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Ralph Oliver Patt
Ralph Patt invented major-thirds tuning, which he played on eight-string guitars.
Ralph Patt invented major-thirds tuning, which he played on eight-string guitars.
Background information
Also known asRalph Patt
Born(1929-12-05)5 December 1929
Kittanning, Pennsylvania
Died6 October 2010(2010-10-06) (aged 80)
Canby, Oregon
GenresJazz
Instrument8-string hollow-body guitar
Years active1950s–2010
Websitehttp://www.ralphpatt.com

Ralph Oliver Patt (5 December 1929 – 6 October 2010) was an American jazz-guitarist who introduced major-thirds tuning. Patt's tuning simplified the learning of the fretboard and chords by beginners and improvisation by advanced guitarists. He invented major-thirds tuning under the inspiration of first the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg and second the jazz of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

He graduated with a degree in geology from the University of Pittsburgh. After his career as a guitarist, he worked as a geologist and as a hydrologist, often consulting on projects related to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Biography

A C-major chord in four positions.
Patt invented major-thirds tuning the better to improvise on the guitar. Chords can be shifted diagonally, horizontally, and vertically, and being shifted they maintain their shape, unlike chords in standard tuning.
The C major chord and its first and second inversions. In the first inversion, the C note has been raised 3 strings on the same fret. In the second inversion, both the C note and the E note have been raised 3 strings on the same fret.
Chords are inverted by shifting notes three strings on the same fret.

Patt was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on 5 December 1929[1] and studied geology at the University of Pittsburgh.[2][3]

Guitar music

While in Pittsburgh, Patt studied guitar under Joe Negri.[2][3][note 1] Having earned his baccalaureate degree, he joined the United States Army and played guitar in an Army band. Following his discharge from the Army, Patt played with Benny Goodman and The Glenn Miller Orchestra, among other bands.[2][3]

Major-thirds tuning

Main article: Major-thirds tuning

Patt was inspired by the jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane and the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg. Seeking a guitar-tuning that would facilitate improvisation, in 1964 he introduced major-thirds tuning.[4][5][6] Patt's tuning is a regular tuning in the sense that all of the intervals between its successive open strings are major thirds; in contrast, the standard guitar-tuning has one major-third amid four fourths.[7] Patt used major-thirds tuning during all of his work as a session musician during the 1960s in New York.[6]

Major-thirds tuning packs the chromatic scale (the consecutive twelve-notes of the octave) onto four consecutive frets of three consecutive strings, an arrangement that reduces the extensions of the little and index fingers ("hand stretching").[8] Major and minor chords are played on two successive frets, and so require only two fingers; other chords—seconds, fourths, sevenths, and ninths—are played on three successive frets.[9] For each regular tuning, chord patterns may be moved around the fretboard, a property that simplifies beginners' learning of chords and that simplifies advanced players' improvisation.[5][10] In contrast, chords cannot be shifted around the fretboard in the standard tuning E-A-D-G-B-E, which requires four chord-shapes for the major chords; standard tuning has separate chord-forms for chords having their root note on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth strings.[11]

Repeating its notes in a higher octave after every two strings simplifies the learning of chords and improvisation.[5] Chord inversion is especially simple in major-thirds tuning. Chords are inverted simply by raising one or two notes three strings. The raised notes are played with the same finger as the original notes.[12][13]

Guitars with seven and eight strings
File:Eight-string acoustic-electric guitar of Ralph Patt.jpg
Patt played this eight-string guitar, which was tuned in major thirds.

Major-thirds tuning has a smaller scope than standard guitar-tuning,[7] and so Patt started using seven-string guitars, which enabled major-thirds tuning to have the E-e' range of the standard tuning. He purchased eight-string guitars from a New York luthier, Jim DiSerio,[6] and later by Saul Koll (with pick-up by Bill Lawrence).[6][14] Patt used eight-string guitars when he performed as a session musician in New York City in the 1960s.[6][14]

Scholarship

Patt developed a webpage with extensive information about major-thirds tuning.[15] This webpage was part of website with extensive information for jazz guitarists. Patt's website published his Vanilla book, which contains the chord progressions for four hundred jazz standards,[3][16] from "After you've gone" to "Zing! went the strings". Its title refers to "Just play the vanilla changes", the advice to young pianists from Lester Young. It was updated in 2008.[16]

His website followed earlier contributions to guitar scholarship and instruction. In 1962, Patt wrote his Guitar chord dictionary (1962).[17] Living in New York City in the 1960s, he studied with Chuck Wayne, with whom he wrote The guitar appreggio dictionary (1965),[2][3][18] one of the bestselling titles from the music-publishing firm of Henry Adler.[19]

Return to geology

After working as a jazz musician since the 1950s, Patt returned to geology while continuing to pursue jazz as an avocation. He was employed by Oregon's Department of Water Resources,[20][21] where he served as its expert on the risks to the Columbia River from the Hanford Site.[20] As a hydrological geologist (hydrologist), he was appointed to a panel of outside expert that reviewed and then "slammed" the U.S. Department of Energy's report on the safety of the underground storage of high-level nuclear waste at Hanford.[22]

Death

In 2010, he was residing in Portland, Oregon.[2] Having been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007,[3] Ralph Oliver Patt died at the age of 80 on 6 October 2010 in Canby, Oregon.[1][3] To honor his memory, the Ralph Patt Memorial Scholarship provided full tuition, room, and board for a college student to attend the Mel Brown Jazz Camp in 2011.[23]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Joe Negri became nationally known as the guitarist on the PBS children's television-show Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, on which he also appeared as "Handyman Negri".
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Citations

  1. ^ a b "Ralph Oliver Patt: Canby, Oregon". Death-Record. Retrieved 15 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e Patt, Ralph (2008). "Biography". Ralph Patt's jazz web page. ralphpatt.com. Retrieved 10 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Williams, Tom (12 January 2010). "RIP: Ralph Patt, guitarist". jazz_guitar: Jazz Guitar Group (YAHOO! Groups). Event occurs at 8:34 pm. Retrieved 10 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  4. ^ Griewank (2010, p. 1)
  5. ^ a b c Kirkeby, Ole (2012). "Major thirds tuning". m3guitar.com. cited by Sethares (2011) and (Griewank 2010, p. 1). Retrieved 10 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Cite error: The named reference "Kirkeby" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d e Patt, Ralph (2008). "The major 3rd tuning". Ralph Patt's jazz web page. ralphpatt.com. cited by Sethares (2011) and Griewank (2010, p. 1). Retrieved 10 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b Sethares (2001)
  8. ^ Griewank (2010, p. 9)
  9. ^ Griewank (2010, p. 2)
  10. ^ Sethares (2001, p. 52)
  11. ^ Denyer (1992, "The harmonic guitarist, Intervals, Fingerboard intervals", p. 119)
    Denyer, Ralph (1992). "Playing the guitar". The guitar handbook. Special contributors Isaac Guillory and Alastair M. Crawford (Fully revised and updated ed.). London and Sydney: Pan Books. pp. 65–160. ISBN 0-330-32750-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |foreword= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Griewank (2010, p. 10)
  13. ^ Kirkeby (2012, "Fretmaps, major chords: Major Triads") harvtxt error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKirkeby2012 (help)
  14. ^ a b Peterson, Jonathon (2002). "Tuning in thirds". American Lutherie. 72 (Winter): 36–43. "Hmmm... What if you tuned a guitar in thirds instead of fourths? You'd have a shorter reach, but you'd need more strings. It's all been done by guitarist Ralph Patt and luthier Saul Koll in a series of jazz guitar modifications.". {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |abstract= ignored (help)
  15. ^ Sethares (2011, "Alternative tuning guide" (html))
  16. ^ a b Patt, Ralph (2008). "About 'The vanilla book'". Ralph Patt's jazz web page. ralphpatt.com. Retrieved 31 August2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ Patt (1962)
  18. ^ Wayne & Patt (1965)
  19. ^ The purchaser's guide to the music industries. 1966. p. 343. Retrieved 5 October 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  20. ^ a b Harden, Blaine (2012). A river lost: The life and death of the Columbia. Norton. pp. 143–44. ISBN 9780393344523. Retrieved 5 October 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  21. ^ Template:Cite article

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  22. ^ Template:Cite article
  23. ^ Niemann-Ross, Mark (2011). "Mark Niemann-Ross goes to (Mel Brown Jazz) camp, Friday: Proof of Concept: Ralph Patt memorial scholarship for returning guitar players". Oregon Music News. Retrieved 9 October 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Bibliography

  • Ralph Patt, maintained by his friends.
  • Koll Guitar Company, luthier that built Patt's eight-string arch-top hollow-body guitar for major-thirds tuning.

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