弦樂器有許多獨到的特性：複音，可以同時發出兩個以上的聲音，合聲和絃一向是弦樂器的主要責任；演奏法多樣，光是撥弦或是擦弦可以擁有多種表情。這樣的優勢使得歷史上發展成熟的器樂中有絕大部分是弦樂器。
然而各地的自然條件與文化背景各有差異，器樂的差異導致音樂的差異，當然反之亦然，也因如此，我們才能在時間空間上都擁有多彩的音樂。
陳明章老師長年以來耕耘音樂，不但在台灣歌謠創作上貢獻良多，電影配樂方面也不少令人難忘的產出，如戀戀風塵，戲夢人生，獨特的音樂質地不經想讓人對他的電影音樂做點曲析。數十年來，陳明章老師在吉他器樂上推敲與應用的痕跡在他的電影配樂中可窺知一二。以傳統音樂為依歸，發展出一套自家的吉他的調弦法系統（註一）並將其應用發展，是陳明章老師的音樂能取得不同一般吉他聲響，並且接近台灣傳統音樂血脈的獨門方式，也是一種從器樂出發的根性作曲思維，這種由器樂規範，情感直觀的創作方式，應該就是陳老師音樂中豐沛的來源。
這次陳明章老師在製作花漾電影配樂時以台灣南管音樂為其主調素材，在配樂張力與電影劇情的思考下內化了南管色彩，重新設計了一套應用樂理於這次的電影配樂中。
其中最值得關注的便是陳明章老師將南管音樂分析後轉化到吉他上的南管調弦法。簡單來說，南管樂音階構成以五聲音階為主體，各為主音則有五種調式，然後依照曲牌內容設計變化。從邏輯來看，欲達成相關聽覺需要將吉他的開放弦調整成與五聲音階關聯的組成，舉例來說，知名的DADGAD調弦法即為其中一例(D G A三音的相對關係為GD DA1-5 ，GA1-2，AD1-4)，剔除大小調色彩，D殘響多，使得DADGAD在fingerStyle的吉他演奏中有其重要地位。
陳老師的吉他南管調弦構成結構為D#FA#D#FA#，主要概念源自於傳統樂器的定弦。在構成上為兩組相同關係之定弦，是二把琵琶變成一把吉他來演奏＃4＃C＃F1-4, #C#G1-5, #C#D1-2 的演化概念，也為剔除大小調色彩的開放定弦，而且因有兩組高低音群，理論上可以獲得更多殘響效果。
這樣的調弦設計，在學理上可以很邏輯並快速的取得音樂特色，而我認為在傳統音樂延續上有更超乎想像的意義存在。
台灣的南北管音樂在這兩百年間十分深入當地生活，也因為如此，其實台灣的南北管早就與閩南正宗的南北管有顯著的差異。島民的生活方式生猛多元，碰上戲劇轉化成歌仔戲，碰上婚殤化身為紅白場，廟會拼台裝上擴音器，車鼓陣，甚至現在還加上拉丁鼓隊，電音三太子。這塊島上的音樂發展緊咬著島民的生命脈絡，其繽紛花漾，海上瑰寶一般。
陳老師不但在月琴彈唱文化下足功夫，吉他的南管調弦勢必開起一條全新的道路，讓更多新血可以透過已熟悉的吉他器樂當介面，通過這條捷徑接觸並延續這塊島上最珍貴的音樂財寶，而南管調弦法吉他必然在世界音樂領域中大放異彩。
String instruments have many special characteristics. One is that they are polyphonic, i.e., they can make two or more sounds at once, so producing harmonic chords has always been a major purpose for string instruments. Another is there are many ways to play them; simply between strumming and picking they can produce many different kinds of sound. Because of these advantages, of all the different instruments that have reached a mature stage of development, the majority are string instruments.
But every place has a different natural environment and cultural background, and different musical instruments lead to different types of music and vice versa. This is why through time and space we have such a colorful variety of music.
Chen Mingchang has devoted himself to music for many years. Not only has he composed a large number of Taiwanese songs, but he has also produced quite a few unforgettable movie soundtracks, such as Dust in the Wind and The Puppetmaster. The unique character of his music makes his movie soundtracks a natural target for analysis. Over the past few decades, when it comes to guitar music, one can get a rough idea of Chen Mingchang’s ideas and their application from his film soundtracks. With traditional music as a starting point, his development of his own system of guitar tunings and his use of them in his music has meant that Chen Mingchang has been able to produce guitar sounds that are very distinct. His unique way of approaching Taiwanese traditional music is also a kind of compositional line of thinking that is rooted in instrumental music. This type of instrumentally structured, emotionally intuitive composition method seems to be a major source of Chen Mingchang’s music.
On this occasion, Chen Mingchang’s chief source material in his production of the music for the film Ripples of Desire was Taiwanese nanguan music. Taking into consideration the tension of the soundtrack music and the film’s plot, he has integrated nanguan into the soundtrack and once more created a set of applications of music theory for use in this movie soundtrack.
Most notably, Chen Mingchang analyzed nanguan music and transformed it into a nanguan tuning for the guitar. Simply put, nanguan music has a standard structure based on the five notes of the pentatonic scale, each of which can act as the keynote or tonic for the mode which then is varied according to particular standard melody used. Logically, to obtain a similar listening experience, you would need to tune the open strings of the guitar to notes corresponding with the pentatonic scale. For example, the well known DADGAD tuning would be one such tuning (the notes D, G, and A have the relationships GD DA1-5, GA1-2, AD1-4), eliminating the standard major-minor tonality and creating a lot of reverb on the D, making DADGAD a common tuning in fingerstyle guitar playing.
Chen Mingchang’s nanguan guitar tuning uses the structure D#FA#D#FA#, with the main concept originating in the tuning of traditional instruments. It is composed of two tunings with identical relationships, changing two pipas into one guitar, evolved out of the concept #4#C#F1-4, #C#G1-5, #C#D1-2. It also eliminates major-minor tonality, and because it has two clusters of high and low notes, it theoretically can create even more a of a reverb effect.
This tuning design, in terms of academic theory, can allow the player to logically and quickly obtain the desired musical characteristics, and in terms of preserving traditional music, I think it is even more meaningful than can be imagined.
In the past two hundred years, nanguan and beiguan music have penetrated deeply into daily life in Taiwan, and for that reason Taiwanese nanguan and beiguan have long had obvious differences from the standard nanguan and beiguan of southern Fujian. The people of Taiwan have lively and varied lifestyles. They transformed Chinese drama into koa-á-hì (gezaixi or Taiwanese opera), they transformed weddings or funerals into carnivals, they added loudspeakers, chhia-kó and now even Latin drumming and the “techno Prince Nezha” to temple festivals. Taiwan’s music is closely connected with its social context. It is rich and diverse, like a maritime treasure.
Chen Mingchang not only has devoted a lot of effort to singing and playing using the yueqin; his nanguan guitar tuning is bound to open up an entirely new road, allowing new blood in through the familiar interface of the guitar, using this shortcut to encounter and pass on this island’s most precious musical treasures. The nanguan guitar tuning is certain to lead to a flowering of talent in the field of world music.
