Scordatura

A scordatura (Italian) is an alternate tuning used for the open strings of a string instrument. It is an extended technique used to allow the playing of otherwise impossible melodies, harmonies, figures, or other note combinations.

Scordatura in folk music

Scordatura is commonly used on the fiddle in folk music of Appalachia and the southern United States. The fiddle may be re-tuned in any number of ways in these musical idioms, but there are two common re-tunings. While the standard tuning for open strings of the violin is GDAE -- with the G being the tuning of the lowest-pitched string and the E being the tuning for the highest-pitched string -- fiddlers playing tunes in the key of D major sometimes employ a tuning of ADAE. In this tuning the open G string is raised to the A directly above it. Even more frequently used is a scordatura tuning of AEAE for music played in the key of A major. Among fiddlers this is referred to as ?cross-tuning.? In both of these scordatura tunings, scordatura facilitates a drone on an open string next to the string on which the melody is being played. Relatively well-known American folk tunes that are often played in cross-tuning include ?Breaking Up Christmas,? ?Cluck Old Hen,? ?Hangman?s Reel,? ?Horse and Buggy,? and ?Ways of the World.?

Related Topics:
Fiddle - Folk music - Appalachia - Southern United States - Violin - Drone

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