Intervals Big and Small
First is the half step, the smallest interval in the Western music system. A half step is the distance between frets—say from the first fret to the second, or from the eighth to the ninth. Whenever you move one fret, you make a half step.
The music of India utilizes microtones that are even smaller than half steps. Twentieth-century classical Western music has also experimented with microtones. On the guitar a microtone is made possible by changing the placements of the frets, or bending less than a half step.
The next interval is the whole step. The whole step is the distance between any two frets, for example the first fret to the third, or the fifth fret to the seventh. Play through the scales you've already learned, and notice where you can see whole steps and half steps easily.
There are five terms to describe the types of interval you encounter in music.
Type of Interval |
Example of Interval |
Major |
Major second |
Minor |
Minor third |
Perfect |
Perfect fourth |
Augmented |
Augmented sixth |
Diminished |
Diminished fifth |
Out of these five, the most prevalent intervals are major, minor, and perfect. Augmented and diminished, while they do occur in music, are less common than major, minor, and perfect. The names of intervals come, with a few exceptions, from the major and minor scales. If the interval is found in a major scale, it's called a major interval; if it's found in a minor scale, it's typically called a minor interval. If the interval occurs in both scales (because scales do share notes), it's called a perfect interval, because it doesn't change between the two scales. There are some exceptions to the rules that you'll learn later.
Chromatics, Flats, and Sharps
Music uses a system that contains eleven discrete notes that repeat in endless variation to form music. The eleven notes are referred to as chromatic notes. Chromatic means “every,” and the chromatic scale includes every note present in music. Remember how the major and minor scales contain seven notes? The chromatic scale fills in the missing notes. FIGURE 7-1 shows a simple chromatic scale played on the sixth string.
Notice that this scale uses every fret in order, from 1 through 12. Every chromatic scale does this, because chromatic scales use all the notes. The musical alphabet uses seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. But there are notes between some of these as well. The notes in between are called flats and sharps, or “accidentals.” A flat lowers a pitch by one half step; a sharp raises a pitch one half step.
On a piano, the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are found on the white keys. The sharps and flats are found on the raised black keys. It's easy to see the relationship between notes on a piano because of this color-coding. Every eleven notes, the pattern of white and black keys repeats itself.
Finding sharps and flats on a guitar is almost as simple: To make a note sharp, find the note's original location and raise it up one fret. For example, on the sixth string, the first fret is F. If you want an F, you just raise the original note by one fret, which in this case is second fret F To make a flat, you lower the original note one fret. For example, on the sixth string, the third fret is G. To make it flat, subtract one fret to make it second fret G. But wait. You just figured out that second fret was F, so how can it also be G on the same string? Don't fret!
Enharmonic Notes
Welcome to the confusing land of enharmonics. An enharmonic is a note that has two names, but one sound. The G-F example is a perfect example of enharmonics in action. Look at the following chart, which maps out all the notes on the sixth string, fret by fret.
Fret Number |
Note |
Fret Number |
Note |
0 |
E |
7 |
B |
1 |
F |
8 |
C |
2 |
F/G |
9 |
F/D |
3 |
G |
10 |
D |
4 |
G/A |
11 |
D/E |
5 |
A |
12 |
E |
6 |
A/B |
Notice that the name of a note with a flat is always one letter higher than the name of the note with a sharp. For instance, F/G, A/B, and so on. Most notes have flats and sharps, but there are two exceptions: (1) The interval between B and C is already a half step, so there is no note called B, and none called C; (2) E and F are also already a half step apart, so, likewise, there are no notes called E or F. Technically, E is the same as F, so you can just refer to it as “F.” Likewise, B is the same as C, C is B, and F is E—because between each of these is only one half-step. If you can picture a piano keyboard, you'll notice that there is no black key between B and C, or E and F.
