Terz

Terz string notes

Low to high: G, C, F, A#, D, G. Each string sits a minor third (3 semitones) above its standard note (E, A, D, G, B, E):

A uniform shift leaves the spacing between strings untouched, so every open chord, barre shape and scale pattern you already play on a standard guitar keeps its exact shape in terz tuning. It just sounds a minor third higher: an E-shape chord sounds like G major, a C-shape sounds like Eb major, and so on — the same relationship as playing a capo on the 3rd fret, except built into the tuning itself rather than a clamp on the neck.

Neighbouring open strings stay a perfect fourth, a perfect fourth, a perfect fourth, a major third and a perfect fourth apart, exactly as in standard tuning.

How to retune from standard

Raise all six strings, each up a minor third: E→G, A→C, D→F, G→A#, B→D, E→G.

This is not a safe retuning for a standard full-scale guitar. Most other alternate tunings on this site lower one or more strings; terz raises all six. On a normal ~25.4" scale guitar with normal-tension strings, raising every string a minor third adds enough tension to risk snapping a string or over-stressing the neck. Terz tuning is built for short-scale instruments made for it — historically 19th-century terz guitars around 20–22" scale, and today Martin's reissued 5-28 Terz at 21.38". If you want to hear terz tuning on a standard-scale guitar, use a capo on the 3rd fret instead of retuning; if you own a genuine short-scale terz instrument, follow its maker's tuning guidance (Martin notes the 5-28 Terz can also be tuned to standard pitch for added versatility).

What Terz is good for

A 19th-century Vienna guitar-duet tuning (Giuliani, Mertz) built into short-scale instruments so the added pitch doesn't overtax the strings — revived today by Martin's reissued 5-28 Terz.

In early Romantic-era Vienna, guitarists paired a standard "prime" guitar with a smaller terz guitar tuned a minor third higher, using the terz guitar's brighter register to carry the melody over the prime guitar's accompaniment — much like a mandolin sits above a guitar today. Composers Mauro Giuliani and Johann Kaspar Mertz both wrote extensively for the pairing. The tuning fell out of common use through the 20th century but survives in that classical guitar-duet repertoire, and Martin's 5-28 Terz — part of the brand's Size 5 lineage dating back to its earliest instruments — brings a factory-built terz guitar back into modern production.

Terz guitar-duet repertoire

Terz tuning predates recorded popular music, so its "songbook" is 19th-century classical guitar-duet repertoire rather than familiar recordings:

• Der Ball (Duo No. 3, Op. 38) — Johann Kaspar Mertz, in modern editions scored for terz & classical guitar
• Vienna guitar-duet repertoire — Giuliani and Mertz paired the terz guitar's bright "melody" voice with a standard "prime" guitar

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