Intervals are simple, useful and helpful bits of knowledge. They’re a priceless musical commodity, being one of the most fundamental and applicable building blocks of scales and lead sequences. Yet, despite the simplicity, the related theory can get fairly involved.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. — Maya Angelou
Intervals are simple, useful and helpful bits of knowledge.
They’re a priceless musical commodity, being one of the most fundamental and applicable building blocks of scales and lead sequences.
Yet, despite the simplicity, the related theory can get fairly involved. In fact, much of it is outside the scope my own guitar playing. Therefore, I don't need to know it all.
So this guitar interval lesson is limited to information I’ve found to be the most useful and relevant to my instrument of choice. In other words, it’s just what you need to know and nothing more. Note that this is an abridged version of a larger lesson. You can check out the full article on Guitar Chalk and download the PDF lesson outline.
Definition: What Is an Interval? In music theory, an interval is the space between any two pitches (according to Harmony: Its Theory and Practice by Ebenezer Prout).
On guitar, it's simply space between any two notes on the fretboard.
Take for example, the following tabbed interval:
Both notes are separated by two semitones (also called a “half step” or one-fret jump), which are equal to a whole tone or “whole step.” But what if the two notes don’t occur on the same string? Consider the following:
How does this work? Even on different strings there's