Guitar Intervals: The Most Important Music Concept for Guitar Players?
Learning about guitar intervals is probably the most impactful music concept I’ve learned. It took my understanding of scales and chords to a whole new level. In fact, it made such an impact on me I would consider it to be one of the most important music concepts to understand. Let’s dig it and explore what intervals are and why they matter.
What is an Interval?
An interval is the distance between any two pitches.
On the guitar, intervals are measured by frets, or semitones. One fret is equal to one semitone.
The characteristics (ie. qualities) of these intervals shape the sound and feel of musical elements such as scales, chords, etc.
Interval Qualities
Intervals can be of 5 different qualities.:
- Perfect
- Major
- Minor
- Augmented (major or perfect interval is increased by one semitone)
- Diminished (minor or perfect interval is decreased by one semitone)
In the table below are the intervals for the chromatic scale, which contains all of the interval qualities we have available to us.
| Semitones | Quality | Shorthand |
| 0 | Perfect Unison | P1 |
| 1 | Minor 2nd | m2 |
| 2 | Major 2nd | M2 |
| 3 | Minor 3rd | m3 |
| 4 | Major 3rd | M3 |
| 5 | Perfect 4th | P4 |
| 6 | Augmented 4th/Diminished 5th | A4/d5 |
| 7 | Perfect 5th | P5 |
| 8 | Minor 6th | m6 |
| 9 | Major 6th | M6 |
| 10 | Minor 7th | m7 |
| 11 | Major 7th | M7 |
| 12 | Octave | P8 |
Now let’s take these intervals and apply them to the guitar fretboard.
Intervals on the Guitar
The diagram below outlines the intervals on the guitar for the chromatic scale with F as the root note. The chromatic scale is comprised of all 12 notes in music.
It’s important to note that these intervals aren’t static, but relative to the root note. For instance, if G was the root note, then on the 3rd fret of the 6th string would be the root, 4th fret minor 2nd, 5th fret major 2nd, and so on.
It’s also important to understand that although the diagram above shows all of the intervals on one string, these intervals exist across the entire fretboard, as shown below.
Applying Intervals to Scales and Chords
You now know what an interval is and how it’s measured, but why is this so useful? Intervals help you to better understand how scales and chords are constructed, the impact they have on music, and how they’re applied to music (ie. which scales to play over which chords, etc.).
In this lesson we’re going to focus on scales and chords. If you’re not familiar with major and minor scale patterns, I recommend reading The Major Scale and The Natural Minor Scale.
Intervals of the Major & Minor Guitar Scales
In the diagram below we have the G major scale. It’s constructed of the following intervals:
Root – Major 2nd – Major 3rd – Perfect 4th – Perfect 5th – Major 6th – Major 7th
These intervals don’t just apply to the G major scale, they apply to all major scales…A major, B major, C major and so on.
Now let’s look at the G minor scale which is constructed of the following intervals:
Root – Major 2nd – Minor 3rd – Perfect 4th – Perfect 5th – Minor 6th – Minor 7th
Just like the major scale, these intervals found in all of the natural minor scales…G minor, F minor, A minor and so on.
Differences Between Major and Minor Scales
Listen closely to the sound of the G major scale, and contrast that with the G minor scale. The difference in sound and feel is obvious. While the major scale sounds more bright and happy, the minor scale sounds more dark and sad.
Notice that the major and minor scales share four intervals: Root, Major 2nd, Perfect 4th, and Perfect 5th.
However, the minor scale contains three minor intervals (minor 3rd, minor 6th, minor 7th), whereas in the major scale these intervals are major (major 3rd, major 6th, major 7th).
These differences in intervals lead to vastly different sounding scales.
Even if we just change a single interval, it can have a huge impact on the sound and feel of a scale. For instance, consider the harmonic minor scale. The harmonic minor scale contains all of the same intervals of the natural minor scale, except the 7th is raised to a major 7th.
Now listen to the impact this single interval has on the overall scale.
This single interval takes a scale from feeling somber and dark to feeling more exotic and sinister. This is the power of intervals. They create the feel of the scale and the interval formula can be used to build all scales (and chords, arpeggios, etc) of the same type.
This also applies to chord, which we’re going to look at next.
Intervals of Major & Minor Guitar Chords
Major and minor chords are built on 1st (root), 3rd, and 5th intervals of their respective scales.
Major: Root – Major 3rd – Perfect 5th
Minor: Root – Minor 3rd – Perfect 5th
Knowing this, we can take the intervals from these scales and map the chords as shown in the diagram below.
Listen to the difference between the G major and G minor chords.
Using the formula for major and minor chords, we can create any major and minor chord on the fretboard. And because the relative positions of intervals don’t change, the chord shapes remain the same as well. The only difference is the root note on which the chord is based.
We can also add intervals to chords to form other chords. For example, we can build major 7th, minor 7th, and dominant 7th chords by adding a major/minor 7th to the standard major and minor chords.
Listen to the differences between these chords:
With the addition of a single interval these chords take on a whole new feel. This doesn’t just work in isolation either. It changes the characteristics of a chord progression, how you might go about playing over chord progressions and what other instruments may play to complement these chords. This is powerful stuff!
We only looked at basic major/minor scales and chords, but it all applies to triads, arpeggios, and modes as well.
Wrap Up
You should now understand what intervals are, how they are applied to the guitar, and the impact they have on the characteristics of the scale, chord, or arpeggio. The importance of knowing the intervals on guitar can’t be overstated. It not only allows you to better understand construction of musical elements, but also gives you a deeper understanding of how music works in general.
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