Just a quick overview of Intervals....
Interval: the distance between two notes.
Don't you wish it was just that easy? Just memorize that definition and be
done with this whole thing? Well, here's a little lesson to help you
understand more about the different intervals and maybe help understand it
alittle better for the future.
Perfect Interval: Augmented <--- Perfect ---> Diminished
Major/Minor Interval: Augmented <--- Major ---> Minor ---> Diminished
Intervals are always named in relation to a ROOT note and then by their
number in appearance. I'm going to use the C major scale since it contains
no sharps or flats and, therefore, is probably the easiest to start from.
C Major Scale
Root Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Octave
C D E F G A B C
W W h W W W h
(the W's mean a whole step or two frets on the guitar
and the h's are half steps or just one fret)
PERFECT INTERVALS
These are the Root, Fourth, FIfth, and Octave notes. the perfect intervals
stay the same whether you go from a major or minor scale. Here's what the
perfect intervals would look like on the guitars neck.
Perfect fourth's. the 3 on the d string is the root.. the other is the interval
e |-------------|--------------|
b |-------------|--------------|
g |-------------|--3-----------|
d |--3-------7--|--3-----------|
a |-------------|--------------|
e |-------------|--------------|
A perfect fifth is commonly known as a (half)power chord. the full power
chord wold contain the root , the perfect fifth, and it's octave.
e |---------|----------|
b |---------|----------|
g |---------|----------|
d |---------|--2-------|
a |--2------|--2-------|
e |--0------|--0-------|
MAJOR/MINOR INTERVALS
time to separate the chart yet again.
You know where the perfect intervals are now, also knowing that they do not
change. There's still the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th to deal with. for the
Major intervals.. al lyou do is add "Major" before the number... Major 2nd,
Major 3rd, Major 6th, and Major 7th. Minor is where it gets alittle tricky.
The MINOR second is a half step lower than the major second. In this case
instead of it being a D, the minor second would be a Db. The same applies
with the rest so the minor scale would be..
Root Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Octave
C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
DIMINISHED/AUGMENTED!!!
Okay, going back to the PERFECT notes again. Raising and lowering these
notes are augmented and diminished.
Augmented <--- Perfect ---> Diminished
Augmented raises the Perfect by a half step while Diminished decreases it by
a half step.
Example: C to G is a Perfect Fifth. C to Gb is a Diminished Fifth and then
C to G# is a Augmented Fifth.
Now to major or minor intervals: (for nonPERFECT intervals)
Augmented <--- Major ---> Minor ---> Diminished
Example: C to D
C -- Db -- D -- D#
root minor sec major sec aug sec.
C is the same as Dbb which is a Dim 2nd but like i said on the message board
this is only important if you're playing a nonfretted instrument where
there's a difference in these two notes.
I konw that's ALOT of information to get under your belt but it should help
so far. But WAIT there's still MORE!!!! Well, I had to try and make it
sound exciting, didn't I? :)
THE TRITONE!!! The tritone is the exact middle of an octave, equal to the
diminished fifth. It use to be avoided in the past often being called the
Devil's Interval, but is essential in today's music. This was discouraged
so much because of it's strong dissonance.
MORE THAN ONE OCTAVE:
Octave Ninth Tenth Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Fourteenth Fifteenth
C D E F G A B C
This is the part that I'm not exactly sure about. The 9th, 11th, and 13th
are important notes called "tensions" and play an important role in
constructing chords and chord scales. Well, that's pretty much all I know
about this topic. I hope it helps you all some. If you would like some
help understanding anything about this feel free to ask.
