When you’re learning to play the guitar, you usually start off with a few chords. After that, you learn a few more, and then you might learn a scale or two. The process is different for everybody, of course, but in the beginning, what you learn about the guitar involves a lot of memorization. You have to memorize the chord shapes, you have to memorize the scales, and so on. This works fine at first, and it can work just fine for a long time… if you’re really good at memorizing things. :)
But at some point, you might start to wonder why chords are shaped the way they are. Or why a “7th” chord is called a 7th chord. Or why the notes in the A major scale are just a little different than the notes in the A minor scale. And so on… and so on, and so on.
The point is, there’s an easier way to make sense of all this stuff and really take control of your fretboard than simply memorizing a thousand chords and scales. There’s a much easier way, in fact. Today I’m going to tell you a little about intervals.
Simply put, an interval is just the difference in pitch between two musical notes. But this simple concept is actually what makes all of music theory possible. Intervals are what make up scales. Chords are created by combining certain notes from a scale. Music theory gets a lot less confusing when you know about intervals and how they work.
When you know about intervals, you can easily communicate with other musicians, and you can also make sense of chords and scales. I’ll break some basic stuff down below:
But at some point, you might start to wonder why chords are shaped the way they are. Or why a “7th” chord is called a 7th chord. Or why the notes in the A major scale are just a little different than the notes in the A minor scale. And so on… and so on, and so on.
The point is, there’s an easier way to make sense of all this stuff and really take control of your fretboard than simply memorizing a thousand chords and scales. There’s a much easier way, in fact. Today I’m going to tell you a little about intervals.
Simply put, an interval is just the difference in pitch between two musical notes. But this simple concept is actually what makes all of music theory possible. Intervals are what make up scales. Chords are created by combining certain notes from a scale. Music theory gets a lot less confusing when you know about intervals and how they work.
When you know about intervals, you can easily communicate with other musicians, and you can also make sense of chords and scales. I’ll break some basic stuff down below:
