Patt's Gibson ES-150 was modified by Vincent 'Jimmy' DiSerio, a luthier who worked in the firm of John D'Angelico, circa 1965.

Later, he purchased six-string archtop hollow-body guitars that were then modified by luthiers to have wider necks, wider pickups, and eight strings. Patt used major-thirds tuning when he performed as a session musician in New York City after 1965.

In 1967 he purchased a seven-string by José Rubio. He first experimented with a wide-neck Mango guitar from the 1920s, which he modified to have seven strings in 1963. Major-thirds tuning has a smaller scope than standard guitar-tuning, and so Patt started using seven-string guitars, which enabled major-thirds tuning to have the E-e' range of the standard tuning. Saul Koll built this eight-string guitar for Ralph Patt to play in major thirds. Guitars with seven and eight strings File:Eight-string acoustic-electric guitar of Ralph Patt.jpg The raised notes are played with the same finger as the original notes. Chords are inverted simply by raising one or two notes three strings. Chord inversion is especially simple in major-thirds tuning. Being regular, M3 tunings repeat each note after two strings: this repetition simplifies the learning of chords and improvisation. Having exactly three pitch classes for its open notes (for example ), each major-thirds tuning repeats every note in a higher octave, because guitars have three strings. 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. 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. 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. 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'). Patt used major-thirds tuning during all of his work as a session musician after 1965 in New York. 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. Seeking a guitar-tuning that would facilitate improvisation, he introduced major-thirds tuning by 1964, perhaps in 1963. Patt was inspired by the jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane and the atonal music of Schoenberg. Patt wanted to be able to play and then to improvise twelve-tone music. Patt also studied with Gunther Schuller, who himself was a student of Arnold Schoenberg and who used Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique for atonal composition. He studied under George Russell, whose (1959) The Lydian chromatic concept of tonal organization for improvisation Patt edited. Īfter touring for five years, Patt settled in New York City, where he worked as musician both at ABC and on Broadway from 1960 to 1970 during this period he regarded Barry Galbraith as his mentor. Following his 1955 discharge from the Army, Patt played with touring bands, for example, Neal Hefti, Frankie Carle, Les Elgart, Benny Goodman, Richard Maltby, and The Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Having earned his baccalaureate degree, he joined the United States Army and played guitar in an Army band. Patt played rhythm guitar in the style of Freddie Green, who played a Stromberg in the Count Basie Orchestra. While in Pittsburgh, Patt studied guitar under Joe Negri. Patt was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on 5 December 1929 and studied geology at the University of Pittsburgh. Chords can be shifted diagonally, horizontally, and vertically, and being shifted they maintain their shape, unlike chords in standard tuning.Ĭhords are inverted by shifting notes three strings on the same fret. Patt invented major-thirds tuning the better to improvise on the guitar.

1975 guitar chord dictionary