Portuguese Guitar - Tuning

Tuning

The tuning chiefly employed on the Portuguese guitar was historically called afinação do fado or afinação do fado corrido. This tuning was probably developed in the early 19th century, as it was already largely adopted by Lisbon's fadistas by the mid-century. With the diminishing use of the natural tuning (see below) by players, this tuning came to simply be called either afinação de Lisboa, when tuned high, in D, or afinação de Coimbra, when tuned low, in C; this stems from the fact that while most Lisbon fado players tuned their guitars in D, in Coimbra the students came to tune theirs in C as standard practice, mainly through the influence of Artur Paredes. It is important to note, however, that regardless of the difference in pitch between the two variations of the tuning, in practice, the latter still makes use of the former's oral conventions, as such a C is called D, a D is called E, etc., by the players (essentially making a Coimbra-tuned Portuguese guitar a transposing instrument similar to a B-flat trumpet in that a given note is referred to by the note name a whole step higher than the note name that concert-pitch conventions would use).

The natural tuning, inherited from the English guitar of the 18th century, was also very frequently employed up to the first half of the 20th century, being preferred to the former by some late 19th century players; it was frequently tuned in E instead of C, as this simplified the change between the fado tuning for players who used both. Some variations of this tuning where also adopted, such as the afinação natural com 4ª, also known as afinação da Mouraria, or the afinação de João de Deus, also known as afinação natural menor. The natural tuning and its variations have been for the most part out of practice for several decades.