Hey this is my first post. been playing guitar a year now.
I have a qestion regarding intervals.
Before i thought intervals were as follows
I II III IV V VI VII
A B C D E F G
But after reading a few lessons i was confused because the D Major chord has a root a III and a V note in it and is made up of D F# and A
Is the interval between any two notes linked to the major scale?
Is a 4th of A actually E and not D as I origionally thought?
My wording may be confusing but I would like any insight regardng intervals you could offer. Thanks a lot.
A couple things...
First, just for clarity's sake... Roman numerals usually indicate chords - intervals and notes are shown in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.)
Intervals come from the major scale. In the key of A, you'd have:
A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A
1-2-3--4-5-6--7--8
All major chords are the 1-3-5 of the major scale, and they use the major scale of the root note. In D, you've got D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D, so 1-3-5 is D-F#-A.
You were right, the fourth of A is D. E is the fifth. You include the root note (which counts as 1) so you have A-B-C#-D to get to the fourth.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanks a lot for clarifying. Everything makes much more sense now.
When refering to intervals then everyone assumes it is in relationship to the major scale?
*hmms and hars*
I II III IV V VI VII etc
are not interval names, there chords of a scale...
C major = I
G major = V
A minor = VI
etc, they label chords in a key
***
Intervals are the spaces between the notes in these chords, lets disect a C major chord
C major = C E G.
an interval is the distance between TWO NOTES, so...
C-E ... is a major third interval
E-G ... is a minor third interval
C-G ... is a Perfect fifth interval
right, your probably confused so ill put it in other terms..
major third interval = 4 semitones
minor third interval = 3 semitones
perfect fifth interval = 7 semitones..
those are the basic intervals, they get a lot more complicated than that.. but you need to learn intervals AT THE SAME TIME AS, learning how to construct chords..
a major chord is a combination of a major 3rd interval and a minor 3rd interval.. *randomly picks a note*.. F
ok so lets make F major..
F, right so, we need a major third interval starting on F, so its 4 semitones, so lets count..
F# G G# A ok so we have A.
notes so far are F AND A.. this is a major third interval, and to make it a major chord, we need a minor 3rd interval on A..
remmembering a minor third interval is 3 semitones..
A# B C... a C note.
so A and C is a minor third. lets stick them together so we have
F A C
now every major and minor chord needs a perfect fifth interval between the top note and bottom note and like i said thats 7 semitones, so if the distance between the lowest note (F) and the highest (C) is 7 semitones apart, we've done it right..
F# G G# A A# B C ... yep 8)
SO WE HAVE A..
F major chord, now try it with a few other notes, it might be helpful to look on a piano/keyboard to count up the notes. (every key is a semitone)
A minor = VI
It's common to see minor chords indicated by lower case, so A minor = vi in Alex's example.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
very well said alex. Intervals are the building blocks of music. experiment with them in melody and harmony, and you'll be writing intricate yet solid pieces in no time.
