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Intervals
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.
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. Remember, there is also interactive software to help you master intervals and other aspects of fretboard theory.
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...
That's what whole steps and half steps would look like on one
string. It's the same spacing whichever string you're on.
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:
Half step /
semitone between G and B string
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
Go
to Intervals Part 2 >
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