Ostrich guitar
{{Short description|Guitar tuning scheme in which all strings are tuned to the same note}}
{{Infobox Regular tuning
| regular_tuning_name = Trivial tuning
| image_top = Capital C.svg|
| alt = A capitalized letter C.
| caption_top = Trivial tuning contains only one note, for example C.
| other_names = Ostrich (D-D-D-D-d-d)
| interval = Unison
| semitones = 0
| examples = C-C-C-C-C-C
| advanced = TRUE
| repetition = Immediately
| other_instruments =
| advantages =
| disadvantages =
| lefty = Trivial
| guitarist = Lou Reed
| guitarist_image = Lou reed.jpg
| guitarist_alt = Lou Reed plays guitar.
| guitarist_caption = Lou Reed played the ostrich tuning D-D-D-D-d-d on The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow’s Parties".
}}
The ostrich guitar or ostrich tuning is a type of trivial tuning. It assigns one note to all strings, e.g. E-E-e-e-e'-e' or D-D-D-D-d'-d'. The term "ostrich guitar" was coined by the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed after the pre-Velvet Underground song "The Ostrich"
{{cite web
| last= Reed
| first= Lou
| title= The Ostrich b/w Sneaky Pete
| url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vRsnzbTvnY
| work= Youtube
| publisher= Pickwick Publishing Inc 1965
| access-date= 28 October 2013
}}
by Lou Reed and the Primitives, on which he first recorded using this tuning, the first known commercial composition to make use of a trivial guitar tuning.
{{cite book
| last= Bockris
| first= Victor
| title= Lou Reed The Biography Fully Revised Edition
| year= 1995
| publisher= Vintage
| location= London
| isbn= 0-09-930381-7
}}
Musical theory
The trivial tuning is a regular tuning based on the unison musical interval, which has zero semitones. It assigns exactly one pitch class (for example D, A{{music|#}}, F or B) to all guitar-strings, tuned to the same note over two or three octaves.
{{cite book
| last= Harvard
| first= Joe
| title= The Velvet Underground & Nico
| orig-year= 2004
| series= 33⅓
| year= 2007
| publisher= Continuum International Publishing Group
| location= New York, NY
| isbn= 978-0-8264-1550-9
| url-access= registration
| url= https://archive.org/details/velvetundergroun00harv
}}
This creates an intense, chorused drone music, and interesting fingering potential. Among alternative tunings for the guitar, the trivial tuning is a regular and repetitive tuning. It is its own left-handed tuning.{{harvtxt|Sethares|2001|p=53}}: {{cite book|chapter=Regular tunings|title=Alternate tuning guide|first=Bill|last=Sethares|author-link=William Sethares|year=2001|pages=52–67|url=http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/regulartunings.pdf|publisher=University of Wisconsin; Department of Electrical Engineering|location=Madison, Wisconsin|access-date=19 May 2012|id=[http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/alltunings.pdf 2010 Alternate tuning guide, including a revised chapter on regular tunings]}}
Example
To create a trivial D tuning from a standard guitar tuning:
1d ----- * downtuned to d (from e to d)
2d ----- * {{not a typo|uptuned}} to d (from B to d)
3D ----- * downtuned to D (from G to D)
4D ----- * left at standard
5D ----- * {{not a typo|uptuned}} to D (from A to D)
6D ----- * downtuned to D (from E to D)
Origins
The term "ostrich guitar" was coined by Lou Reed in 1965 after the song "The Ostrich" by Lou Reed and the Primitives, on which he first used this tuning.Bockris 1995, p. 80.
{{cite web
| title= QRD interview with Ian McPhedran of Ostrich Tuning
| first= Ian
| last= McPhedran
| work= silbermedia.com
| date= December 2010
| url= http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/46ian.html
| access-date= November 24, 2011
}}
John Cale, a collaborator with avant-garde composer La Monte Young, recognised the similarity between Reed's guitar tuning and Young's work involving drone music when he was hired to play Reed's song "The Ostrich" as part of a fabricated touring group.Bockris 1995, p. 82.
Reed and Cale (who would play viola, keyboards and bass) began to collaborate and investigate the connections between ostrich tuning and drone music, as the band introduced new members (such as guitarist Sterling Morrison and percussionist Angus MacLise, another student of La Monte Young) and they became known as the Velvet Underground. Cale had composed and recorded Loop in 1964, but which became the first EP released under this band name, composed of drones played on an electric viola, and the combination of both Cale's viola and Reed's guitar tunings would be an early hallmark of their work. Reed used ostrich tunings on the 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico on the songs "Venus in Furs" (appearing at the end of the song) and "All Tomorrow's Parties",Bockris 1995, p. 92. which also included Cale playing drones on viola.
According to an interview with drummer Moe Tucker in What Goes On?, Reed's ostrich guitar was a guitar that had its frets removed, and was stolen shortly after the album sessions.
{{cite book
| last= Appreciation Society
| first= Velvet Underground
| title= What Goes On (Issue 4)
| year= 1990
| publisher= Dutch East India Trading
| location= USA
}}
Notes
{{Reflist|2}}
References
- {{cite web|title=Alternate tuning guide|first=William A.|last=Sethares|author-link=William Sethares|year=2011|url=http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/alternatetunings.html|publisher=University of Wisconsin; Department of Electrical Engineering|location=Madison, Wisconsin|access-date=19 May 2012|id=[http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/alltunings.pdf 2010 PDF version by Bill Sethares]}}
External links
- {{cite web|last=Reed|first=Lou|title=The Ostrich b/w Sneaky Pete|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vRsnzbTvnY|work=Youtube|publisher=Pickwick Publishing Inc 1965|access-date=28 October 2013}}
- {{cite web|last=Cale|first=John|title=Loop|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y8fyIVhqXI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/7y8fyIVhqXI |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|work=Youtube|publisher=Aspen Vol. 1, No. 3, December 1966|access-date=28 October 2013}}{{cbignore}}
- {{cite web|url=http://warrenallencom.ipage.com/waguitartunings/tunings.htm|last=Allen|first=Warren|orig-year=30 December 1997|date=22 September 2011|title=WA's encyclopedia of guitar tunings|access-date=27 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713033111/http://warrenallencom.ipage.com/waguitartunings/tunings.htm|archive-date=13 July 2012}} (Recommended by {{cite book|first=Gary|last=Marcus|author-link=Gary Marcus|title=Guitar zero: The science of learning to be musical|year=2012|publisher=Oneworld|page=234|isbn=9781851689323}})
- {{cite web|url=http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/alternatetuningsInteractive.html|title=Alternate tuning guide: Interactive|first=William A.|last=Sethares|author-link=William Sethares|access-date=27 June 2012|date=12 May 2012|id=Uses Wolfram Cdf player}}
{{Guitar tunings|Regular}}