Understanding Intervals - Part 1



What follows will hopefully be a very basic run-down of musical intervals and what they are called.

In almost every musical style each octave is divided into 12 intervals. An octave is the difference in pitch between any open string on your guitar and that same string played at the 12th fret. 12 Frets = 12 intervals.

What are these intervals called?

Firstly here’s the simple version:

Fret	Interval name
0 (open string)	Root
1	Minor 2nd
2	Major 2nd
3	Minor 3rd
4	Major 3rd
5	Perfect 4th
6	Flat 5th
7	Perfect 5th
8	Minor 6th
9	Major 6th
10	Minor 7th
11	Major 7th
12	Octave

etc

One thing you’ll notice that even though there are 12 intervals they are numbered only 1 to 7 with the variations adding up to the full 12. The variations are either major or minor for the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th and there’s there’s perfect for the 4th and 5th  with a flat 5th completing the 12 intervals.

Why is this? Well, the people who first started devising the modern system of musical notation had some pretty strict ideas about what notes were ok what notes were not. These people were very concerned about symmetry and how the musical notes related to ‘God’s creation’. As a result the major (or Ionian) scale that we know today and its modes were for a while there the only scales allowed in those circles. As a result we now have 7 intervals per octave. As you learn more you’ll realize that even though we have considerably more musical freedom these days the 7-interval system works quite well.

Now check out Understanding Musical Intervals - part 2 >>