ORPHIC TOUCH-STYLE MUSIC
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MOBIUS MEGATAR TUNINGS

There is more than one way to tune a megatar. The tuning you select will depend upon how you wish to use your megatar, as well as your past experience and training. Tuning can seem intimidating if you're just starting out, but it's pretty easy. Here are the most common choices ...

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Bass-Bottom	Inverted Fifths	Bi-Melody	Uncrossed	Other

Standard 'Bass-Bottom' -- If you wish to play bass and melody, we believe this powerful tuning is the simplest, especially if you are coming from bass or guitar, because everything is in the fourths orientation that you already know. The melody strings are tuned in straight fourths, similar to a guitar, though slightly lower. The bass strings are tuned in straight fourths, exactly like a standard 6-string bass. In this tuning, your left hand just above fret 2 and your right hand just above fret 12 can move in an exactly identical manner, and the notes beneath your two hands are identical. This makes for very fast learning, and everything your left hand already knows about fretting will transfer quickly to your right hand. Power. Simplicity. Opens the door quickly.

Mobius standard 'Bass-Bottom' tuning is a no-charge tuning available on any instrument

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Standard 'Inverted-Fifths' -- Popularized by Emmett Chapman, this tuning would be identical to the 'Grand Stick(tm),' and would be immediately recognizable to any Stick player. The melody strings are the same, tuned in straight fourths, similar to a guitar, though slightly lower. The bass strings are tuned in fifths, ascending in the opposite direction. In this tuning, your left hand just above fret 2 and your right hand just above fret 12 will still find that the notes beneath your two hands are identical in name, but as you play across the strings moving to your left, the melody strings are ascending (as usual) but the bass strings are descending. This makes for a number of interesting possibilities. For one, it gives a nice set of left-hand chords which are both easy to fret and clear-sounding, because the fifths tuning spreads notes further apart, reducing bass-string muddiness.

Mobius standard 'Inverted-Fifths' tuning is a no-charge tuning available on any instrument

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Standard 'Bi-Melody' -- If you wish to play dual guitar parts, we believe this powerful tuning is the simplest, especially if you are coming from bass or guitar, because everything is in the fourths orientation that you already know. The melody strings are tuned in straight fourths, similar to a guitar, though slightly lower. The other set of strings (normally the 'bass' set) are also tuned in straight fourths, but one whole step lower. We'll call this second set the 'lo-melody' strings, and you'll discover that the lo-melody strings have the notes falling exactly the same as a standard 6-string bass, though not as low-pitched. In this tuning, your left hand just above fret 2 and your right hand just above fret 12 move in an exactly identical manner, and the notes beneath your two hands are identical. This makes for very fast learning, and everything your left hand already knows about fretting will transfer immediately to your right hand. Power. Simplicity. Opens the door quickly. The Bi-Melody tuning is the tuning of choice to play 'dual guitar' sets, where you chord left-hand and play melody right-hand. Left-hand chords are especially sweet and clear. Bi-Melody tuning is used in the MidiTapper to drive synthesizers and the Roland V-Guitar system, and with those systems you can set either device to transpose your sound into the bass range if desired.

Mobius standard 'Bi-Melody' tuning is a no-charge tuning available on any instrument

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'Uncrossed String Arrangement' -- Popularized by Daniel Schell of Belgium and Wolfgang Daiss of Germany, this is not a tuning per se, but a different way to arrange the two string sets. The megatar standard arrangement takes its cue from normal bass and guitar, where in normal playing position, the musician finds the lowest strings nearest to his head, and the highest-pitched strings furthest to his left. Standard strings arrangement therefore places the bass set of strings nearest to the head and the higher-pitched melody string set furthest to the musician's left. The standard arrangement seems logical and feels good to the hands, but it also means that when your left hand is playing bass strings around fret seven, your right hand is blocked from playing melody strings at that same place. The Uncrossed-Arrangement allows each hand full access to all positions on the string set without this interference. In the Uncrossed-Arrangement, you place the left-hand's string set (normally bass strings) to the player's left, and you place the right-hand's string set (normally melody) closer to the player's head. It feels different to the hands, but gives full access and many players prefer it.

Non-standard 'Uncrossed-Arrangement' is an extra-charge option available on any instrument

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'Mirror Tuning' and other Tunings -- The Mirror-Tuning is described by Daniel Schell in his method book 'My Space' and is designed so that an identical 'gesture' by each hand results in an identical musical phrase. It is a tuning that seems to work very well for musicians who will be doing a lot of reading, and has a muscular logic. Several other tunings and variations are available on Mobius instruments including the tunings known as 'Crafty', 'Teed Rockwell Tuning', 'Low-A Bass', and others.

Non-standard tunings, many available as extra-charge option on any instrument.

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