Requinto

Requinto string notes

Low to high: A, D, G, C, E, A. All six strings are raised from standard tuning (E, A, D, G, B, E) by a perfect fourth (5 semitones):

All six strings travel the same distance, so nothing about the shapes changes: the chords, barre shapes and scales you play on a standard guitar sit under your fingers exactly as before. They just sound a perfect fourth higher: an E-shape chord sounds like A major, a C-shape sounds like F major, and so on — the same relationship as playing a capo on the 5th fret, except built into the instrument's factory tuning rather than a clamp on the neck.

The shapes survive because the strings keep their spacing: neighbouring open strings are still a perfect fourth, a perfect fourth, a perfect fourth, a major third and a perfect fourth apart.

How to retune from standard

Raise all six strings, each up a perfect fourth: E→A, A→D, D→G, G→C, B→E, E→A.

This is not a safe retuning for a standard full-scale guitar. A perfect fourth is even more added tension than terz tuning's minor third, and most other alternate tunings on this site lower one or more strings rather than raising all six. On a normal ~25.4" scale guitar with normal-tension strings, raising every string this far risks snapping a string or over-stressing the neck. Requinto tuning is built for genuine short/parlor-scale requinto instruments made for it, or standard-scale instruments strung with a lighter gauge designed for the higher pitch. If you want to hear the requinto voicing on a standard-scale guitar without retuning, use a capo on the 5th fret instead; if you own a real requinto, follow its maker's tuning and string-gauge guidance.

What Requinto is good for

The small nylon-string guitar central to the Mexican Trio Romántico tradition — factory-tuned a perfect fourth above standard so its brighter register can carry melody over two accompanying guitars.

In the trio romántico format that took shape in Mexico in the early-to-mid 20th century, three voices divide the work: two standard guitars supply harmony and rhythm while the smaller requinto, tuned up a fourth, weaves melodic fills and countermelodies around the vocal lines — a role similar to how a terz guitar sits above a standard "prime" guitar in 19th-century Vienna guitar duets, though the requinto's repertoire is bolero and Latin American popular song rather than European classical guitar-duet writing. Trío Los Panchos, formed in New York in 1944, is the group most credited with popularizing the sound worldwide, and the requinto remains a working instrument in trio and bolero groups across Mexico and Latin America today.

Trio Romántico repertoire

Requinto tuning belongs to a living performance tradition rather than a handful of famous recordings, so its "songbook" is the bolero / trio romántico repertoire broadly:

• Trío Los Panchos' bolero recordings — the ensemble most credited with popularizing the requinto's melodic-fill role over harmony guitars
• The broader bolero / trio romántico songbook — countless trio acts built on the same requinto-plus-two-guitars format

More on String Warrior