Intervals on Guitar

[zigzag]

The most critical understanding of music, and especially learning music on guitar, is learning to understand, hear, and play intervals. I had an instructor teach this method. It may take a little more attention and reflection to learn it this way (without an instructor), but once you grasp the ideas, it is very logical and makes perfect sense.

 

Cipher for Guitar

 

The basic understanding of the intervalic distances between strings is critical to grasping the Cipher lessons, and those lessons are based around this premise:

 

 

The intervalic distance between the same note on an adjacent string in a concert tuning is a five fret distance (one fret distance= a half step), except between the third and second strings, which is a four fret distance. This is easily understood if you know how to manually tune your guitar.

 

Once you grasp the Cipher ideas, you will have the groundwork for understanding chord structure and scales/modes.

[DJ in FL]

The most critical understanding of music, and especially learning music on guitar, is learning to understand, hear, and play intervals. I had an instructor teach this method. It may take a little more attention and reflection to learn it this way (without an instructor), but once you grasp the ideas, it is very logical and makes perfect sense.

 

Cipher for Guitar

 

The basic understanding of the intervalic distances between strings is critical to grasping the Cipher lessons, and those lessons are based around this premise:

 

 

The intervalic distance between the same note on an adjacent string in a concert tuning is a five fret distance (one fret distance= a half step), except between the third and second strings, which is a four fret distance. This is easily understood if you know how to manually tune your guitar.

 

Once you grasp the Cipher ideas, you will have the groundwork for understanding chord structure and scales/modes.

 

 

I think I have a HEADACHE!!!

[zigzag]

Well, the point FZ is that being able to instantly know intervalic distances on the fretboard will lead you more quickly to an intrinsic understanding of the fretboard.

 

If I know the fret distances between strings, this tells me the fret distances between notes on other strings. The distance from one fret equals a half step (one º using the cipher method) from the neighboring fret. This understanding comes in handy in many ways. For chord structure, If I wanted to play a "7b9" chord, I know that a b7 is 10 half steps (a 10 fret distance) from the 1 (root). And a b9 is thirteen half steps (frets) from the root. A major 3rd is 4 (or 16) half steps (frets) from the root... and a 5, if I want to play it, either a seven or nineteen fret distance.

 

When you are learning and practicing scales, it's extremely helpful to, not only know note names, but also know their intervalic distances and their relative sounds.

 

One you've practiced this method, you can grab chords and inversions almost instantly.

[L5Larry]

This thread just begs for a discussion of "theoretical vs practical vs applied knowledge".

[zigzag]

This thread just begs for a discussion of "theoretical vs practical vs applied knowledge"...

 

...again.

 

Regardless of your talent level, anyone who wants to improve is going to have to practice. It is pretty well understood that having a strategic practice time speeds improvement. The mere act of playing will help anyone improve and learn. The goal is to have an inherent feel for the fretboard. IMO, most people reach that goal fastest with an intellectual approach rather than a purely visceral one or one gained through trial and error. I think that learning becomes more indelible when it is understood intellectually.

 

This method may seem complex initially, but once you see the fretboard as it has been explained, it makes perfect sense. Having a teacher explain it is probably an easier way to learn it.

[merciful-evans]

To play anything at all, an understanding of intervals is essential.

 

Surely everyone knows this dont they?

[btoth76]

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Hello Zigzag!

 

This picture is kind of misleading. Looking at it seems like open strings are perfect fifth apart (expect for G-B which seems as fourth). However, they are perfect fourth apart (G-B are major third).

 

If You try not to think in fret distances, but musical intervals instead, it helps much more with memorizing scales and chord structures.

 

Solfeggio is extremely useful. Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do (Structure of a major scale). Distances between do-re, re-mi, fa-sol, sol-la, la-ti are major seconds. Mi-fa and ti-do are minor seconds apart. By knowing this, You can very quickly calculate the notes of any diatonic key, just by knowing the root.

 

Same is true for chords. Triads, for example. Major triad: do-mi-sol. do-mi is a distance of two major seconds, which happens to make up a major third. Mi-sol is a minor second and a major second apart, which equals to a minor third distance. Minor triad will be la-ti-do.

 

Also helps with modes. Dorian scale starts on re, phrygian on mi, and so on.

 

Minor relative of a major key? No problem. Do (major root) -> La. Major sixth apart.

 

Cheers... Bence

[zigzag]

Cheers Bence, and thanks for responding.

 

This method of learning makes more sense to me, perhaps because this is the way I learned it. If you visit the web site, it becomes apparent almost immediately, and in this graphic, that the fret distance between adjacent strings is five half steps (except between the third and second, which is a major third or four half steps/frets), which is, as you said, a perfect fourth. I didn't learn the Solfeggio method, and to this day, it doesn't make sense to me beyond do-re-me... Numbers make sense to me. I think of scales and modes as intervalic numbers. I should actually have learned everything as note names while I was at it, and to this day, I struggle with that. But it's easier for me to understand a mixolydian mode as the fifth mode of the major scale. Or the fifth mode of melodic minor as a mixolydian b6. Or that the sixth mode (aeolian) of a major scale has a 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7. and since each fret distance is a half step, the distances are 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 frets from the root. Hearing what these intervals sound like is something I still work at. Perhaps that is where the Solfeggio method might have an advantage.

[btoth76]

Hello Zigzag!

 

In fact, until I was a self-taught enthusiast of the guitar, I didn't care about the solfeggio. To be completely honest, I found it confusing, thus worthless. My approach was the same as You have described: fret distances and numeric intervals.

 

I have only recently discovered it's potential when I started learning music with a professional instructor. For some reason, it seems easier to memorize these short words "do", "re", than numbers. But the most interesting phenomenon connected to solfeggio is that I can sing out the modal scales. Memorizing the major scale with using "do-re-mi..." is easier than with, - let's say - by singing it with "lalala". Once the major scale is implanted into the brain, all the other scales come so easily. All You need to know on which note modes begin. Like, Lydian scale starts on "fa" - You start singing on "fa", and rest just follows.

 

It has something to do with how our brain works. If You can sing it out, it manifests, it becomes real. But it's not easy to make difference between notes with different frequencies by singing them out the lalala-way. You have to name them all in a unique way.

 

It's really great and such an uplifting experience. My instructor asks me to sing out the notes of a Dominant 5/6 inversion. It's "ti-re-fa-so". By memorizing these patterns of chords, it's so easy to sing them out. It's like a different level of musical knowledge opens up it doors.

 

Cheers... Bence

[zigzag]

Hhhmmmm. This method seems like it might be great for ear training, since I (and almost everyone) have do-re-me... firmly implanted in my tiny brain.

 

Coupled with what I already know, this could be a "light bulb" event.

 

Thanks Bence. I'll have to look into this further.

[btoth76]

... since I (and almost everyone) have do-re-me... firmly implanted in my tiny brain.

 

Coupled with what I already know, this could be a "light bulb" event.

 

...

 

Exactly, that's what I said to my teacher too! It works because it was implanted in early childhood. It was taught us in the primary school.

 

In the beginning of the learning, it is very rapsodic. One day, I miss half of the intervals/chord She play me for recognition, the next one I miss only like 2 from 70! She said that's how it is in the beginning. It takes practice to do this with high confidence. She says the key to hearing is to SING out every interval, all the notes of chords. Sing, sing, and sing. All the time.

 

Cheers... Bence