I'm primarily a ukulele player, both tenor and baritone uke; although I'm getting more involved in tenor guitar.

Instruments: Tenor guitars and baritone ukuleles
Tunings: CGDA and DGBE (some in each); also open tunings on baritone ukes (usually open A, G or D)
Music: Pop, country, blues, '60s rock and folk. Generally accompanying myself solo on vocals, or in duets. All amateur.

I may be tempted to try GDAE on one of the re-strung baritones somewhere down the road.

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## DannSkinn

My tenor banjo is CGDA   BUT
ALL my tenor guitars are tuned GDAE including my 8 string tenor which is octave G, G, octave D, D, AA, EE

Skip Skinner
StepSons
Austin, Texas

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## Dr H

Hmm...

I've always tuned my tenor guitar and tenor banjo to CGDA, and my ancient Mel Bay method books for tenor guitar & tenor banjo insist that this is "standard" tuning.  According to the history I've seen, the tenor guitar was developed primarily to play tenor banjo parts, at a time when the guitar was starting to replace the banjo in popularity.

Of course one can tune pretty much any stringed instrument anyway one wants to, within certain physical limits.  But having just started a thread on "guitar-shaped octave mandolins" I I'm wondering if a tenor guitar tuned GDAE isn't really more of a 4-string octave mandolin than a tenor guitar?

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## Big Rig

- Tenor Guitar
- AEAC#
- Slide Blues

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## Will Patton

Tenor guitar by Adam Buchwald - G D A E
National Triolian, 1930 or so , same tuning
I play swing, Gypsy, Irish, Quebecoise and folkie stuff - some choro, the occasional tango.

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## Robin Clark

I'm absolutely new to the tenor guitar - I was given an old Regal a few days ago.  I like old time tunes and ballads.  I have to say that it sort of seemed pretty natural to tune CGcg (the top two strings dropped a tone from CGDA).  I've only been playing a couple of hours but I've worked out I can play D fiddle tunes if I capo at fret 2 (I tried Angelina Baker, Soldiers Joy, Arkansas Traveller, Blackest Crow).  And A minor tunes with the capo at fret 2 (I tried Cluck Old Hen, Shady Grove, Cuckcoo).  And A major tunes from a capo at fret 2 (I tried Cripple Creek, Buffalo Gals).  G major tunes with the capo at fret 5 (I tried Shove the Pig's Foot).  And A mixolidian tunes with a capo up at fret 7 (I tried Old Joe Clark, June Apple).  Of course tunes and songs in C, Dm, F and various points in between are also available from that 1-5-1-5 tuning, and most of the time I can pick out the melody against root and/or 5th drones.  This tuning does seem to make the instrument easy to play and the tunes just roll along in a sort of Transatlantic old time/Celtic way.  I'm certainly going to take my tenor guitar along to the next old time session - it's a lovely sound and great fun!!!

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## jfonner

I have a very wide historic range of music that I like to play (mostly folk, county, old-time, mid-century standards, bluegrass and gospel) ranging from Stephen Foster to Irving Berlin to Gillian Welch. My primary tenor instrument is a Blueridge BR40-T tuned CGDA.  I mostly jam with bluegrass gospel & classic country players at a local shop & a couple churches. The Martin guitar purists aren't quite sure what to make of my four string guitar but the fiddle & mandolin players soon recognized what I was doing and have been very gracious. Some of my favorite old country songs to play were written by Grand Ol Opry members the Delmore Brothers and the Louvin Brothers who both featured the tenor guitar in their acts. 

I also have a Morgan Monroe mandolin and a 1931 Gibson tenor banjo currently tuned GDAE but don't play either one very often. I mostly strum first position chords and I need to learn to finger pick to play either well. I keep pushing & stretching my left hand to be able to play chord melodies and cover all the strings on the bluegrass mandolin chords but I'm not there yet.

Lately I've been playing ukulele a lot - I have several including 1930's Martin & Gibson sopranos, a 1948 Martin T-17 tiple, and a 1940's Gretsch campfire uke. I mention the ukes because their chord structures have made me think about trying Chicago tuning on my tenor. I also like the great diversity of chord charts & tabs available for uke which has greatly increased the range of styles of songs that I play. I'm also using the uke to learn to pick & move my left hand quicker. The smaller scale and lower tension of the nylon strings is helping to make that process easier. Once the muscle memory, picking rolls & music theory are in my head, I plan to head back to the steel stringed instruments.

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## bruce.b

Herb Taylor archtop tenor guitar, 21.25" scale length.
GDAE
Irish trad and old time mostly. Playing a couple of Monroe tunes lately too.

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## Daithio

Both--tuned GDAE for Irish. The tenor guitar is a Blueridge BR60t; banjo is a B&D Silver Bell.

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## John Kelly

Tenor guitar and tenor banjo- both tuned GDAE.  Music is mainly Scottish/Irish and forays into country and folk music as the mood takes me.

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## Torinsall

Viello...18" 5-string viola played upright like a cello with
   a 15.5" scale length, walnut back/sides, spruce top, 
   tuned CGDAE

Pono Mahogony Baritone Uke tuned GDAE like an octave 
   mandolin 

Scottish, other celtic and folk.  

Beginner, need to learn the fingerboard more solidly and site read more quickly.  Having a fretted instrument removes the question of whether I hit the right note in tune...it also translates learning a new tune to the viello better than picking it out on a piano because you get both the tune and the fingering.  The uke is brand new and I love the mellow sound of nylon strings with a mahogany body.

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## Tdq

Tenor Guitar. GDGD. Tried GDAE for a bit but decided I wasn't going to learn yet another tuning, as I am mainly a 6-string guitarist in standard, open D, open G. I use the tenor in this tuning to noodle on the couch with I-IV-V melodic stuff in G and just figured out my own chords.

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## kwerry

Two Tenors. GDAE & CGDA, Celtic & Folk.. all poorly :-)

Beat up Tenor Banjo in pieces in the garage.. probably GDAE when it plays again.

Kerry

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## mmcadory

- Tenor Guitar
- Currently CGDA
- Learning as I go Partial to jazz or blues as that's my background. Looking for guidance on new styles.

New to tenor guitar, but played 6-string for years. Recently bought a mandolin again and got back into 5ths tunings. Might have to talk the wife into another purchase for GDAE.

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## Jim Adwell

Tenor guitar tuned CGDA.  I played 6-string guitar for many years but I also played tenor banjo and I like 5ths tuning much better (I played violin and viola when I was young and I don't have to think much about where to put my fingers, whereas reading notation for guitar was always a bit of a strain for me).

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