Major thirds tuning also facilitate advanced guitarists' improvisation, precisely the aim of jazz guitarist Ralph Patt when he began popularizing major-thirds tuning between 1963 and 1964. In standard tuning, the successive open-strings mix two types of intervals, four perfect-fourths and the major third between the G and B strings: Only major thirds occur as open-string intervals for major-thirds tuning, which is also called ""major-third" tuning", ""all-thirds" tuning", and ""M3" tuning". A popular M3 tuning has the open strings in which the low G is a major third above the low E of standard tuning. Consequently, a seventh string for the low E is
Major thirds tuning of major-third and minor-sixth intervals are termed "inverse intervals" in the theory of music. Consequently, chord charts for minor-sixths tunings may be used for left-handed major-thirds tunings; conversely, chord charts for major-thirds tunings may be used for left-handed minor-sixths tunings. Major-thirds tuning facilitates playing chords with closed voicings. In contrast, standard tuning would require more hand-stretching to play closed-voice seventh chords, and so standard tuning uses open voicings for many four-note chords, for example of dominant seventh chords. By definition, a "dominant seventh" is a four-note chord combining a major chord and a minor seventh. For example, the C7 seventh