Major thirds tuning tuning's simplicity and consistency are not shared by standard tuning, whose seventh-chord fingering is discussed at the end of this section. Each major-thirds tuning repeats its open-notes after every two strings, which results in two copies of the three open-strings' notes, each in a different octave. This repetition again simplifies the learning of chords and improvisation. This advantage is not shared by two popular regular-tunings, all-fourths and all-fifths tuning. Chord inversion is especially simple in major-thirds tuning. Chords are inverted simply by raising one or two notes three strings. The raised notes are played with the same finger as the
Ladder of thirds Ladder of thirds A ladder of thirds (coined by van der Merwe 1989, adapted from Curt Sachs) is similar to the circle of fifths, though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds, major or minor, and may or may not circle back to its starting note and thus may or may not be an interval cycle. Triadic chords may be considered as part of a ladder of thirds. It is a modal frame found in Blues and British folk music. Though a pentatonic type, the melodies come "into being through piling up thirds below and/or above a