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Working with Intervals (part 3) Major 3rd

Continued form part 2…

In the previous article we looked at the Major 2nd.

In the following article we’re going to concentrate on the Major 2nd and touch on the Minor 2nd.

As with the previous article screen shots will be used to explain how to play each interval and then at the end I’ll talk about uses of each interval.

If you’ve landed on this page without reading my previous articles it would be a good idea to read those articles first.

Theory: Working with Intervals (part 1)

Working with Intervals (part 2) Major 2nd

——————————————————————————————————-

As before the following is in the Key of C

:::Major 3rd:::

Piano Roll:

Staff View:

Piano:

Guitar TAB:

The above examples show the

Major 2nd Interval being played together.

Try plying the notes seperately, First C then E

Piano Roll:

Staff View:

Piano:

Piano: Play the ‘red dotted’ key first(C) then the ‘blue dotted’ key(E)

Guitar TAB: First note is C Second note is E

Playing the above interval in sequence or together is good practice, as with the Major 2nd play it repeatedly in both variations.

Why not play the Major 2nd with the Major 3rd following, try it in both variants.

The Major 3rd interval is important in your Major Chord spelling.

It’s the integral part of the chord, it gives the chord it’s moniker.

C – E = a Major 3rd – the chord of C Major is C – E – G

If the Major 3rd is altered, ie the 3rd, the E is flattened by a semitine we get a Minor 3rd interval.

C – Eb = a Minor 3rd – the chord of C Minor is C – Eb – G

——————————————————————————————————-

When playing or writing a melody the usage of the Major 3rd or Minor 3rd interval has an immediate impact.

Experimenting and listening is the best way to get to grips with this imformation.

When creating harmony you can of course use Major or Minor 3rds dependent on key.

That is unless you are using purely ‘powerchords’ or ’5th chords’ – more about 5ths in a future article.

To use the the 3rd notes as harmony, record one guitar/piano playing the C.

Now while that track is being played back try playing your 3rd over the top, try the major 3rd first, then try the minor 3rd.

The effect you’ll get will sound different than playing the two notes at the same time on one instrument.

Stacking 3rds is an interesting concept,

Going back to the C Major Chord,

C – E = a Major 3rd – the chord of C Major is C – E – G

In the chord spelling article I wrote a chords spelling is Root/3rd/5th.

That is the second two notes the 3rd and the 5th are intervals of C

C – E = Major 3rd and E – G = Perfect 5th.

To look at it another way using 3rds,

C – E = Major 3rd and E – G = a Minor 3rd

Let’s take this further by adding another 3rd interval,

If we add a major 3rd to G we get B

This gives us a chord spelling of,

C – E – G – B

C – E = Major 3rd – E – G = a Minor 3rd - G – B = Major 3rd

This gives us the chord of C Major 7.

You can go further and have chords of 5 notes, 9th chords or 6 notes 11th chords and 7 notes gives us 13th chords.

So ok figuring out these chords on guitar is a pain but it does open up your thinking a great deal both melodically and harmonically.

This kind of thinking though is not directly linked to your ‘main’ instrument.

When you’re arranging you’ve now got a lot of options.

Imagine you have a peice with piano, guitar and bass.

Using the ranges each instrument occupies and notes rather than chords to create ‘stacked’ chords we can get interesting sounds and open up your music in unique ways.

Take the chord progression C/ Am/ G/ Dm

As a simple piano or guitar chord progression it could sound quite uninspired.

But if you take the Root note and have your bass play those.

Your piano plays the 3rd and the guitar plays the 5th.

Bass: C A G D

Piano: E C B F

Guitar: G E D A

You could invert each chord, Which would mean playing a note an octave lower,

In the following example the Bass note is now playing the 3rd,

The Piano is now playing the 5th,

And the Guitar is playing the Root but an octave higher.

This is ineffect an inverted chord,

Bass: E C B F

Piano: G E D A

Guitar: C A G D

We’re done for the time being. Try experimenting with the ideas and theory presented above.

In the next article I’ll be covering 4ths and 5ths.

Have fun.

——————————————————————————————————-
Related Articles:

Theory: Working with Intervals (part 1)

Working with Intervals (part 2) Major 2nd

Basics of chords – Triads, Modes and Spellings

The Major Scale and Intervals

Key Signatures – How to learn

Tags: chords, intervals, key of c major scale, major 3rd, minor 3rd, Theory |

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Working with Intervals (part 2) Major 2nd

Continued form part 1…

In the previous article I stated that in order to understand intervals and their importance we need to listen to them.

In order to create a better feeling for the sound we also need to correlate that with playing.

Below are pictures and tab describing how to play the major 2nd interval on guitar and piano.

——————————————————————————————————-

As usual in the Key of C…

:::Major 2nd:::

Piano Roll View:

Staff View:

Piano: play the two notes together,

Guitar TAB: play the two notes together,

The above examples show the Major 2nd Interval being played together.

Try playing the notes seperately, ie C then E

See below,

Piano roll:

Staff View:

Piano: Play the ‘red dotted’ key first(C) then the ‘blue dotted’ key(D)

Guitar TAB: First note is C Second note is D

—————————————————————————————————————-

Getting to grips with the Major 2nd as with all intervals should be part of your compositional and practical training.

Hearing the difference between a tone and a semitone is also important.

The Major 2nd is probably one that most people find harder to get to grips with when the notes are played together, tones played in this way clash, but sometimes that can be in a good way.

If you flatten the D in the Major 3rd you get a minor 3rd.

Practicing this interval as well will help tune you ears to the semitone.

Always let your ears be the best judge of what sounds good.

Played separately in a melodic sense the two notes close proximity should be listened to carefully.

All melody is built on intervals, listening carefully will help create and also transcribe melody, harmony, riffs and chord structure.

:::End of part 2:::

Working with Intervals (part 3) Major 3rd

Related Articles:
Theory: Working with Intervals (part 1)

Basics of chords – Triads, Modes and Spellings

The Major Scale and Intervals

Key Signatures – How to learn

Tags: guitar, intervals, key of c, major 2nd, piano, piano roll, reaper, sonar, staff, tab, Theory |

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Theory: Working with Intervals (part 1)

Hopefully you have a working knowledge of theory, if not I will try and keep this as simple as possible.

This article is an expansion of the previous article, The Major Scale and Intervals.

I’m going to use Sonars piano roll and staff views, the piano roll will fit the same with Reaper, Cubase and any other DAW that uses it.

Before we begin need to see the relationship between intervals and scales.

For this article to keep things simple we’re going to work in the key of ‘C’.

C Major scale works like this,

C D E F G A B C

I II III IV V VI VII VIII

So from the screen prints above of the staff view and the piano roll you see how a scale works.

Starting from the lowest point you work up through the scale,

C D E F G A B C

Before we looked at these screen prints, I have written out the scale as below,

C D E F G A B C

I II III III V VI VII VIII

The roman numerals below each note gives us the degree in the scale.

These numbers are important in our understanding of the intervals.

In the major scale each interval is given a name,

I = Root Note/Tonic

II = Major 2nd

III = Major 3rd

IV = Perfect 4th

V = Perfect 5th

VI = Major 6th

VII = Major 7th

VIII= Octave

These names derive not from the notes position in the scale but in it’s relationship to the root/tonic or the 1st note.

This is called the interval.

So the interval from I to II is called a Major 2nd – in C major this is C to D

So the interval from I to III is called a Major 3rd – in C major this is C to E

So the interval from I to IV is called a Perfect 4th – in C major this is C to F

So the interval from I to V is called a Perfect 5th – in C major this is C to G

So the interval from I to VI is called a Major 6th – in C major this is C to A

So the interval from I to VII is called a Major 7th – in C major this is C to B

So the interval from I to VIII is called a Octave – in C major this is C to C

Getting to grips with each interval, it’s relationship to the root/toonic and primarily it’s sound is important.

Playing each interval and listening to it’s sound is a neccesity when learning to compose both melody and chord structure not to mention harmony.

Whatever instrument you play it is important that you learn the notes and where they are.

As primarily a guitarist and sub par keyboard player I have a very good knowledge of the notes and there they are on each instrument.

In the next article I’ll be going over how to play the intervals for those who need to know.

:::End of part 1:::

Theory: Working with Intervals (part 2)

Related Articles:

Basics of chords – Triads, Modes and Spellings

The Major Scale and Intervals

Key Signatures – How to learn

Tags: c major, guitar, intervals, major, piano, scales, Theory |

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Key Signatures – How to learn

One way to learn your key signatures is this:

Key Signatures with Sharps

Take the Cmajor Scale – it has no sharps or flats,

C D E F G A B C

Count up five degrees of the scale to G

Start the scale from G,

G A B C D E F G – add the sharp – this is a semitone down from the first note – therefore our sharp is F#

So now G major looks like this:

G A B C D E F# G

Count up five degrees of the scale to D,

Start the scale from D,

D E F# G A B C D – add the sharp – this is a semitone down from the first note – therefore our sharp is C#

So now D major looks like this:

D E F# G A B C# D

Count up five degrees of the scale to A,

Start the scale from A,

A B C# D E F# G A- add the sharp – this is a semitone down from the first note – therefore our sharp is G#

So now A major looks like this:

A B C# D E F# G# A

Count up five degrees of the scale to E,

Start the scale from E,

E F# G# A B C# D E- add the sharp – this is a semitone down from the first note – therefore our sharp is D#

So now E major looks like this:

E F# G A B C# D# E

Count up five degrees of the scale to B,

Start the scale from B,

B C# D# E F# G# A B- add the sharp – this is a semitone down from the first note – therefore our sharp is A#

So now B major looks like this:

B C# D# E F# G# A# B

Key Signatures with Flats

Take the Cmajor Scale – it has no sharps or flats,

C D E F G A B C

Count up Four degrees of the scale to F

Start the scale from F,

F G A B C D E F- count up four degrees to B flatten this note so it becomes Bb (THIS WILL ALSO BE THE START OF YOUR NEXT SCALE)

So now F major looks like this:

F G A Bb C D E F

Count up Four degrees of the scale to Bb

Start the scale from Bb,

Bb C D E F G A Bb- count up four degrees to E flatten this note so it becomes Eb (THIS WILL ALSO BE THE START OF YOUR NEXT SCALE)

So now Bb major looks like this:

Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

Count up Four degrees of the scale to Eb

Start the scale from Eb,

Eb F G A Bb C D Eb- count up four degrees to A flatten this note so it becomes Ab (THIS WILL ALSO BE THE START OF YOUR NEXT SCALE)

So now Eb major looks like this:

Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb

Count up Four degrees of the scale to Ab

Start the scale from Ab,

Ab Bb C D Eb F G Ab- count up four degrees to D flatten this note so it becomes Db (THIS WILL ALSO BE THE START OF YOUR NEXT SCALE)

So now Ab major looks like this:

Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab

Count up Four degrees of the scale to Db

Start the scale from Db,

Db Eb F G Ab Bb C Db- count up four degrees to G flatten this note so it becomes Gb (THIS WILL ALSO BE THE START OF YOUR NEXT SCALE)

So now Gb major looks like this:

Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db

Tags: flats, intervals, key signature, scales, sharps, Theory |

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Basics of chords – Triads, Modes and Spellings

Learning how chords are constructed will lead to a better understanding of how to construct melody and bass lines.

This article will explainn what a chord spelling is. What a triad is and how to work chords out.

Below is an article covering the major scale and intervals.

The Major Scale and Intervals

As with the above article I’m going to use the key of ‘C‘ as an example.

The principles in this article can be applied to all keys, you just have to know your key signatures.

Key Signatures

This article assumes you know the notes of your instrument – if not then you need to learn them.

If you are a complete newbie and learning from scratch then you’ll need to learn the notes on a keyboard.

Read this artcle: Notes on a keyboard(to be written).

—————————————

Let’s start shall we?

The Key of C – no sharps or flats.

The Scale of C Major = C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

The C Major chord = C, E, G

A chord is a triad of notes, these notes being intervals:

The Root the 3rd and the 5th

In the C major chord the chord spelling is as following,

The Root (C) <-> The 3rd <-> (E) <-> the 5th (G)

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

As you can see from above the intervals of the scale create the chord spelling.

From reading the article The Major Scale and Intervals you should have a grasp of intervals.

The ’3rd’ is important because it dictates the type of chord we have ie major or minor.

A major 3rd here gives us the major chord = Tone, Tone = C to E

A minor 3rd here gives us the minor chord = Tone, Semitone = C to Eflat

Let’s keep it simple though – stick to the ‘key’ and lessen the confusion.

So how do we work out chords.

Well there are two ways:

1. From the scale as above.

2. From the key.

I prefer doing it by key, it keeps things simple and also you can learn a few things as you go.

This way you get t0 know chords in a key, modes and the key signature.

With C major we’ve established that we have no sharps or flats.

So now we’re onto modes – now don’t panic the names are not important but the principle is.

Take C major as before:

C D E F G A B C

now write out the scale but start from D and write an octave.

D E F G A B C D

This gives us a mode of C Major using D as it’s root = this mode is called the ‘Dorian’ mode.

As I said names not important – but the order of the modes stays the same in all major keys.

Ionian: C D E F G A B C

Dorian: D E F G A B C D

Phrygian: E F G A B C D E

Lydian: F G A B C D E F

Mixolydian: G A B C D E F G

Aeolian: A B C D E F G A

Locrian: B C D E F G A B

I know it looks a bit confusing and probably could be a bit daunting but slow down and look at it again.

Following this order we can now work out our chords:

Ionian: C D E F G A B C = Major

Dorian: D E F G A B C D = Minor

Phrygian: E F G A B C D E = Minor

Lydian: F G A B C D E F = Major

Mixolydian: G A B C D E F G = Major

Aeolian: A B C D E F G A = Minor

Locrian: B C D E F G A B = Diminished

This order of chords in all major scales does not change.

So therefore we can learn all the chords per key.

With me so far?

Let’s recap:

Major Key -> Interval = maj 2nd, maj 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, maj 6th, maj7th

Major Key -> Chord order = Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor and Diminished

Major Key – > Mode order = Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian

So now back to chord spelling.

Using the major scale – in this case the C major, we can get our chords.

But to get our chord spellings we need to write out the modes.

To write out the modes we write out the C major scale but start from each degree of the scale.

Now to get our chords we highlight the 1st(root), 3rd and 5th notes of each mode.

As so:

1——–3rd—–5th

C—D—E—F—G—A—B—C = MAJOR

D—E—F—G—A—B—C—D = MINOR

E—F—G—A—B—C—D—E = MINOR

F—G—A—B—C—D—E—F = MAJOR

G—A—B—C—D—E—F—G = MAJOR

A—B—C—D—E—F—G—A = MINOR

B—C—D—E—F—G—A—B = DIMINISHED

Remember the order or majors, minors and diminished chords do not change from key to key.

If you learn the order and then learn the principles above you should then be able to learn your chord spellings.

Try it with G Major – if you follow what you’ve learnt from above you should get all the chords and chord spellings from the key of G but don’t forget G has an F sharp.

See below to see if your correct.

——–>

MORE CHORDS:

When you see suspended chords this usually means that the 3rd has been suspended/changed.

The note will be raised or lowered – a sus4 simply replaces the 3rd with a 4th and a sus 2 replaces the 3rd with a 2nd.

For example: A Dsus2

D F A = D minor

D E F G A B C D

The min 3rd in D minor which is ‘F’ is replaced with the second note of the ‘D’ dorian mode giving us an ‘E’

Therefore the D sus 2 is spelt D F A

The D sus 4 works in a similar way,

D E F E A B C D

But this time the ‘F’ is replaced by the 4th note – the ‘E’

Therefore the D sus 4 is spelt D F G.

Adding a note is different as you retaain your notes from you chord and simply add a note.

A quick example is the C add9.

Write out the C major scale but write two octaves.

As before we have the root, 3rd and 5th

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

The add 9 comes from the 9th note being added, in this case the ‘D’.

———

Inverted chords:

Very quickly and Inverted chord is the chord spellings order changed,

Example A minor chord:

A C E inverted: C E A or E C A

What you are doing is changing the bass note – this can give us some interesting colours musically speaking.

As always experiment with it…

——–>

Chords of G Major:

Ionian: G A B C D E F# G = Major

Dorian : A B C D E F# G A = Minor

Phrygian: B C D E F# G A B = Minor

Lydian: C D E F# G A B C = Major

Mixolydian: D E F# G A B C D = Major

Aeolian : E F# G A B C D E = Minor

Locrian: F# G A B C D E F# = Diminished

Tags: aeolian, c major, chord spellings, dorian, gmajor, inverted, ionian, key signatures, keys, locrian, lydian, mixolydian, modes, phrygian, scales, triads |

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