Tuning Help

Interested in learning how to play the zither and wondering where to start? Use this section to post your questions.

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muddy fingers
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Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:11 pm

Tuning Help

Post by muddy fingers »

Hello
For me this is a new topic since I am new at this zither game.
I have ordered several books from Europe and am finding that some of them are written
totally with treble clef accompaniment while others are written with bass clef accompaniment.
Is this a case of personal preference for the authors of these books ? I understand the bass or contra bass needs to be written in the bass clef. So it looks like it might be advisable to learn both??
I have the book written by Adelbert Albrecht and the tuning for the Munich style is written so the third string..the F is tuned an octave higher then in the book by Simon Schneider Zitherschule..Is this just a typo. Tuning the string to this higher octave obviously broke my string. Ahhh sigh...I have much to learn and digest.
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Dave
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Re: Tuning Help

Post by Dave »

Treble clef was once the standard for music published using Munich tuning. Much of this early sheet music is still being reproduced and is enjoyable to play, so learning bass and treble clef will do you no harm. On the other hand, if you encounter early sheet music published in Vienna, you will see that bass clef is used. Today, bass clef has been adopted for accompaniment notation.

Albrecht’s zither method details tuning using treble clef, while Schneider’s newer zither method provides a tuning chart with treble clef for the fretboard strings and bass clef for the open ones. Perhaps this explains your broken string? There are several videos on Youtube that you can listen to as well. Here is one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5VF4FiXODc

Hope this helps.

Dave
We do not take humor seriously enough. —Konrad Lorenz
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