New Standard Tuning – Part II – Intervals

Music nomenclature sucks. It was invented thousands of years ago and is full of naming conventions as convoluted and archaic as the notion that we should divide standard measures of distance into arbitrary numbers of divisions. Most of the world has moved on to a more stable and sane system of measurement. But as of yet, there is no metric equivalent for music nomenclature, so for now we are stuck learning about music as people did when the horseless carriage was only the dream of a certain time-traveler taught Italian artist. Quaint ain't a good thing in this case.

So there are currently several million guitar books and world wide web sites that document music theory for those that choose to keep their guitar tuned to Standard Tuning. However, there are no readily available books nor world wide web sites that cater specifically to New Standard Tuning (NST). So instead of giving up on NST and rejoining the masses, I've decided to create a comprehensive set of diagrams to illustrate scale and chord patterns in the context of NST.

Today I'm starting with intervals. Intervals are the basic building blocks for both scale and chord patterns. An interval is the distance between two notes in half steps where a half step is a single step in our modern 12-tone equal temperament system.

See, already we're forced to call each single step, as in one then two, a "half-step" instead of just calling it a "step", which is what it actually is. You can't get very far in learning music without encountering the confusing tangle of obscure terminology that plagues this ancient language of music which has been patched and padded countless times over the centuries.

Anyway, here are the twelve intervals upon which all scales and chords within a 12-tone equal temperament musical system are built:

 

So there we have it, the twelve basic intervals. Of course there are other names for each of these intervals and even other intervals, but these are the basics and any further discussion of interval names is well out of the scope of this document!

 

The Diagrams

The following diagrams show an arbitrary reference note, indicated by the star, and the various other notes that correspond to the named interval, indicated by the hexagons. The faded hexagons are still the named interval to the reference note, but are so far away from the reference note they are not really useful. Also note that there are only five strings shown in the diagrams below. That's because I only use five strings on my guitar. The sixth string is weak, it can't handle NST the way I want to use NST. So for now, the sixth string is gone from my guitar and gone from my diagrams.

Minor 2^nd

The Minor 2^nd interval is just one half step, or one fret, above the reference note. It has the word 'minor' in it's name, which indicates that it is a subjectively 'dark' or 'moody' interval. To generalize, a minor interval will stop by without calling first and steal cash off your kitchen table when you're not looking. The previous generalization holds especially true for the minor second, which is why it doesn't often get invited to parties; it always makes a scene.

Major 2^nd

The Major 2^nd interval is again a half step up or a 'whole step' up from the reference note. It's called 'major' so is sounds a bit nicer and more pleasant than a minor interval. A major interval is usually polite and will help you with your homework when you're stuck. Unfortunately the Major 2^nd will also lecture you as to how important homework is to having a stable career in the future. Yep, Major 2^nd is helpful and polite, but sometimes irritating.

Minor 3^rd

The Minor 3^rd interval is again a little more dark and brooding than its major counterpart. Not quite as nasty as the Minor 2^nd but still not an interval to whom you would want to loan your car.

Major 3^rd

Ah yes, the Major 3^rd. Now this interval is something special. This interval has been around for a long time and is somewhat of a legendary figure. Along with the Perfect 5^th, the Major 3^rd has obtained a special status in musical legend and lore. It's believed that this is one of several intervals that have been sent directly from the heavens to earth. The Major 3^rd is greatly respected amongst the other intervals and is considered to "work well with others".

Perfect 4^th

Stepping up one fret above the Major 3^rd, we have the Minor 4^th, right? Of course not! That would make far too much sense. Instead we now have an interval called the Perfect 4^th. Why is it called a Perfect 4^th and not a Minor 4^th? Because the next interval is call 'Tritone'… of course! Actually, as with most names in the realm of music, the name is just terrible and would take many paragraphs to explain why a Perfect 4^th is called a Perfect 4^th, the short answer is that "it just is". Overall, the Perfect 4^th interval is actually a pretty dull interval. It's not quite minor and not really major and is certainly not perfect, but then again, who is?

Tritone (aka Augmented 4^th) (aka Diminished 5^th)

The next half step is officially called the "Tritone". But in practice this interval is usually called the Augmented 4^th or Diminished 5^th. This is a dissonant sounding interval. Not a bad interval really, but doesn't quite have it's life together. Shows up late, but still shows up, not real reliable, but okay to hang out with now and then. The "Tritone" doesn't cause much trouble and doesn't often get in the way, not like Minor 2^nd anyway!

Perfect 5^th

Now this is an interval! The Perfect 5^th is the quarterback of the intervals. The straight A student, the most likely to succeed, yet somehow is still fun to hang out with! The Perfect 5^th knows how to party and yet still makes it to work on time the next day. The Perfect 5^th drives a nice car, a Camaro SS with the V8!

Minor 6^th

Now that we're through the weird middle section of awkwardly named intervals, we can get back to our regular awkward naming scheme. The rest of the intervals follow the same pattern as before, with minor intervals being more brash and troublesome that the major intervals. But the Minor 6^th starts another trend we'll see as we move on. This interval and the three subsequent intervals have a sound that is a bit unresolved. As if they don't like the attention, they don't want to be the main attraction. These next few intervals just want you to go away, to move along.

Major 6^th

Another major interval, this one not quite as nice as its other major counterparts. The Major 6^th is sort of plain, nothing much to write home about.

Minor 7^th

Nothing special here really.

Major 7^th

The Major 7^th is one half step away from the big one, the octave. Just like the previous 3 intervals, the Major 7^th lives in the shadow of the Octave. The Octave is drawing your attention, you're almost there and you really don't want to hang around with the Major 7^th very long because the Octave just called and is psyched to jam. So you quickly make up a clever excuse and leave the Major 7^th behind to head up to the Octave.

Octave

The Octave is the big time! This is the interval that all other intervals strive to be, even the Perfect 5^th. Yep, the Octave is the sweetest sounding and smoothest of all intervals. Of course, it should be since the Octave is just the root tone doubled in frequency. There is nothing like an Octave, it can both play a supporting or lead role and is certainly the most pure of all the intervals.

 

Conclusion

So that's it. Those are the intervals on a New Standard Tuned guitar, sans the sixth string of course because sixth strings are too weak for my version of NST. Intervals are pretty useless on there own. It's not until you start to use them to build scales and chords do they really become useful. Sort of like the letters of the alphabet… they're useless on their own.

Intervals are the letters in the musical alphabet by which the words of scales and chords are built. No you say? The musical note letters are the alphabet? Not really, those letters, A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#, are totally arbitrary names given to certain tones, they don't define a piece of music. You can play "Smoke on the Water" starting from any note, as long as you play the same intervals, you pretty much get "Smoke on the Water". Change the intervals and you get "Something Else". Likewise, you can only spell "Smoke on the Water" with the following letters in the following order s-m-o-k-e-o-n-t-h-e-w-a-t-e-r, you change any of them and you don't get "Smoke on the Water" anymore, you get s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g-e-l-s-e.

 

Click here to download a full-sized printable interval diagram…