Notes and Intervals
- Don’t be intimidated by music theory. Only a very basic, working knowledge is required for our purposes. It shouldn’t even be a question if you should learn it or not. Knowledge is not going to make you suddenly play worse. Also, these rules apply Western music only.
- There are twelve notes, with sharps and flats in between. They are named after letters in the alphabet, like A, B, etc. There are two exceptions. There is no sharp or flat in between B and C, and between E and F. The notes are:
A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab
These notes repeat a cycle every octave.
- Intervals are the distances between notes. It’s crucial that you learn these intervals as part of your ear training. For all of these examples, we’ll take E as our root note. So the first note in the interval will be E.
- Minor Second (half step) – Ex: One (outro riff) E to F
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -0-1-
- Major Second (whole step) E to F#
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -0-2-
- Minor Third – Ex: For Whom The Bell Tolls (verse riff) E to G
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -0-3-
- Major Third – E to G#
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -0-4-
- Fourth – Ex: …And Justice For All – E to A
----- ----- ----- ----- ---0- -0---
- Flat Fifth – Ex: The Frayed Ends Of Sanity (main riff) – E to Bb
----- ----- ----- ----- ---1- -0---
- Fifth – Ex: Battery (main riff) – E to B
----- ----- ----- ----- ---2- -0---
- Minor Sixth – Ex: Ride The Lighting (solo riff) – E to C
----- ----- ----- ----- ---3- -0---
- Major Sixth – E to C#
----- ----- ----- ----- ---4- -0---
- Minor Seventh – Ex: The Frayed Ends Of Sanity (outro riff) – E to D
----- ----- ----- ----- ---5- -0---
- Major Seventh – Ex: Blackened (bridge riff) – E to Eb
----- ----- ----- ----- ---6- -0---
Hey bro, I have been playing off and on for about 3 years now.I know that it takes time and alot of effort, but I cannot bring myself to learn scales… I don’t know what it is…I mean I have sat down and tried for hours, learn something and forget it when I go to play next. I don’t use tabs anymore ( I used to when I first started ) I think it is more fun when you learn by ear. But I just feel like I can’t do it man. :/
@Alex
No problem then. Remember, you are learning scales and music theory to help improve your playing abilities. If you are already progressing by playing in general, then that is fine. Learning scales is a means to an end, and the end is playing guitar. Sounds like you’ve got a different means to get to the end!
Hey i have a question about those intervals. I was expecting when you go from the major sixth to the minor seventh you will change to the d-string because you do so at the fourth-interval.
My question is how do I know when I have to change to another string?
thanks for the answer and sry about my bad english ^^