A fiddle in standard tuning has four open strings a fifth apart, and a tune played on it borrows whichever of them happens to sit nearby. A cross-tuning changes that arrangement on purpose: you decide in advance which pitches will be available as ringing open strings, and then you play a tune that lives on them. That is the whole idea, and everything that follows from it — which strings move, by how much, what the open set spells afterwards — is arithmetic rather than opinion.
So this site derives it. Every number below is computed from the registry's own pitches; the only thing typed by hand is each tuning's list of target note names.
The four cross-tunings
| Tuning | Strings | Moved | Open strings read as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross A | AEAE | 2 | no triad at all |
| Sawmill | GDGD | 2 | no triad at all |
| High bass | ADAE | 1 | Dsus2 or Asus4 |
| Calico | AEAC# | 3 | A major |
What the last column is telling you
Standard G D A E sounds four different letters and reads as no chord at all — four stacked fifths do not make a triad. Cross A and sawmill go further in the same direction: they sound only two letters between all four open strings. There is no third available anywhere in the open set, so nothing in it is major or minor until a finger puts a third somewhere. That refusal to commit is what people mean when they call these tunings modal.
High bass and calico are the exceptions, and they are exceptions in different ways. High bass sounds three letters that do stack, as a suspended chord readable from either end. Calico sounds a genuine major triad, which is unusual enough on this page to be the entire reason the tuning exists.
One relationship the table makes visible: sawmill is cross A moved down a whole tone on every string. They are one tuning in two keys, and a tune you can play in one you can play in the other by moving your hand.
Why a fiddler does this and a pianist cannot
An open string is free. It costs no finger, it never goes out of tune mid-phrase, and it rings for as long as the bow stays near it — which means a cross-tuned fiddle can hold a drone under a melody with one bow arm and four fingers, and sound like two instruments. That is not a stylistic preference; it is the physical reason old-time fiddling sounds the way it does, and it is only available because the pitches of the open strings are something you get to choose.
The bow arm is where the choice pays out. A drone is only a drone if the bow can reach it without leaving the melody, so what actually matters is whether the ringing string is adjacent to the one you are playing on. The string-crossing page has the geometry; each tuning page below names which pairs end up adjacent once the retune is done.
What does not change
Your left hand keeps its shape. Positions are distances along a string, not absolute pitches, so the position maps are as true in cross A as in standard — a first-position hand is still a first-position hand. What changes is which note comes out, and that is the adjustment: the geometry you know is producing different pitches, so learn each tuning as its own set of sounds rather than as standard with an offset in your head.
The double stops on the chord pages are the exception, because they are stated against standard G D A E. Any pair that touches a moved string names a different interval once you retune. Each page below says which strings stayed put, which is the useful half of that answer.