Why name the strings high to low?

Jim Myers · From: Washington, USA

Why do steel players name the strings from high to low?
Being new to Steel Guitar I've found this very confusing. None of the other stringed instruments are named that way, including dobro, guitar, bass, violin family, mandolin etc. So why high to low when it is so much easier to see triads and other intervals when you go from low to high? For us beginners itâ€™s very confusing to have to read from right to left to see the intervals . What immediately comes to mind if you see Bb G Eb? Do you see something in Bb or do you instantly see a Eb major triad? Can someone please explain it to me?
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Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Most people refer to them from low to high. Who does it backwards?
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Actually, most guitar string manufacturers label strings from high-to-low. Standard guitar strings are numbered 1-6, high-to-low, and steel guitar strings are numbered 1-n (n = #strings), high-to-low. High-Low labeling of tunings is consistent with this.

But different people label tunings differently. I label tunings from low-to-high for the main reason you mention - it's easier to see intervals this way. But I don't think it matters, as long as one states which order one is using. For example, I usually write, e.g., for standard 10-string E9 tuning:

Lo-Hi: B, D, E, F#, G#, B, E, G#, D#, F#

It's a simple enough matter to reverse this, provided you know to do so. Or vice-versa for someone who labels things Hi-Lo. But the ordering is also pretty easily deduced if you understand the most basic things about intervals and chords.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I have never heard anyone, on any instrument call the lowest string the first string.
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Jeff Mead · From: London, England

I think it might be something to do with the fact that steel guitars can have different numbers of strings and, for example, the 8 string version is often the same as the 6 string version but with a couple of extra strings added on.

For example, if I say the 6 string version of E13 is:

E C# B G# F# D

And the 8 string version is E C# B G# F# D G# E

I think the relationship between these tunings is more obvious than if they were listed:

D F# G# B C# E

and

E G# D F# G# B C# E

I don't think it is as immediately obvious listing low to high that these are essentially the same tuning with a couple of extra strings.

Also when a tuning is listed with the strings one above the other, such as in tab, it's more intuitive to read from top to bottom.

And as another pointed out, the highest string is called the 1st string so why not start with that one.

Perhaps the question should be, why do we list tunings for other instruments backwards?

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I am fomenting a (so far, one-man) revolution to list the strings in the most patriotic, obvious, proper, visually and MENTALLY-correct fashion, i.e.:

G
E
C
A
G
E
C
A
F
C

It is so blindingly PERFECT I just can'...rrrgh. umm. Well. They laughed at the Wright Brothers too! And now look at 'em. To squawk and caper over "saving bandwidth" is beyond despair, just one of those inane little dancing whatchas wastes more of that than, maybe, probably 100 steel tunings? Or some, at least. Probably. Like, how often do you even get a chance to go perfect?

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Um, David - you need to use more lines to write them this way. I prefer to write a tuning on one line. Your approach also assumes that your guitar is set up right-handed. Conventions, conventions....

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

The great thing about standards is that there are so many different ones to choose from Smile

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I always thought of them as the high string being the first string, whether a pedal steel, a bass, a 6 string guitar, etc.

The A string on a 6 string guitar is the "5th" string. I've never heard anyone refer to that as the "2nd" string. On a 5 string bass the 5th string is the B string.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

I'm a High-to-Low man, and have been for nearly 50 years. As others have said, a lot of string manufacturers list them that way, and steel guitarists traditionally list the strings high-to-low.

Here's my theory on how this evolved... an early popular Hawaiian steel guitar tuning was A Major, with E on string 1. Other tunings evolved from there... C#m7, A6, E, E7, and eventually C6. All of these tunings had E on string 1, as far as I know. String 1 did not change in pitch as the other strings were retuned for the other tunings. Maybe for this reason steel guitarists always "said" their tunings starting with string 1...?

Here on the Forum I always list tunings in a column, top to bottom, as above. In Text, in a paragraph, I list them high-to-low because that's how I learned it from books and from other players back in the 1970s. Whenever a forum member lists his tuning low-to-high I have to read it "backwards" to understand it fully! I have to read it from right to left to make sense of it. Old habits are hard to break!
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Tom Gorr · From: Three Hills, Alberta

The piano influence in me does wish the lowest strings farthest to the left and highest on the right...when writing on a single line..

For the column form...i would have to pledge to David Mason. Hopefully he will take this matter seriously.

Brett Day · From: Pickens, SC

When my dad helps me tune my steel, we start on the first string F# and go all the way down to the low string, the tenth string, which is a B note in the E9th tuning

Kevin Mincke · From: Farmington, MN (Twin Cities-South Metro) USA

High to Low

Don Drummer · From: West Virginia, USA

Low to high. Low string is closest to you. High string is farther away. Bottom of tree is closer and bigger. Top of tree is thinner and farther away.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

How many times have you heard steel guitar players say they keep breaking their 8th string?
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Good point, Richard. The strings are numbered high to low. No doubt.

Most people write the tuning low to high because we think of chords from the lowest note first. It's easier to understand a tuning when you write it low to high.
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Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Alain-Yves Pigeon · From: Quebec, Canada

Personnaly, I don't think it makes any difference the way to call the order of the strings, it's just a matter of habit. As a self taught guitar and bass player, I saw the strings from low to high simply because the lowest E string was closer to my eyes, it was then the 1st string.

But when I learned the 'cello, it was the other way around and I simply accepted it this way, as the instrument was new to me (it's the same for every string instruments, violin, viola, double bass, etc.). Maybe it comes from the violin school as the thinnest string is the first you see. Same when I took up the steel, on tablatures you see the strings as they really are and on teach and talk courses, when the teacher says string 7, it's an immediate reaction to play the string called number 7 or the 4th string from the fattest string. I don't count the strings, it's just an habit and I've never seen this as a problem. Just my own two cents though.

ayp
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Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Yep. Left/right, Low/high.
Top to bottom, hi/lo.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

When you open a pack of strings, which string is the first string you see? Tecnically, no one is correct that says low to high or high to low on what has become "standard" on the E9 tuning tuning, and a C6 with a D on top. The "high"string is not the outside string.
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Bill Brunt · From: Texas, USA

Funny, I don't have any problem when I see tabs with strings numbered 1 to 8 top to bottom, indicating string 1 is the highest pitched string.
But
I you ask how my guitar is tuned, I would say
F#, A, C#, E, F#, A, C#, E
With the first string, the lowest pitched.

I guess, because the scales run from low to high to me.
I guess really, I shouldn't think of the scales running in just one direction.

No wonder I stay confused.

Robert Bunting · From: New York, USA

Open most any Mel Bay instrument instruction book and listed tuning is highest to lowest or furthest to closest.
I find students generally find this counter intuitive... I know I do. Smile

But it is the traditional way.
To avoid confusion, when I list a tuning, I will designate low to high or vice versa.
In any case, this is not steel guitar specific, and a pedal steel guitars highest note isn't #1.
Steel Guitar is Crazy.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

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