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
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