III The New Tunings
1. Do we need to name the one who started it? Of course it is Paco de Lucía again, and more inventive than ever. His bulería Piñonate (on the record Solo Quiero Caminar) shocks even those ears trained by his previous innovations. For this piece he creates a special tuning, arranged as follows, from bass to treble : E, A, D, G, B-flat, D. The tonality is still A-Phrygian, that of the traditional toque por medio. A dissonance of a minor second appears in the fundamental chord, between the A (keynote) and the B-flat (in the basic position, with the open second string). This dissonance is the signature of the toques de Levante. Here, however, there is no doubt concerning the logic of the tonality, as proved by the choice of the falsetas : they are the same as in the normal tuning. On the other hand, this change in the tuning does not overcome the limits of the key of A on the guitar. The use of only five strings for the chords in their basic positions shortens the bass register. That his perhaps the reason that there would be no further progress in this direction :

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2. The search for new tunings is now under way. Among those who do the pioneering work two names stand out as early as 1987 : Tomatito, with Barrio Santiago (bulería from his L.P. Rosas del Amor) and Gerardo Núñez, with Los Caños de la Meca (bulería from his LP El Gallo azul, unfortunately never re-released since that time). In this last piece for the first time we hear the tuning in C, as follows, from bass to treble: C, G, C, G, B, E. The purpose is of course the extension of the register towards the bass -here we approach the limit of what is possible- but the other advantage consists in the change from normal C mechanics for those similar to D, more natural and consequently easier. Thus, the fundamental chord is performed with one finger only, second string, first fret: all the other strings left open. Here is the intro of Los Caños de la Meca:

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3. The research progresses thanks again to Gerardo Núñez, with his superb siguiriya Remache for which he invents the B tuning (from bass to treble: B, A, D, G, B, D-sharp). The bass is lowered here by two and a half tones ! In this tuning, the fundamental chord is performed at the second position, the same as in granaína. It sounds different as there is no longer the dissonance produced by the E : the open 1st string is now a D-sharp, the third in the B tonality. We have, therefore, a B chord made as follows (from bass to treble) : B, B, F-sharp, B, B, D-sharp.

This tuning owes his unusual tonal color first to its dizzying basses, and second to the overwhelming predominance of the keynote in the basic position of the B chord (see excerpt), reducing the harmony to its simplest expression. This suits perfectly the siguiriya as the deep basses evocate the gloom of despair, and the quasi-monotony of the B chord echoes back the monotonous tone of this style. But, most important, it is the extention of the effective register to six strings, and the maximum exploitation of the possibilities of the fingerboard that create a real concert piece out of the siguiriya, something much less possible in its traditional key and tuning.

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4. Tomatito played an active part in this work of exploration. Within his many creations we find an innovative variation of the D tuning, used in Caminillo Viejo (tangos from the record Barrio Negro). It goes as follows, from bass to treble: D, A, D, G, E-flat, D. This tuning looks like an hybrid of the D and the Piñonate tunings, but it is in fact created to be in D. The fundamental chord uses two fingers only, and the four open strings give full volume to the guitar.

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5. Tomatito, again, with Armonias del Romañe (colombiana from the record Barrio Negro) creates an arrangement of the G tuning that goes, from bass to treble: D, G, B, G, B, E. It differs from the former G tuning in that the fourth string is B instead of D. This permits a C-Major chord (the IV chord in the G-Major tonality) to be made with a simple bar at the fifth fret over the six strings, which was impossible before. Here is the intro of Armonias del Romañe:

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6. Another remarkable composition from Tomatito, Callejon de las Canteras (taranta, a track from Barrio Negro) innovates in an original way. Strings 1, 2 and 3 are raised, while the 4th is lowered, as follows, from bass to treble: E, A, C-sharp, A, C-sharp, F-sharp, in order to play por taranta in the G-sharp tonality (i.e. in the E-Major scale). The fundamental chord, G-sharp, in its basic position is the same as that of the taranta, shifted up two frets (with a small difference: the fourth finger is moved up one fret higher than the third finger).

One could say that G-sharp is the tonality of the minera, adding the similarity with the primitive minera fingerings. In fact the likeness stops here, because there is no doubt about the intention: with this tuning, the fundamental chord reproduces note by note, in the same order, the intervals that characterize the dissonances of the taranta, not the minera.

In its usual F-sharp form this style doesn't suffer from a limit in depth, as the open sixth string is already lower than the keynote by one tone. However the purpose –perfectly achieved – of this somehow intricate tuning is, as in the other cases, to gain extension of the bass register. The trick consists in reaching this result not by lowering the sixth string, but rather by rising the trebles, pushing the tonality upward by one tone. What imagination!

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7. There are other original tunings, such as in the bulería Agüita clara (by Rafael Riqueni) which goes, from bass to treble, E, A, D, G, A, D (close to Paco’s Piñonate tuning). Or in the bulería, Cambalache (by Chicuelo) tuned as follows, from bass to treble: B, A, D, G, B, E (similar to the Remache tuning from Gerardo Núñez).

Finally, we must underline that all these innovations are applied exclusively to the Phrygian mode, with only two exceptions in the major : Riqueni’s garrotín in G, and Tomatito’s colombiana in the other G form.

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