Guitar Fret Intervals
Whole step and half step interval basics

This lesson on fret intervals leads on nicely from the guitar fretboard lessons and learning where all the notes lie (part 1 and part 2).

Now we're going to look at learning how intervals work on your guitar's fretboard. Intervals are basically the spaces between two or more notes and a bunch of intervals between several notes creates a scale.

This is just part of the comprehensive system covered in the Guitar Note Mastery course.

Fret interval basics - whole steps and half steps

As you get into more advanced guitar theory, you'll hear people talk about "whole steps" and "half steps". Well, what they're referring to are intervals - the spacing between notes (or chords).

See the diagrams below for how these steps appear on the fretboard...

So if we were to move from the 3rd fret up a whole step we would end up at the 5th fret.

If we were to move from the 5th fret down a half step we would end up on the 4th fret.

Now, there are times when we'll want to use these intervals across more than one string, so we need to know how these intervals appear vertically as well as horizontally...

Fret intervals across more than 1 string

Let's look at a few diagrams to see how these same whole and half step intervals appear between two adjacent strings. Grab your guitar and play these positions so you can hear the sound of the interval, moving both up and down. Count how many frets wide the interval appears...

Half step / semitone between low E and A string

Whole step between low E and A string

Both these relationships are the same for the bottom 4 strings: E-A, A-D and D-G. However, because the B string is tuned differently in relation to the G string, we have to compensate by adjusting the relationship on the fretboard:

Whole step between G and B string

Then it's back to the same fret spacing as before between the B and high E string...

Half step / semitone between B and high E string

Whole step between B and high E string

A deeper understanding of fret intervals in scales