Guitar Theory Question!!??
 

So this has been bothering me for awhile, if you add a high string on a bass, why is it a C when it's a B on guitar? Im guessing it has something to do with the clefs? Feel free to get as in depth as you want as I understand a lot of music theory.

Visual aid:

Bass string: B E A D G *C*

Guitar string: B E A D G *B*

Looking at the clefs it makes since on bass, all the spacing is the same. But on guitar that B string is the only one that is different, why is that? So the next string can be E? I don't get it... It should be C as well if it's following similar spacing as other strings.

the terminology is what bothers me.

why call them "high strings" if they are thicker than the standard 4/6 strings?

i've had people tell me that the extra strings on a 7 and 8-string guitar are thinner because they've heard the term "high strings" and assumes that the strings get thinner the more are added.

as to the tuning, i have no idea. maybe the 5th Bass string is tuned slightly up to make it more audible?

I don't play the guitar, but my best guess would be guitar aims for a G major chord in its three first strings whereas a bass player will focus more on separate notes, which seems easier when the open strings are tuned with an equal distance in between them.

Just a wild guess though.

When you look at the circle of 5ths, the C actually makes more sense. Not sure why it was decided to go with a 4th on a guitar between the G and B strings.

In common parlance, a pitch is higher if it is more cycles per second (measured in Hertz) than another. Therefore, 256Hz is higher than 100Hz. A higher pitched string is typically thinner, to deal with tension and inharmonicity. If you've heard thicker string being referred to as "high strings," then the person who is saying that is operating on a different reality than the consensus that Western musicians follow.

Guitar is a chording instrument. The third between the G and B string, as well as the fourth between B and high E, make it easier to play chords across all of the strings. Bass plays mostly one note at a time, so having the tuning be consistent is more important. Similar to guitar (chording instruments): ukelele, banjo. Similar to bass (single note instruments): violin family instruments.

Neither instrument has to be tuned to the notes you specify 100% of the time. "Standard tuning" (the one I learned) actually goes low to high, EADGBE. Check this: Guitar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It really isn't a necessity that you use the tuning scheme you outlined, therefore the question is moot. Check out some other tuning schemes if you want to experiment a little.

This is only a guess, but I'm assuming it's it's done that way to keep the intervals between each string the same. A bass player who plays a 5-string or a 4-string is used to only dealing with 5ths between each string. On a guitar, each string is tuned a 5th higher than the one above it until the B string which is tuned a 4th higher than the D string. This might throw off bass players who are transitioning from a 4 or 5-string, especially when most (not all) bass players lean heavily on 5ths and octaves.

Fourths, not fifths.

Yeah, that

The standard tuning makes chords easier. Let's say you instead are tuned EADGCF, with equal spacing. Let's say you wanna do a barre chord.. you probably see the problem.

Guitar is for chords. Bass is not. Obviously either can be whatever, but that's the more or less arbitrary reason why the standard tunings differ in this respect.

The difference in naming conventions between bass and guitar strings, especially when adding a high C string to a bass, is indeed related to both the range of the instruments and the clefs used in notation.

Range and Octave Designation:
The bass guitar and the standard guitar are both tuned to the same pitches; however, they differ in range. The bass guitar typically has a lower range, and when a high C string is added, it is an octave higher than the C string on a standard guitar.

On a 4-string bass guitar, the standard tuning is E-A-D-G, where the G string is the highest-pitched string. When a high C string is added, the tuning becomes C-G-D-A, maintaining the same intervals but extending the range upwards. This new C string is the highest string on the bass and is an octave higher than the C string on a guitar.

Clef Consideration:
In notation, bass guitars are commonly written in bass clef (or F clef), while standard guitars are written in treble clef (or G clef). This difference in clefs also affects how the notes are represented on the staff.

When a high C string is added to a bass guitar, the notes on that string will be notated higher on the staff than the corresponding notes on a guitar. This aligns with the overall pitch range of the bass guitar.

Transposition and Octave Equivalence:
The naming conventions for musical pitches take into account the entire range of the instrument. When comparing bass and guitar, the notes on the bass are named lower because they are in a lower octave relative to the guitar. In other words, the low E on a bass is in a lower octave compared to the low E on a guitar.

However, the concept of octave equivalence is essential to understanding this. Notes that are an octave apart have the same letter name. Therefore, even though the C on the bass is in a different octave compared to the C on the guitar, they share the same letter name.

In summary, the addition of a high C string to a bass, with a resulting tuning of C-G-D-A, is a way to extend the range of the bass guitar while maintaining octave equivalence with the standard guitar tuning. The naming conventions consider the overall pitch range and how the instruments are notated in different clefs.
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