Major thirds tuning hand is stationary and the fingers move, each finger being responsible for one fret. Consequently, three hand-positions (covering frets 1–4, 5–8, and 9–12) partition the fingerboard of classical guitar, which has exactly 12 frets. Only two or three frets are needed for the guitar chords—major, minor, and dominant sevenths—which are emphasized in introductions to guitar-playing and to the fundamentals of music. Each major and minor chord can be played on two successive frets on three successive strings, and therefore each needs only two fingers. Other chords—seconds, fourths, sevenths, and ninths—are played on only three successive frets. For fundamental-chord fingerings, major-thirds
Major thirds tuning improvisation. In contrast, chords cannot be shifted around the fretboard in standard tuning, which requires four chord-shapes for the major chords: There are separate fingerings for chords having root notes on one of the four strings three–six. The repetition of the major-thirds tuning enables notes and chords to be raised one octave by being "vertically" shifted by three strings. Notes and chords may be shifted "diagonally" in major-thirds tuning, by combining a vertical shift of one string with a horizontal shift of four frets: "Like all regular tunings, chords in the major third tuning can be moved across the fretboard