Ten-string guitar

Modern/Yepes Ten-String Guitar

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 acoustic resonance produced by the overtones of its bass strings, vibrating in sympathy with notes played on the fingerboard. Some notes (E, A, D, B) sounded full, enriched by this sympathetic vibration, while others 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 string 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 and 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 string resonators (though they can be, and are also, fingered with the left hand and/or sounded by the right). The result is termed linearised chromatic string 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. This chromatic resonance and equal timbre of tone are intrinsically absent from the six-string guitar and equally unachievable with any other 10-string guitar tuning than the one discovered by Yepes.

Furthermore, it now becomes possible for the guitarist to play 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 B1 or A1) and fingering the bass-line on the lowest strings. (A common misconception, even amongst some 10-string guitarists, is that these basses are intended to make it easier and simpler to play bass notes by playing as many of them as possible on open strings. This approach very much goes against the methodology employed by Narciso Yepes himself.) 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 Maurice Ohana and Bruno Maderna.

"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." (Narciso Yepes)

Tuning

The correct standard tuning of the modern/Yepes ten-string guitar is:

• 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

Players

• Narciso Yepes, Stephan Schmidt, Ismael Barambio, Jonathan Leathwood, Godelieve Monden, Viktor van Niekerk, Simon Wynberg, Andreas Hiller

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

Different Tunings for 10-string guitars

Various tunings can be used on the ten string guitars. Some that have been used are

• Modern (‘Yepes’) string configuration - Standard tuning (as described above):
  [e’-b-g-d-A-E-C-A#-G#-F#]
  [NB: Re-entry tuning of (8), (9) and (10)]

• Modern ‘Alternative’ string configuration - Standard tuning:
  e’-b-g-d-A-E-C-A#1-G#-F#
  [NB: (8) is an octave lower than the Standard Modern/Yepes configuration]

• Romantic (‘Baroque’) string configuration - Standard tuning:
  e’-b-g-d-A-E-D-C-B1-A1
  [No re-entry]

• Marlow string configuration (as used by Janet Marlow):
  standard tuning: e’-b-g-d-a-e-B-F#-C#-G#
  [NB: re-entry tuning from (7) to (10).]

A Note on Other Types of Ten-stringed Guitars

Prior to 1963 (the year Yepes/Ramirez invented the Modern ten-string guitar), 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 D to A1. The latter 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.) None of these guitars, however, was a precursor 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.

Since 1963, Modern ten-string guitars - more readily available than replicas of period instruments - have been appropriated by some proponents of the abovementioned "Romantic" ten-stringed guitar, tuning the additional strings diatonically from D to A1. 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 that, by the nature of its tuning, augments the guitar's already inherent imbalance of resonance (preferring the tones of E, A and D), and, on the other, the "Modern" ten-string guitar, whose raison d'être is linearised resonance for the entire chromatic octave as well as an extended bass register (both enabled by its specific tuning and the configuration of its strings).

Other guitarists still have adopted new, individualised tunings that facilitate the playing of their highly personal repertoires; most notably Dominic Frasca and Egberto Gismonti.

See also

Multi-string classical guitar

External Links

• 10-string guitar Yahoo Groups Discussion Group

Photos

Narciso Yepes with his ten-string guitar,