Ten-string guitar

Modern/Yepes Ten-String Guitar

Narciso Yepes (1981): "My reasons [for inventing the modern 10-string guitar] were purely musical, and the first of them was that the guitar was not properly balanced. There was no equilibrium, because of the 12 notes of the scale, only four - E, A, B, D - had any resonance. If you play one of those notes and then stop the string with your finger, you will hear the sound lingering. But if you play one of the other eight notes of the scale, the sound dies immediately. On the 10-string guitar, I have resonance on all 12 notes."

After Narciso Yepes had already achieved international fame, he reached the point where the 6-string guitar no longer sufficed for his needs. He was disturbed by the irregularity of resonance produced by the overtones of its bass strings, vibrating in sympathy with notes played on the fingerboard. Four notes in particular (E, A, D, B) sounded full, enriched by this sympathetic vibration, while the other eight tones of the chromatic scale were without the same lustre and sustain. Yepes's idea to correct this imbalance - a guitar with fully chromatic string resonators created in 1963 in collaboration with José Ramirez - followed a strict musical and scientific logic.

Upon adding four bass strings tuned a very specific way - C, B-flat, A-flat, G-flat - the same resonance is elicited by each of the notes that make up the fingerboard's sonorous catalogue, by taking advantage of the natural harmonics (the octaves as well as the fifths) of the bass strings, which produce unison, sympathetic vibrations with notes played on the fingerboard. In other words, the additional strings act as tuned resonators, or string resonators, that sustain and enrich the sound. (That is not to say that these strings are not played. They are indeed fingered with the left hand and/or sounded by the right, if/when this is required by the musical context). Thus, the C-string adds the resonance for itself, its octaves and their fifths, i.e. G's; B-flat resonates with B-flats and F's; A-flat resonates with A-flats and and E-flats; and G-flat with G-flats and D-flats, completing the string resonance for the twelve tones of the chromatic octave.

Narciso Yepes: "This does not mean a break from nor lack of respect for the admirable instrument of tradition. My new guitar is not basically different in sound colour, timbre, nor technical approach from the 6-string guitar. Imagine a piano without a pedal which suddenly acquired one - what new possibilities in the enrichment of sound this means is self-evident."

This result could be termed linearised chromatic resonance since the bass strings now resonate equally in sympathy with any of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, similar to the piano's sustain when the pedal is used. And just as a pianist has the option of whether or not to employ the pedal, the competent 10-string guitarist is able to execute complete control, sustaining or stopping notes at will. "If I have resonance, I can stop it. But first I must have it. You see, the problem is not in the guitar, but in the player." (Yepes 1981) With respect to the traditional 6-stringed guitar, this chromatic resonance and equal timbre of tone are intrinsically absent from it, but also equally unachievable with any tuning of the 10 strings other than the one invented by Yepes.

Narciso Yepes (1981): "But that is not my only reason. If the guitar is to the lute what the piano is to the harpsichord - that is, a new expression of an old instrument - then, I should be able to take a piece of music composed for the lute and play it directly on the guitar, without making any [alteration] in the text, just as a pianist can play a harpsichord work of Bach or Scarlatti. This cannot be done on the six-string guitar, because the lute had more than six strings, especially during the Baroque period. At the same time, having the expanded range of the 10-string guitar makes it possible for me to approach [more faithfully] the music of Albeniz, Falla and other Spanish composers inspired by the guitar, but who composed for the piano. I can play their music as it is written, with no sacrifices."

Thus, it now becomes possible for the guitarist to play Bach and repertoire written for the Baroque lute without deleterious transposition of the bass notes, by employing scordatura (lowering the tuning of the 7th string - the lowest-sounding string - to [Helmholttz] B1 or A1) and fingering the bass-line on the lowest strings. (A misconception, even amongst some contemporary 10-string guitarists, is that these basses are intended to make it easier to execute bass notes by playing as many of them as possible on open strings - as on the lute. However, this approach does not correspond with the methodology employed by Narciso Yepes, as is evident from autograph manuscript sources indicating his own fingering, which shows no predilection for gratuitous use of the open bass strings.) The instrument also opens up possibilities for more faithful transcription of music originally written for keyboard, and opens up new possibilities for original composition, as exemplified in the solo guitar works of the great Modernist composers Maurice Ohana and Bruno Maderna.

Narciso Yepes (1981): "Of course, the final reason is that, if I have a 10-string guitar, I have within it a six-string guitar; but if I have only six strings, I do not have 10. I have all the advantages and none of the disadvantages." However, he warns, "it is very difficult to find a well-made 10-string guitar, and the number of poorly made ones on the market have led many guitarists to assume that those instruments are bad because they have 10 strings. No - they are bad because they are bad!"

Tuning

The standard tuning of the modern/Yepes ten-string guitar is (from 1-10):

• e' - b - g - d - A - E - C - Bb - Ab - Gb

Or, written enharmonically:

• e' - b - g - d - A - E - C - A♯ - G♯ - F♯

(The above notation uses the Helmholtz system. Thus, 7 or C is the string with the lowest pitch. This is sometimes lowered to B1 or A1, particularly for transcriptions of Baroque lute music.)

Tuning

Composers

• Maurice Ohana, Bruno Maderna, Leonardo Balada, Antonio Ruiz-Pipó, Philippe Drogoz, Jorge Labrouve, José Ramón Encinar, Michèle Reverdy, Robert Keeley, Martin Derungs, Stephen Goss, T.E. Flemming, Chris Malloy, Ignacio Yepes, José Peris, Bob Dickinson

Other Types of Ten-stringed Guitars

Prior to 1963, a number of different types of guitars with ten strings were played by, among others, Johann Kaspar Mertz and Ferdinando Carulli. The first played an instrument with four additional free-floating basses tuned diatonically from [Helmholtz] D to A1. Carulli called his instrument the Decacorde, which was tuned e'-b-g-d-A-G-F-E-D-C. (The last five strings are not fretted.) Indeed, if one is to do justice to the music of numerous 19th century composers who wrote for instruments with more than six strings, these period instruments would be most suitable.

Taking nothing away from their suitability for the performance of 19th century repertoire, it has to be pointed out, however, that the concepts behind these guitars are contrary to that of the Yepes ten-string guitar, since the tunings of these instruments were not intended to resolve - and do not resolve - the problems of resonance inherent in the design of the guitar. As Yepes said about instruments that add redundant resonances such as B, A, or D: "My idea of the 10-string guitar is exactly the contrary - to provide sympathetic vibration for the notes that do not have this kind of reinforcement" (Yepes 1978: 46).

However, to complicate matters, since 1963 ten-string guitars that seem to be modern in appearance have been appropriated by some proponents of the abovementioned Romantic ten-stringed guitar, tuning the additional strings diatonically from D to A1 (a system also known by the misnomer "Baroque" tuning). This has led to some confusion between two visually similar but conceptually disparate instruments: on the one hand, the Romantic ten-stringed guitar (whose purpose is an extended bass register - one that, inadvertently, augments the guitar's resonant imbalance), and, on the other hand, the Yepes ten-string guitar, whose raison d'être is, first, linearised resonance for the entire chromatic octave, and second, an extended bass register.

Other guitarists have adopted new, individualised tunings of instruments with ten strings to facilitate the playing of their highly personal repertoires; notably Dominic Frasca and Egberto Gismonti.

See also

• sympathetic strings
• string resonance (music)
• Multi-string classical guitar

Partial Bibliography (in preparation)

Benson, Dave. 2006. Music: A Mathematical Offering. Cambridge U Press. [ISBN-10: 0521853877]

Ramirez III, Jose. 1994. "The Ten-String Guitar" in Things About the Guitar. Bold Strummer. pp. 137-141. [ISBN-10: 8487969402]

Yepes, Narciso. 1978. "The 10-String Guitar: Overcoming the Limitations of Six Strings". Interview by Larry Snitzler. Guitar Player 12(3): pp. 26, 42, 46, 48, 52.

Yepes, Narciso. 1981 "Narciso Yepes and His 10-String Guitar". Interview-Article by Allan Kozinn. The New York Times, Nov. 22: p. D21

External links

• 10-string guitar Yahoo Groups Discussion Group
• Tuning for Bach Lute Suite on the 10-string guitar as used by Stephan Schmidt for his recording (but not live performances) of Bach's lute music ASIN B00004TVFG[1]

Photos

• Narciso Yepes with his ten-string guitar,