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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 see why.
An interval is the distance between any two pitches. On the guitar, these distances are measured by frets, or semitones. One fret is equal to one semitone.
How To Tune Your Guitar By Ear
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 perfect unison (P1), 4th fret minor 2nd (m2), 5th fret major 2nd M2), 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.
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 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 scale and chord construction. If you’re not familiar with major and minor scale patterns, I recommend reading The Major Scale and The Natural Minor Scale.
You’ll notice that the major and minor scales share four intervals in P1, M2, P4, and P5. However, the minor scale contains three minor intervals in m3, m6, and m7, whereas the major scale contains M3, M6, and M7, which are major intervals.
Fretboard Notes And Scales In Open E Tuning
Knowing these intervals allows you to construct any scale. For instance, take the harmonic minor scale. The harmonic minor scale is the natural minor scale with a major 7th (M7) interval instead of a minor 7th (m7) interval. If you know the intervals of the minor scale, you know that all you need to do to play the harmonic minor scale is increase the 7th interval by a semitone, or one fret.
Notice the familiar barre chord shapes that are formed. These shapes are moveable, meaning you can move them up or down the fretboard to form other chords. You can move a G major barre chord two frets higher and play an A major barre chord, etc. This is because the intervals on guitar are always in the same position relative to the root, which creates learnable patterns across the fretboard.
If you move the root note to another fret, the Perfect 5th would still be in the same location relative to the root.
All Minor Thirds
You should now understand what intervals are and how they are applied to the guitar. The importance of knowing the intervals on guitar can’t be overstated. It not only allows you to better understand scale and chord construction, but also gives you a deeper understanding of how music works in general.There is one technique on the guitar that is more important to master than any other. This technique separates good players from great players, and without which will make a stunning performance fall flat.[1] We’re not talking about speed, or musical expression, or stage presence . . . rather, this all-important technique is
So we’re going to take a look at how to tune the guitar. We’ll start from the basics and work up to more advanced tuning concepts. The first thing to know about tuning on the guitar is that it’s actually a somewhat complex matter. It’s also not something we can do perfectly. This guide will help walk you through how to make tuning an easy and painless process. But, because of the nature of the instrument you cannot expect to ever get the guitar
The guitar is tuned with what is known as “equal temperament” (or to get more technical, “twelve-tone equal temperament”). Equal temperament divides pitches into twelve, mathematically equal semi-tones (or half-steps) and dates back to around the sixteenth century.[2] The modern baseline for tuning in equal temperament is the pitch A. And we tune A to the frequency of 440Hz (typically your standard tuning fork is tuned to this frequency).
Intervals' Aaron Marshall Explains Desire To Avoid Extended Range Guitars, Names Current No. 1 Instrument
On the guitar these semitones are all fixed pitches, each semi-tone represented by one fret. This means as guitarists we cannot play any pitch frequencies
One semi-tone and another. The only way around this is to actually bend a fretted plucked string. What this means practically is that, while some intervals (like octaves and unisons) will be perfectly in tune on a guitar tuned to equal temperament, other intervals (especially major and minor thirds) will be
Out of tune (at least out of tune in terms of “pure temperament”). You can account for this of course by making those intervals sound perfectly in tune in one key (so that some chords sound glorious), but when changing keys other chords will sound . . . well, quite bad.
Tuning In 4ths (p4)
So, fixed-pitch equal temperament is a compromise, but it allows us to play in any key relatively in tune. It’s a compromise we can at the very least expect, even if it’s not something some are also willing to accept. More on that below.
The first and most important thing to note about tuning is to use your ear. Listen to the sounds of pitches that are in tune and those that are even slightly out of tune. This comes with experience and, yes, practice. We’ll talk more about using an electronic tuner below, but even if you only use an electronic tuner to tune it’s important that you listen while you do so. In fact, it’s more important because you may want to tune your guitar one day when you don’t have your tuner at hand! Equally important for the art of listening, though, is patience.
While we have all been in concert settings where the performer seemed to tune for what seemed hours on stage, testing our patience, we must not rush the process of tuning. So long as we have a solid method for tuning that doesn’t compound errors causing us to need to retune incessantly,
Fourths Tuning Scales And Arpeggios
. Your audience will be more thankful that you took your time to get the guitar properly in tune than they would be with a quick tuning that leaves your guitar inharmonious and unpleasant to listen to.
Some of you reading this will no doubt be able to hear “pure” intervals (a few of you may perhaps even have perfect pitch) and the compromises of equal temperament we discussed above may really stand out to you like a sore thumb. My best advice for those in this camp is either to accept that there are compromises with the modern tuning of the guitar or to try out some other solutions we’ll discuss below.
It is important to note that a poorly set-up instrument will have a difficult time getting in tune. Any number of different elements of a poorly set-up instrument could contribute to intonation issues: the nut and saddle distance are not mathematically correct, the notches in the nut are not cut out correctly, the string break-angle at the saddle is not correct for all strings, etc. Be sure to have your guitar set up by a professional luthier and to have it checked up annually at the minimum (remember that the wood on your guitar is always changing and so setups will also be dynamic).
How To Tune A Guitar
Bad strings can also give you intonation issues. Either manufacturing defects or very old or corroded strings can all contribute to not being able to get your guitar in tune. Change your strings often (at least every couple months) and if you have had consistent intonation problems with a particular string manufacturer, perhaps give another string brand a go.
Now let’s take a look at some actual methods for tuning our charming, fixed-pitch equally tempered instrument and which one’s best for you, but first a quick recap of the string names and numbers.
If you are a beginner to the guitar you may still be learning the string names and numbers. For reference, here are all of the string names and numbers from lowest pitch to highest (from the thickest to the thinnest strings):
Guitar Intervals Explained Simple
If you use only one string as the source of your reference pitches then you will avoid compounding any errors that arise as you tune.
1. You could use one string to play the various pitches of the open strings then match the pitch at unison or octave.
2. You could simply use one open string and then find those same notes on each string at the unison or octave.
Music Interval Chart: Learn The Names Of Intervals
The greatest benefit of this approach is having a consistent reference pitch. It can be more challenging to tune strings using octaves rather than unison but with a little practice you will get it in no time!
One very popular method for tuning on the guitar is to play the 5th fret harmonic on one string and
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