Octave mandolin in unison. Alternate tunings exist in which the strings in some courses are tuned to octaves, rather than unisons, but this is more typical of the Irish Bouzouki. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are doubled (tuned to the same pitch). The standard octave mandolin tuning is G2 G2 • D3 D3 • A3 A3 • E4 E4, so the lowest open strings are tuned to the lowest 'G' on the guitar, and the highest strings are tuned to the same 'E' as the highest string of the guitar. This tuning is one octave below the mandolin (or a fourth
The Well-Tuned Piano third, consider that 5:4 is equivalent to 386 cents () and 9:7 is equivalent to 435 cents (). This difference is audible to the listener by comparing the tuning for each pitch of the western chromatic scale with the chromatic scale used in "The Well-Tuned Piano". "The Well-Tuned Piano" is based on a pitch lattice of perfect fifths and harmonic sevenths. "The Well-Tuned Piano", being improvisatory in nature, as well as ever-changing, has no specific form. The closest a listener can come to understanding the structure of Young's piece is by studying the liner notes from the 1981 Gramavision recording.