B-F#-B-G-B-E
• OVERVIEW •
A fascinating blend of Standard + ‘Drop D -3‘ (3-1str & 6-4str respectively), closely associated with Australian prog-rockers Karnivool. According to its creator, lead guitarist Drew Goddard, “It just made sense to have the low tuning, while keeping the first strings high. The best of both worlds I guess…I liked the sequence of natural harmonics you could make…”.
Three Bs are evenly separated by three unique tones (E, F#, G) – a layout which would ring with a more pronounced dissonance if not for its wide-spread octave separations. The slackened 6-5-4str give a Baritone-register B power chord (‘1-5-1‘), while 3-2-1str offer a first-inversion Emin triad (‘b3-5-1‘) – with a characteristic b6th interval in the middle (4>3str).
Pattern: 7>5>8>4>5
Harmony: Bsus4(#5) | 1-5-1-b6-1-4
• TUNING TONES •
Raag Jog: exploring different ways the electric guitar can support a Dhrupad-ang nomtom (syllabic improvisation)…
Jun 28
Raag Kafi: Electric guitar improv around the adha bandish ‘Aaj Khel Shaam Sang Hori’
Jun 22
Raag Jog: some sawal-jawab (‘question-answer’) fun with Marc Clayton on tabla
Jun 15
Some tintal improv around a wonderful Durga bandish I’ll be playing at @mehfilspace @the_rose_hill in Brighton on Thu 11th June! with vocalist @ashwinbaligaofficial and @marc_plays_tabla
Jun 10
Come see me play some bendy raga-guitar at @mehfilspace @the_rose_hill in Brighton on Thu 11th June! with vocalist @ashwinbaligaofficial and @marc_plays_tabla
Jun 5
tomato can jungle/DnB (distracted while cooking)
May 23
A great Jaunpuri gat from Senia-Shahjahanpur sarod legend Pt Buddhadev DasGupta, full of fast bends and slides (originally released for Joep Bor’s 1997 Raga Guide, in many ways a precursor to my own raga index)
May 6
just for fun…I had to defend the honour of my main instrument against my second instrument (many thanks to @mountainhead for the original video, as well as some tasty bends) – still no match for the surbahar’s meend range though!
May 4
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(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace
#dhrupad #raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic
(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace
#raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic #ragaguitar
(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace
#raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic #ragaguitar
https://therosehill.co.uk/event/the-mehfil-space-presents-around-the-world-in-8-ragas/
‘Around the World in 8 Ragas’: exploring cross-cultural melodic forms (e.g. scales that turn up independently in Japan, India, Mali, etc)
#indianmusic #raga #icm #brightonmusic #ragaguitar
https://therosehill.co.uk/event/the-mehfil-space-presents-around-the-world-in-8-ragas/
‘Around the World in 8 Ragas’: exploring cross-cultural melodic forms (e.g. scales that turn up independently in Japan, India, Mali, etc) – including this piece, a famous Bhairavi bhajan by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi (Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada)
#bhajan #raga #indianmusic #brightonmusic #ragaguitar
#drumming #percussion #dnb #jungle
Raag Jaunpuri: a late morning raga, likely originating in the Sultanate-era music of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh (as per Subodh Agrawal: “The rulers of Jaunpur were keen patrons of the arts, and the last one – Sultan Hussain Sharqi – was himself a distinguished musician; it is probable that the Jaunpuri flavor of Asavari was developed by him, or under his patronage“). Rajan Parrikar elaborates on its “Asavariant” status, noting that some (including Omkarnath Thakur) see it as essentially indistinguishable from Shuddha Re Asavari, while others consider Jaunpuri to follow more ‘rounded’ melodic motions…
#sarod #ragaguitar #stratocaster #worldmusic #jaunpur
#sitar #guitar #raga #bends #ragaguitar
• SOUNDS •
Despite being a blend of two common tuning patterns (Standard and Drop D), set in two common guitar keys (Emin and B), separated by just one cycle-of-5ths step (E>B), Karnivool’s signature layout is near-unknown outside of their own work. Used to great effect by the band on many (maybe most) of their recordings, e.g. Shutterspeed, Simple Boy, New Day, and “pretty much every song” of the 2005 Themata album.
Goddard expands: “We like to mess around with [B-F#-B-G-B-E]…Sometimes we drop the G to an F#, [or] the E to a D, which is this open Bm chord [more precisely: Gmaj7/B]…It really makes you look at the fretboard in a different way, and fumble around and find happy accidents“.
- New Day – Karnivool (2009):
“That’s the role of art. It’s got to be this mirror. It’s got to be this reflection to things – to say it another way, show it another way, feel it another way and share. Again, just trying to make things fucking better or maybe not…Just stir some shit up, I don’t know…we’ll find out!” (Karnivool vocalist Ian Kenny)
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• NUMBERS •
| 6str | 5str | 4str | 3str | 2str | 1str | |
| Note | B | Gb | B | G | B | E |
| Alteration | -5 | -3 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tension (%) | -44 | -29 | -29 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Freq. (Hz) | 62 | 92 | 123 | 296 | 247 | 330 |
| Pattern (>) | 7 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 5 | – |
| Semitones | 0 | 7 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 29 |
| Intervals | 3 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
- See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!
• RELATED •
—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…
- Carnatic Drone: still three Bs, but separated with three Es
- Open Csus: just one twist away from the one-step transposition
- Ghost Reveries: another Karnivool-featured slackened setup
• MORE INFO •
—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…
- Drew Goddard: check out interviews by the tuning’s inventor in Asymmetry, MusicRadar, and Roland (“I try to keep things fresh, messing with the tunings a lot. There’s an open Dmin9 [DADFAE]…on All I Know & Set Fire To The Hive [cp.5]….I’ve been messing around with having a strange interval between [6>5str], the thicker strings, like a b5 or b6…I’ve got a 6 string baritone [in] GDGGDF, which has got an octave jump between [4>3str]”)
- Karnivool: find out more about the Aussie rockers via their own 10-year retrospective on the above-linked Themata album – and also the origins of their distinctive name (“we scored a few local pub gigs, and the name ‘Karnivool’ tagged along. No one is really partial to it, but it’s just one of those things that stuck. There’s some ancient folklore that someone called the original three guys [in the band] ‘a bunch of clowns’ or something…”)
Header image: Karnivool play Melbourne in 2010 (Steve Collis)
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George Howlett is a London-based musician, writer, and teacher (guitars, sitar, tabla, & santoor). Above all I seek to enthuse fellow sonic searchers, interconnecting fresh vibrations with the voices, cultures, and passions behind them. See Home & Writings, and hit me up for Online Lessons!
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