How to practice Guitar Intervals

January 24, 2012

Guitar intervals is one of the concepts that every guitar player learns from the first lessons. The interval is the distance between 2 notes and it is measured in half-steps and whole-steps. They can be played together or separately.
Mastering them is essential for your skills because every chord, scale and arpeggio is measured in intervals. Well for mastering them you must first know them. Concentrate on the first 13 because they are the most used and the most important.
Here are the most common intervals used in music:
( I want you to know that W stands for whole – step, and H stands for half-step)
Unison – 0 h and 0 w Minor 2nd – 1H Major 2nr – 1W Minor 3rd – 1W and 1H Major 3rd – 2W Perfect 4th – 2W and 1H Augmented 4th – 3W Perfect 5th – 3W and 1H Minor 6th – 4W Major 6th – 4W and 1H Minor 7th – 5W Major 7th – 5 W and 1H Octave – 6 W
I want you to know that a Whole step is equal to 2 fret boxes distance abercrombie , and a Half-Step is only a fret box distance.
After learning the intervals it is important that you start seeing the relationship between the intervals and the scales.
The major scale is composed out of W W H W W W H, so interval wise this means that is made from unison – major 2nd – major 3rd – perfect 4th – perfect 5th – major 6th and major 7th. The next step is just start practicing the scale and see how well the intervals blend together and try to hear the feeling it delivers as you play the scale ascending and descending.
The goal is to hear each interval and learn it’s sound. First it is enough if you learn the shapes then after you know how to play each shape you have to play and sing while playing them so that your inner ear develops.
If you want to see the shapes of these intervals and learn more about them read this guitar intervals article.




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3 Responses to How to practice Guitar Intervals

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