What is Nashville tuning?
Nashville tuning — also called high-strung tuning — has the same six note names as standard: E, A, D, G, B, E. The difference is the octave. The four lowest strings are replaced with much thinner ones and tuned an octave higher than usual, so the guitar has no bass at all. The 3rd string, G, becomes the highest-pitched string on the instrument.
It is, exactly, the high half of a 12-string guitar: the octave strings of the four lower courses, plus the top two as they are. Every chord shape and every fingering is unchanged. It is a recording trick — a high-strung guitar doubled with a normally strung one gives the shimmer of a 12-string with each part separately controllable.
The highlighted strings are the ones that move. Tap a string to hear its target.
String notes and frequencies
The exact pitch of each open string at concert pitch, A = 440 Hz — the numbers a strobe or a frequency counter would show. The tuner above works from the same targets.
| String | Note | Frequency | From standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6th | E3 | 164.81 Hz | E2 → E3, an octave up |
| 5th | A3 | 220.00 Hz | A2 → A3, an octave up |
| 4th | D4 | 293.66 Hz | D3 → D4, an octave up |
| 3rd | G4 | 392.00 Hz | G3 → G4, an octave up |
| 2nd | B3 | 246.94 Hz | unchanged |
| 1st | E4 | 329.63 Hz | unchanged |
Setting up Nashville tuning
- Change the strings first. This cannot be reached by tuning ordinary strings up — the wound low strings would snap long before they got there. Fit a set sold as Nashville or high-strung, or the octave strings from a 12-string set, on the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd.
- Tune by the octave number, not just the letter. The 6th string is E3, the 5th A3, the 4th D4 and the 3rd G4. A reading of E2 on the 6th string means the wrong string is fitted.
- Tune the top two as normal. B3 and E4, exactly as in standard. Note that the 3rd string now sounds higher than both of them.
Where the notes are
The first five frets of every string in this tuning. Each fret is one semitone, so this is also how to check a string against its neighbour: find the fret where the lower string plays the higher string’s open note.
| String | Open | Fret 1 | Fret 2 | Fret 3 | Fret 4 | Fret 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | E | F | F♯ | G | G♯ | A |
| 2nd | B | C | C♯ | D | D♯ | E |
| 3rd | G | G♯ | A | A♯ | B | C |
| 4th | D | D♯ | E | F | F♯ | G |
| 5th | A | A♯ | B | C | C♯ | D |
| 6th | E | F | F♯ | G | G♯ | A |
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Nashville tuning with normal strings?
No. The four lower strings would have to rise a full octave, which is far more tension than a wound string will take before it breaks. Nashville tuning is a different set of strings as much as a tuning.
Do chord shapes change in Nashville tuning?
Not at all. Every string is the same note it always was, some of them an octave higher, so every shape, scale and song is fingered exactly as in standard. What changes is the voicing: the notes that used to be the bass of the chord are now in among the treble.
Does the nut need changing?
For an occasional restring, no. The thin strings sit lower in slots cut for thick ones, which can cause a little buzz on open strings. A guitar kept permanently high-strung is usually given a nut cut for the thinner strings.
For everything else about tuning the instrument itself — strings that slip, pegs, and what the dial is telling you — see the guitar tuner and the standard guitar tuning this one is measured from.
Common chord shapes in Nashville tuning
Where the everyday chords fall on a guitar tuned this way. Each shape is found by searching this tuning’s own strings for the frets that sound the chord — nothing here is copied from a standard-tuning chart — and each plays when you press it.
- G320003
- Cx32010
- Dxx0232
- Ax02220
- E022100
- Em022000
- Amx02210
- Dmxx0231