In 2002 I went to Egypt in order to observe the antiquities. While in Cairo I bought an oud (Arabic lute) for a decent price. The maker kindly showed me a couple of the preferred tunings of the instrument. It sparked my interest in further investigation. I drew up a list of the tunings of the guitar, oud and lute. Over time this list expanded as I added more instruments and extended the range from tenor (where the guitar and oud sit) to the soprano and bass extremes. The result is the list of one hundred and thirty-six tunings shown at the end of this article.

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http://siementerpstra.com/writings/Terpstra-StringTunings.pdf