02. Intervals

Let's start getting to know the theory!

Intervals determine the distances between notes. We measure their distance in half-steps (a full octave contains 12 half-steps).

Does it sound like it's from a school textbook? Don't worry, it's a great beginning!

Although the topic may seem quite simple, I'll interject a bit here because some of you might be thinking that you don't need all this theoretical knowledge and are wondering when I'll finally show some chord shapes. I won't judge, but if you're not familiar with this topic, I'm convinced that even at the intervals stage, you'll get to know your instrument much better. Just playing around and experimenting with how two notes sound together opens up many doors in your mind, provides numerous possibilities, and helps you familiarize yourself with the layout of notes on your instrument. Thanks to my knowledge of intervals, I've seen how the musicians I listen to every day create those incredible melodies, elegant riffs (e.g., fifths and fourths), or heavy breakdowns (based on tritones), amazing! 🤯 (*I remember the first time I realized that my favorite riffs, made up of power chords that I played endlessly with the distortion on, were not even chords but two-note combinations consisting of the root and fifth. That was a significant discovery for me! 😍).

Furthermore, they are the fundamental building blocks of music, and their understanding is crucial for comprehending harmony, constructing scales, and chords.

Now, let's get to know these distances between notes. We mentioned that an octave is divided into 12 half-steps. Let's visualize it, and here's what we have in C, one by one:

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C

or C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, As, A, Bb, B, C

These presented notes give us a chromatic scale (a twelve-note scale). Based on it, we can then identify a specific interval:

unison - 0 half-steps (in our example, from C)

minor second - 1 half-step

major second - 2 half-steps

minor third - 3 half-steps

major third - 4 half-steps

perfect fourth - 5 half-steps

tritone (augmented fourth, diminished fifth) - 6 half-steps

perfect fifth - 7 half-steps

minor sixth - 8 half-steps

major sixth - 9 half-steps

minor seventh - 10 half-steps

major seventh - 11 half-steps

octave - 12 half-steps

We can categorize these intervals into groups as consonances and dissonances.

In short, consonance is the pleasant-sounding combination of tones, while dissonance is the opposite, where we immediately perceive some 'clash' between the tones. We categorize:

Consonances - perfect unison, minor third, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor sixth, major sixth, perfect octave

Dissonances - minor second, major second, minor seventh, major seventh, tritone

Understanding consonances and dissonances can be useful for composing and coming up with your own melodies. Just knowing the division of intervals can quickly suggest what kind of sound you want to achieve (e.g., a heavy riff with a tritone typical of a dirty muted sound 😈 or a pleasant melody with a major third 😇 - can, for example, refer to the major chord played and we will discuss their structure in the next lesson).

Due to the fact that these are lessons about chords, I want to mention additional intervals that we can use in chords occurring after 13 half-steps. These are:

ninth – octave + second – 13 or 14 half-steps
tenth – octave + third – 15 or 16 half-steps
eleventh – octave + fourth – 17 half-steps
octave & tritone – octave + tritone – 18 half-steps
twelfth – octave + fifth – 19 half-steps
thirteenth – octave + sixth – 20 or 21 half-steps
fourteenth – octave + seventh – 22 or 23 half-steps
fifteenth – two octaves – 24 half-steps.

Now you know what intervals are and how we can divide them. You'll often use them in playing and composing, and if the need arises, you can always come back here for a quick review or reference.

See how it looks on your instrument! With the above information, you can now open the Interval Fretboard App from the side menu., choose the name of the interval and see how they are placed on the guitar and piano keyboard. Note that the intervals are the same for each selected key, so the layout remains unchanged. This is very useful knowledge, as it not only tells you how the notes are arranged but also makes it easy to find the components of scales, chords, arpeggios, or passages (we will cover these topics later).

Great! 😁 Such basic knowledge as understanding intervals gives us a ticket to understanding our instruments and music theory!

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next lesson - 03. Chord Construction