Guitar Music Theory

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon will explain what are Music Intervals. These are the distance between tow musical notes in relation to the major scale.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "In this series I am going to discuss intervals, which are the distance between two notes in relation to the major scale. Now, since there are seven notes in a major scale, there are going to be seven intervals that we're going to either define or slightly deviate from by a half step up or down. We'll talk about unisons. We'll talk about minor and major seconds. We'll talk about a minor and major third. We'll talk about the perfect fourth and why we use the terminology perfect instead of major sometimes. We'll talk about diminished and perfect fifths and why we use the word diminished instead of minor sometimes. We'll talk about minor sixths and major sixths and we'll also talk about minor sevenths and major sevenths and all the way up to an octave, which would be the same as the first note, but an octave higher."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon teaches about Unisons. This is a term used in music theory that refers to two notes of the same frequency that are played at the same time.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "The first interval we're going to discuss is a unison. Now, we saw a unison earlier when we were talking about the fact that you can replace playing the fifth fret on one string with playing it as the open string below it, because this note would be an A, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A. This next string is the A string. Now, if you play those two notes together. This A on this string and this A on this string, they're the same frequency. So, if you played those two notes together you have what's called a unison interval. Essentially an interval of zero where you've got two notes of the same frequency being played at exactly the same time. Now, the other intervals that we're going to talk about involve adding different notes after the first note is struck."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon discusses the Minor 2nd Interval. On guitar, lowering the second note of the major scale by a half step will produce the minor second interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we're going to discuss a minor second interval. Back to the major scale here. We were in the key of G and we were playing a major scale. You would go up from the first note, whole step, whole step, half step, instead of playing it on the eighth fret here we're going to play it back on the third fret. Whole step, whole step. I'm sorry, first note whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now, the idea of a minor second is that if we start on the first note of the major scale and you go up to the second note of the major scale and you lower that second note by a half step you get to a minor second. Now that would refer to the first note of a major scale going to that note of a minor second."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon discusses the Major 2nd Interval. Moving one musical note up two frets on the neck of the guitar will produce a major second interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Now, we just discussed a minor second interval. This would be a major second interval. Now, going back to the major scale, as we just took a look at, the major scale is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. So, if we start from G again and you go up a whole step, and another whole step, we're going to stop there for a minute and just look at the distance from the first note in a major scale to the second note in a major scale and that's where we get the definition for a second, going from the first note to the second note in a major scale. Before, we lowered that by a half step to make this a minor second. Now, you can do that anywhere on the neck. The concept comes from the major scale, but you don't necessarily have to think of it as always being a major scale. Anywhere on the neck, one note up two frets, is going to be a major second interval. One note up a half step is going to be a minor second interval."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon discusses the Minor 3rd Interval. Moving one musical note up three frets on the neck of the guitar will produce a minor third interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we're going to discuss a minor third interval, where we take the major scale and we go from the first note up a whole step, up another whole step to the third note of a major scale. Now, a minor third refers to taking this third note and lowering it by a half step, the same way we lowered the second down to a minor second. So, we've got the first note, the second note, the third note of a major scale. Bring it down one for a minor third. Now, anywhere on the neck, if you play one note and you go up three frets, that would be referred to as a minor third interval. Now, you can also do that between two strings. You could start on this note and go, instead of here, you could play this note five fret back, right here. So, you could also play a minor third now on two separate strings. Just remember, when you get to the B string, this will always work until you get to the B string. When you hit the B string, raise that interval shape up by one fret to make that interval the same."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon discusses Major 3rd Interval. The major third interval is a great interval to understand when learning music theory on the guitar.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here, we're going to talk about a major third interval. Back to the major scale, you've got the first note of the major scale, up a whole step to the second note, up a whole step to the third note of a major scale. So you've got one, two, three. Now, again, we can put this note five frets back, the same way that you would think about the fifth fret on the previous string being the same as the next open string. The sixth fret would be the same as the first, seventh fret the same as the second, eighth fret the same as the third and so on. So, instead of playing this note right here, you could bring it back five frets and play it on the second fret of the next string. That would allow you to play a major third interval really close on the neck and get that kind of sound. Now, that shape will work all the way up the neck until you get to the B string when, since we're hitting the B string with the second note, we've got to raise it up one fret to make that interval to major third."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon discusses the terms perfect and diminished, which are used to describe major and minor notes within music theory.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Now, as we go through the major scale, there are different terminologies that we'll use. For two, three, six and seven, we'll be using major and minor to describe the aspects of those notes. Now, on four and five, we're going to use the words perfect and diminished. I'll show you what I mean. If you take from the first note of a major scale to the second note of a major scale, you would call this a major second. Easy way to just say the second note of a major scale. Third note, you would refer to that as a major third, shorthand way of saying that would be just a third. When you get to the fourth note, you would refer to that as a perfect fourth, the distance from the first note to the fourth note of a major scale. Same thing when you get to the fifth note of a major scale, you would call that a perfect fifth. Rather than calling this a minor fifth, you would call that a diminished fifth. It's just a different terminology, but the same concept as minor. You just use perfect fifth instead of major fifth, perfect fourth instead of major fourth and diminished fifth instead of minor fifth."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Perfect 4th Intervals. The distance between the first note and the fourth note , within a major scale, on guitar is referred to as a perfect fourth.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "As we just discussed the fourth note of a major scale in thus the distance from the first note of a major scale to the fourth note of a major scale you would refer to that interval as a "perfect fourth" rather than a "major fourth". Let's take a look at that on the guitar if we start from the "G" to the second note of the major scale, third note to the fourth note. The distance between the first note and the fourth note would be called a "perfect fourth". Now notice that there is no diminished fourth or minor fourth because this note is the same as the third note for the major scale since there's only a half step between the third note and the fourth note of a major scale. You would almost always refer to this note as a third and almost never refer to it as a diminished fourth. So instead we've just got one, two, three, four and then when you get to five you have a diminished five but let's take a look at this interval shape. You've got down one string same fret. It's always going to be the shape 4/4, perfect fourth, except when you get to that B string. You got to raise that up by one fret."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Diminished Fifth Intervals, which are produced by moving a half step below the fifth note of a minor scale on the guitar.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we're going to talk about the diminished fifth. Let's look at the major scale. First note of the major scale, second note, third note, fourth note, fifth note. Now again a diminished fifth is just a half step below or one fret below the fifth. Instead of calling that a minor fifth we call it a diminished fifth. Now this is also the only place on the neck where you could call it a sharp something or an augmented something. You could take the five and raise it up a fret, which we'll see in a minute, we call it an augmented fifth or we could take the four and raise that up and call it an augmented fourth. However, that's pretty rare but you could say sharp four and flat five. We will see that when we get to chords but you could refer to this either as a flat five or a sharp four. It's also known as the tri-tone because it's right in the middle. If you divide an octave into three parts, you've got the root, the octave, and this note that falls right in the middle. Now you've got this shape down one string up one fret until you get to the B string stretch it out by one and then it's back to the same from the B to the E string."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Perfect 5th Interval. Moving a musical note one fret down and two frets up on the guitar will produce a perfect fifth interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we're going to discuss the perfect fifth interval. Back to the major scale here. Got the first note, second note, third note, fourth note, fifth note. Now this interval shape is very very common. It's one string down two frets up. So if we take that shape, it's going to be the same all the way down the neck until we hit that B string. Stretch it out by one fret and then it's o.k. from the B to the E string because we haven't landed on or crossed over the B string. We started on the B string and that's fine. Now when we get to fifths, now it becomes practical that we can actually find the same note five frets back on the next string down. So let's go back five frets to this note here. Notice these are the same, instead of playing the interval this way we could play the interval this way. Now we can play it the same there but now we're going to land on the B string stretch it up one fret. Now we're going to cross over the B string. Make sure your interval is up one fret."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Minor 6th Interval. In music theory the minor sixth interval can also be referred to as the augmented fifth interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we'll discuss the minor sixth interval. Now the minor sixth could also be referred to as the augmented fifth. You'll see that as 5 written on sheet music. Now let's go back to that fifth interval we talked about the one, two, three, four, fifth note of a major scale. This note here, one fret higher than that would be either an augmented fifth. Which is a fancy way of saying sharp or up one fret or you could say the sixth note down one fret which would be a minor sixth. So again we can use this shape as we go up the neck until we get to the B string. Stretch it out one fret then you're back to normal when you get to the B string. However a more practical way of doing that would be, say we're starting on this note here an A. Instead of playing this note here we'll go back five frets, we'll find it right here and we can play the interval this way. Then when you get to the B string raise it up and you cross over the B string raise it up as well and it's much easier to play."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Major 6th Interval. In music theory, moving a musical note down one string and up four frets on the guitar will produce a major sixth interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we'll discuss the major sixth interval. Now let's go back to the guitar here. We'll go to the one, two, three, four, five, sixth note of the major scale. So right there from the first note to the sixth note or any note on the guitar that's going to be down one string and up, in this case, one, two, three, four frets would be the interval shape of a major sixth. Now that's quite a stretch so a more practical way to do it would be to take this note. If we're going to start on this note, we're going to go down one string one, two, three, four frets up and we're going to go and put this note on the next string above it by going back five frets. Now we've got this, it's a much easier way to play a major sixth interval. Same thing works if you start from a note on the A string. Now we've hit the B string, raise the interval up by one. Now we've crossed over the B string so continue with that chain."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Minor 7th Intervals. In music theory, lowering the seventh note of a major scale by a half step on the guitar will produce a minor seventh interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we'll talk about a minor seventh interval. So let's go back to the guitar here. We'll go to the one, two, three, four, five, six, seventh note of the major scale and lower it by one fret a half step to make it minor a minor seventh. The same way we took the third of a major scale and lowered it by one fret to make that a minor third. We'll take the seven lower it one fret to make it a minor seven. Now I've never heard of it being called a sharp six or an augmented six. The flat seven or the minor seven, it's also called, kind of trumps it so avoid calling that a sharp six or an augmented six. Always refer to that as a minor seven or flat seven. Now that interval here is from the first note to the flat seven. It's very impractical at this point to be playing that in such a wide shape just on two strings. So we'll play that skipping one string on the same fret move it down the neck as if this was our first note. Now we've hit the B string so raise it up, from here, we've crossed over the B string to raise it up."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Major 7th Intervals. In music theory, moving the seventh note of a major scale down two strings and up one fret on the guitar will produce a major seventh interval.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we have the major seven interval. Back to the major scale we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. The seventh note of the major scale you would call the major seven. The same way you called this a major second, a major third. Then we went to perfect for four and five, perfect four perfect five, major sixth major seventh. Now at this point it becomes very difficult to play those two notes two strings apart. It's quite a stretch so instead we'll be using the interval shape that's down two strings and up one fret. So that's our shape for major seven interval. You're going to bring it down one string same thing. Now we've hit the B string so we're going to raise that up by one fret. Now if we start on this note, go down two strings up one fret, we've crossed over the B string so we want to raise that up one fret to make that a major seven."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Octaves. In music theory, playing the first and eighth note of a major scale on the guitar will produce an octave.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Here we'll discuss the octave. An octave is the same thing as eight. It's where you play through the major scale one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. When you get that half step which brings you back to the beginning again where you get the same letter name note that you started with. So for example, here we're in the key of G we're starting on a G note going up in a G major scale and when you get to that eight note you're back on a G again. Now there's a couple ways you could do this, you could play the octave this way. Same interval shape as the fifth but you move down one string and here we hit the B string, stretch it out by one. Here we crossed over the B string so stretch it out by one. Now at this point we can actually skip two strings and have that interval shape in a different area. So for example if this was our first note, instead of playing the octave here, we could take this note back one, two, three, four, five frets and play it on the next string. So you could also do an interval shape down two strings back three frets or from the A string we got to move it up. From the D string we've crossed over the B string so we also have to move it up."

In this video lesson, Instructor Pete Pidgeon talks about Intervals. In music theory, taking the second note of a major scale and moving it up an octave can be referred to as a second plus an octave, or a ninth.



Video Transcript: PETE PIDGEON: "Now you might ask what happens and what would you call and interval that's larger than an octave which would be the eight or essentially where you would start over again at one. Let's take a look at that. Let's use the major scale now from the middle finger. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now earlier when I played this shape, I went to this note because I went through two octaves. Now this note instead of being nine would actually be if you started over at one again. That could also be two it's an octave above the second note in the lower octave. Now you would probably call that either an interval of a ninth which would be acceptable. Again you wouldn't call this and eighth, you'd call that an octave but you could call this an interval of a ninth which would imply that you’re going a second plus an octave. Now you could also call that a second plus an octave. That's another common way of referring to it but essentially you're playing the major scale. You're hitting the second note and you're going an octave above that second note. So it would be the first note up an octave plus a second and you can do that all the way up the neck going to fourths, fifths and keep counting up tenths, elevenths, twelfth, thirteen's, fourteens. We'll refer to it as octave plus the interval an octave below."