Intervals

[James Davies 1155]

I've first picked a Guitar up on Jan 1st 2004,  Got a few Chords under my belt, practice Scales etc but, my biggest Stumbling Block is.....Progressions! I am changing Chords quicker now than when I started but can't play much of anything cos I can't change quick enough and I get really frustrated! Dont Panic I hear you cry, it'll come, but after eight months,and I practice every day I seem as if I'm not making progress!

Just one more thing, I sort of get Intervals, but can someone explain to me what exactly is going on?

[Dad3353]

22 minutes ago, James Davies 1155 said:

I've first picked a Guitar up on Jan 1st 2004,  Got a few Chords under my belt, practice Scales etc but, my biggest Stumbling Block is.....Progressions! I am changing Chords quicker now than when I started but can't play much of anything cos I can't change quick enough and I get really frustrated! Dont Panic I hear you cry, it'll come, but after eight months,and I practice every day I seem as if I'm not making progress!

Just one more thing, I sort of get Intervals, but can someone explain to me what exactly is going on?

 

Changing from one chord to another comes with practise, the slower the better to get there faster. Take some regular exercise time (5-10 minutes every day without fail...) to finger the chord, then change to the next one, looking only for accuracy, not speed. Slow but sure is the way forward. This applies, whatever chords you're going from/to.

Intervals..? Easiest to imagine from a piano keyboard point of view, but it's exactly the same principle for all instruments. Take as a starting point the note 'C' on the piano. An interval describes the distance to the nexrt note played. From 'C', for example, playing the next 'C' on the keyboard gives an interval of an octave (there are eight notes in Western music, so 'octa' for eight...). From the first 'C', if we play the 'B' below the octave 'C', that an interval of seven (written in Romain as 'VII'...). Next interval from the 'C' to the next one down ('A'...), we have an interval of 'VI' (Yes, six...). Keep coming down from our first 'C', we play 'G' (interval 'V', of five...), then 'F' ('IV'...), 'E' ('III', or three...), 'D' ('II'...) and back to 'C'. Any note from 'C' can therefore be designated an interval ('VII' gives us 'B', for example...).

This is easy enough to visualise on a keyboard, as it's only the white notes, and from 'C'. The same 'logic', can be applied, however, if we had chosen to start with 'D', except, in order to play the same intervals as with 'C', we have to use some black keys. 'D' octave is easy enough, but a semitone down from 'D' (the same interval is 'B' starting from 'C'...) will be 'Db'. I'll leave you to work out what the other interval are, starting from 'D'; it's a good exercise to hammer home the understanding. Do it again for other starting notes, too, for fun.

It works in the same way for guitar, of course; on the open low 'E' string, the 'VII' is the Eb at the eleventh fret. Play an 'E Major' scale on that string and you'll see how it works.
Does this help..? 

Edited September 22 by Dad3353

[Dad3353]

There is much more that could be said on the subject, of course. Intervals are just the 'distance' between two notes, but the use of the term goes quite deeply into all music. The bass guitar strings are tuned in Fourths ('E' to 'A' is an interval of a fourth : E-F-G-A, 'A' to 'D' is a fourth  : A-B-C-D etc...). One often refers, in bass playing, to playing 'Root/Fifth'. These are the key notes of chords. The fifth is found on the next string up, two frets higher. So playing low 'E', then 'B' on the third string gives the basis of an 'E' chord, and we hear it a lot in many styles of music. A useful tool when composing, or looking for a chord to follow another (a progression...) is to use the 'Circle of Fifths', which illustrates the relation between all the diatonic chords in Western music. In that link, there is an explanation of its utility in chord progressions, worth having a look at and trying out. The Wikipedia page on Intervals also does a Good Job in explaining things, too. Happy reading..! 

[James Davies 1155]

On 22/09/2024 at 18:01, Dad3353 said:

 

Changing from one chord to another comes with practise, the slower the better to get there faster. Take some regular exercise time (5-10 minutes every day without fail...) to finger the chord, then change to the next one, looking only for accuracy, not speed. Slow but sure is the way forward. This applies, whatever chords you're going from/to.

Intervals..? Easiest to imagine from a piano keyboard point of view, but it's exactly the same principle for all instruments. Take as a starting point the note 'C' on the piano. An interval describes the distance to the nexrt note played. From 'C', for example, playing the next 'C' on the keyboard gives an interval of an octave (there are eight notes in Western music, so 'octa' for eight...). From the first 'C', if we play the 'B' below the octave 'C', that an interval of seven (written in Romain as 'VII'...). Next interval from the 'C' to the next one down ('A'...), we have an interval of 'VI' (Yes, six...). Keep coming down from our first 'C', we play 'G' (interval 'V', of five...), then 'F' ('IV'...), 'E' ('III', or three...), 'D' ('II'...) and back to 'C'. Any note from 'C' can therefore be designated an interval ('VII' gives us 'B', for example...).

This is easy enough to visualise on a keyboard, as it's only the white notes, and from 'C'. The same 'logic', can be applied, however, if we had chosen to start with 'D', except, in order to play the same intervals as with 'C', we have to use some black keys. 'D' octave is easy enough, but a semitone down from 'D' (the same interval is 'B' starting from 'C'...) will be 'Db'. I'll leave you to work out what the other interval are, starting from 'D'; it's a good exercise to hammer home the understanding. Do it again for other starting notes, too, for fun.

It works in the same way for guitar, of course; on the open low 'E' string, the 'VII' is the Eb at the eleventh fret. Play an 'E Major' scale on that string and you'll see how it works.
Does this help..? 

 

[James Davies 1155]

Thanks Dad3353 for replying to my questions! Does that help you say? Help? you have opened my eyes and helped me see a lot more than I hoped! I realise of course, that my Chord Progressions "should" improve with time and Practice,  you've made me see that I am trying perhaps to change Chords too quickly?, that explains why my fingers end up in a Reef Knot! I have decided to practice more slowly, deliberately, and therefore more accurately untill I can change chords as easily as from EM to Am!

You have given me plenty to think about and learn about Intervals, I realise that understanding them is a great skill for a Guitar player to posses, and the explanation you provided is Food for Thought for me and I intend to devote a bit more time to study Intervals, which are I believe, a vital aspect for a Guitar player or any Musician to understand.

Thank you

[Dad3353]

On 22/09/2024 at 18:40, James Davies 1155 said:

I've first picked a Guitar up on Jan 1st 2004...

 

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..? 

[James Davies 1155]

17 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..? 

You are right of course! you noticed it, I didn't thanks

[James Davies 1155]

On 23/09/2024 at 23:44, Dad3353 said:

 

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..? 

correct!