Intervals: The building blocks of chords

Every chord that we've come in contact so far, is composed of intervals. Believe it or not, a major chord with a seventh, has 9 different intervals hiding inside ot it. Each one of these intervals can make a musical statement all on it's own. However, intervals are usually taught not related to the chord. We are going to be different and learn intervals as they relate to the chord and how they shape the chord.

We could say that a melody is a collection of intervals in sequence,in which the most important notes are the chord tones. A lot of those intervals withing the chord can be filled in with step wise motion, which is what were going to do when we get to the section on scale segments. As a melody moves through musical space, it moves from one interval of the chord to another, now and then that movement being held back or sidetracked by non-chord notes to make the melody interesting, but the non-chord notes eventually resolve to the chord note and move on from there.

So, what are these things called intervals? An interval is the distance between 2 notes. Each of these intervals has a name, derived from the number of notes separating the two notes. Let's look at a 4 note C major chord. Click here to hear the C major chord, duplicating the C at the octave.

If we look at the first 2 notes of the C major chord, we come across the C and the E. Click here to listen. If you look you'll see C and E are three notes apart. The distance between C and E is called a third - three notes apart.. Now thirds come in two types. There are major thirds and there are minor thirds. The distance between C and the E is a major third. For the time being, accept that it's a major third. For now we're really just focusing on the C and the E, and sound of C moving to E and back and forth.

So, the C and the E form the first third of the chord and it's a major third. That is all you need to know for now. Click here to hear the C going to E and the E going back down to C. The important thing is to remember the sound of a major third, or whatever interval, so that you can start using it in writing your music. An interval can form the basis for a melody.

Next we'll focus on the next 2 notes of the chord, the E and the G. The distance between these two notes is also a third. However, this is a minor third. Click here to hear the E going to G and the G going back down to E.

So far, we've seen that a C major chord has 2 thirds, the first is major and the second third is minor. This pattern of major and minor third is what makes a major chord a major chord. If we had a minor third first, followed by a major third, then we would have a minor chord.

We have 3 notes in a plain C major chord. We looked at the relation between the C and the E, the relation between the E and the G. Now, we'll look at the relation between the C and the G.

The distance between C and G is called a fifth. The distance between C and G is five notes apart. To listen to the sound of C going to G and G going to C, click here. Fifth also come in different types. The kind of fifth we just heard is a perfect fifth. There are also diminished and augmented fifths, but for the most part in our discussion, all our fifths are going to be perfect, with one exception which I'll mention later, when we discuss the dominant seventh chord.

Now, let's look at the distance between the C and the C above. This is an octave. I mentioned earlier that a note duplicated higher or lower is an octave, and it's twice as high or 1/2 as low. Click here to listen to low C to hi C and hi C to low C. We can also have octave notes from the E and the G. Click here for the low E to hi E and hi E to lo E. Click here for low G to high G and hi G to low G.

Looking at our first 4 notes, we have C-E-G. The relationship between these 3 notes yields 4 intervals. Click here to listen to all our intervals so far.

Inversions

Any interval can be inverted. Inversion just means, taking the note on the bottom and putting it on top an octave higher or vice versa. However, when you do that, even though it's the same 2 notes, it sounds completely different. Let's take our C and E. Click here to hear C going to E and then, the inversion of E going to C. If you recall, the interval of C going to E is called a major third. When you invert a major third, you get a minor sixth. If you count the number of notes between E and C you'll see it's 6 notes. Hence the name.

Now let's look at the E and G. Click here to listen to E going to G and then G going to E. We had said that the interval between E and G was a minor third. When inverted, a minor third becomes a major sixth. If you count the number of notes between G and E, you'll see it's 6 notes.

Last but not least we come to our fifth. The distance between C and G is a fifth. What do you get when you invert a fifth? A fourth. A perfect fifth yields a perfect fourth when inverted. Click here to listen to C to G and then G going to C, inverted.

What happens when you invert and octave? Nothing, you either get a higher octave or a lower octave. It sounds different, but it doesn't make it a different interval.

Summing it up

So, let's sum up all our intervals so far. Click on the intervals below to listen to them.

Major 3rd - C to E _____ Minor 6th E to C _____ Minor 3rd E to G ____ Major 6th G to E

Perfect 5th - C to G _____ Perfect Fourth - G to C _______ Octave - C to C

Combination of like intervals.

C to E - E to C _______ E to G - G to E _______ C to G - G to C.

This has been a lot of material, and for those covering it for the first time, it's going to take a while to assimilate all this. But each interval that I've shown you so far can become a melodic word in its own right. There are some you might have recognized as you listened. In our next section, we'll discuss the seventh and the second, and we'll break up all our melodic words so far into their 2 intervals.