Ralph Patt Ralph Oliver Patt ( 5 December 1929 – 6 October 2010 ) was an American jazz - guitarist who introduced major - thirds tuning . Patt ' s tuning simplified the learning of the fretboard and chord s by beginners and improvisation by advanced guitarists . He invented major - thirds tuning under the inspiration of first the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg and second the jazz of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman . He graduated with a degree in geology from the University of Pittsburgh . After his career as a guitarist , he worked as a geologist and as a hydrologist , often consulting on projects related to the U . S . Department of Energy . Biography . Patt was born in Kittanning , Pennsylvania on 5 December 1929 and studied geology at the University of Pittsburgh . Guitar and music theory . While in Pittsburgh , Patt studied guitar under Joe Negri . Patt played rhythm guitar in the style of Freddie Green , who played a Stromberg in the Count Basie Orchestra . Having earned his baccalaureate degree , he joined the United States Army and played guitar in an Army band . Following his 1955 discharge from the Army , Patt played with touring bands , for example , Neal Hefti , Frankie Carle , Les Elgart , Benny Goodman , Richard Maltby , and The Glenn Miller Orchestra . After touring for five years , Patt settled in New York City , where he worked as musician both at ABC and on Broadway from 1960 to 1970 ; during this period he regarded Barry Galbraith as his mentor . He studied under George Russell , whose ( 1959 ) " The Lydian chromatic concept of tonal organization for improvisation " Patt edited . Patt also studied with Gunther Schuller , who himself was a student of Arnold Schoenberg and who used Schoenberg ' s twelve - tone technique for atonal composition . Patt wanted to be able to play and then to improvise twelve - tone music . Major - thirds tuning . Patt was inspired by the jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane and the atonal music of Schoenberg . Seeking a guitar - tuning that would facilitate improvisation , he introduced major - thirds tuning by 1964 , perhaps in 1963 . Patt ' s tuning is a regular tuning in the sense that all of the intervals between its successive open string s are major third s ; in contrast , the standard guitar - tuning has one major - third amid four fourth s . Patt used major - thirds tuning during all of his work as a session musician after 1965 in New York . Major - thirds tuning packs the chromatic scale ( the consecutive twelve - notes of the octave ) onto four consecutive frets of three consecutive strings , an arrangement that reduces the extensions of the little and index fingers ( " hand stretching " ) . Major and minor chord s are played on two successive frets , and so require only two fingers ; other chords — seconds , fourths , sevenths , and ninths — are played on three successive frets . For each regular tuning , chord patterns may be moved around the fretboard , a property that simplifies beginners ' learning of chords and that simplifies advanced players ' improvisation . In contrast , chords cannot be shifted around the fretboard in the standard tuning E - A - D - G - B - E , which requires four chord - shapes for the major chords ; standard tuning has separate chord - forms for chords having their root note on the third , fourth , fifth , and sixth strings . Having exactly three pitch class es for its open notes ( for example { C , E , G } ) , each major - thirds tuning repeats every note in a higher octave , because guitars have three strings . Being regular , M3 tunings repeat each note after two strings : this repetition simplifies the learning of chords and improvisation . Chord inversion is especially simple in major - thirds tuning . Chords are inverted simply by raising one or two notes three strings . The raised notes are played with the same finger as the original notes . Guitars with seven and eight strings . Major - thirds tuning has a smaller scope than standard guitar - tuning , and so Patt started using seven - string guitar s , which enabled major - thirds tuning to have the E - e ' range of the standard tuning . He first experimented with a wide - neck Mango guitar from the 1920s , which he modified to have seven strings in 1963 . In 1967 he purchased a seven - string by José Rubio . Patt used major - thirds tuning when he performed as a session musician in New York City after 1965 . Later , he purchased six - string archtop hollow - body guitars that were then modified by luthiers to have wider necks , wider pickups , and eight string s . Patt ' s Gibson ES - 150 was modified by Vincent " Jimmy " DiSerio , a luthier who worked in the firm of John D ' Angelico , circa 1965 . Luthier Saul Koll modified a sequence of guitars : a 1938 Gibson Cromwell , a Sears Silvertone , a circa 1922 Mango archtop , a 1951 Gibson L - 50 , and a 1932 Epiphone Broadway ; for Koll ' s modifications , custom pick - ups accommodated Patt ' s wide necks and high G ( equivalently A ) ; custom pick - up s were manufactured by Seymour Duncan and by Bill Lawrence . Besides these guitars , Patt regularly played other stringed instruments as a recording musician : classical guitar , 12 - string guitar , 6 - string bass guitar , mandolin , banjo , and oud . Patt stated that " the only guys that didn ' t have to double on dates were the Tony Mottolas and the Johnny Smiths " ; Tony Mottola and Johnny Smith were famous jazz - guitarists , and " doubling " refers to a musician ' s switching from one instrument to another , particularly within a family of instruments . Patt worked primarily as a studio musician from 1970 to 1975 . Scholarship . Patt developed a webpage with extensive information about major - thirds tuning . This webpage was part of website with extensive information for jazz guitarists . Patt ' s website published his " Vanilla book " , which contains the chord progression s for four - hundred jazz standard s , from " After you ' ve gone " to " Zing ! went the strings " . Its title refers to " Just play the vanilla changes " , advice to young pianists from Lester Young . It was updated in 2008 . His website followed earlier contributions to guitar scholarship and instruction . In 1962 , Patt wrote his " Guitar chord dictionary " ( 1962 ) . Living in New York City in the 1960s , he studied with Chuck Wayne , with whom he wrote " The guitar appreggio dictionary " ( 1965 ) , one of the bestselling titles from the music - publishing firm of Henry Adler . Return to geology . As a studio musician in the 1970s , Patt had to play less jazz and more rock and roll , and so he changed careers . He returned to geology while continuing to pursue jazz as an avocation . Around 1975 he began working on his doctoral degree in hydrogeology . Employed by the US Department of Energy , he specialized in ground - water contamination from nuclear waste ; as a research hydrogeologist , he accepted assignments world - wide and had extensive travels in Ukraine and Russia . He was employed by Oregon ' s Department of Water Resources , where he served as its expert on the risks to the Columbia River from the Hanford Site . As a hydrological geologist ( hydrologist ) , he was appointed to a panel of outside experts that reviewed and then " slammed " the U . S . Department of Energy ' s report on the safety of the underground storage of high - level nuclear waste at Hanford . Death . In 2002 and 2010 , Patt ' s hometown was listed as Canby , Oregon , near Portland . Having been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007 , Ralph Oliver Patt died at the age of 80 on 6 October 2010 in Canby at home . To honor his memory , the Ralph Patt Memorial Scholarship provided full tuition , room , and board for a college student to attend the Mel Brown Jazz Camp in 2011 .