Intervals on the guitar
The distance between two notes, as a shape on the neck, a sound and a feeling. What the colours on every Chordhalla diagram mean, the twelve intervals to hear going up, going down and together, a map of every interval from any note, and the shapes on each pair of strings.
Every colour is an interval
An interval is the distance between two notes. On the guitar it is a shape: so many frets along, so many strings across. Every dot on Chordhalla is coloured by its interval from the root, so a chord, a scale or a riff tells you what each note is doing before you read a label.
The note everything is measured from. On a neck it is a diamond.
A step away: the notes a melody walks on.
The heart of every chord: a minor 3rd darker, a major 3rd brighter.
Next door to the 5th; the sharp 4th is Lydian’s colour.
The root’s strongest partner. Flat in a diminished chord, sharp in an augmented one.
Sweet, a step past the 5th.
Just below the root again: bluesy or aching.
The colour is the number: every 3rd is blue, major or minor, because both are the chord’s 3rd. The shade is the flat or sharp: flats darker, sharps lighter. So in any chord you can see at once whether it is major (a bright blue 3rd) or minor (a dark one).
The twelve intervals
Twelve frets make an octave, and each fret along the way is an interval with a name. Each one has a feel: going up, going down, and played together. The words are tendencies, not rules (the music around a note changes how it feels), but they are a good place to start listening.
| Interval | Frets on one string | Going up | Going down | Together | Hear it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runisonthe same note | 0 | insistence | insistence | one sound | |
| ♭2minor 2nd♭2 | 1 | leaning in | the sigh | very tense | |
| 2major 2nd2 | 2 | walking on | easing back | mildly tense | |
| ♭3minor 3rd♭3 | 3 | soft lift | wistful | sweet, stable | |
| 3major 3rd3 | 4 | brightening | settling | sweet, stable | |
| 4perfect 4th4 | 5 | heroic | grounded | open, wants to move | |
| ♭5tritone♭5 or ♯4 | 6 | unstable | unstable | tense, restless | |
| 5perfect 5th5 | 7 | open, bold | coming home | open, stable | |
| ♭6minor 6th♭6 | 8 | romantic leap | falling away | sweet, dark | |
| 6major 6th6 | 9 | open call | gentle fall | sweet, warm | |
| ♭7minor 7th♭7 | 10 | yearning | letting go | tense, bluesy | |
| 7major 7th7 | 11 | aching stretch | steep drop | sharp tension | |
| 8octavethe root again | 12 | soaring | plunge | one sound, higher |
Heard from A, the low E string’s 5th fret. The feel words come from Songling, our songwriting app, where they help pick the next note of a melody.
The interval map
Press any fret and it becomes the root: every other note on the neck shows what interval it is from there. Move the root and watch the colours move with it. The shapes stay the same; only the names of the notes change.
Press an interval to light every place it is, and hear it from A.
Interval shapes
Every interval has a shape on each pair of strings, and the shape is the same wherever you play it, with one exception: the B string is tuned a fret lower than the others (a major 3rd above the G, not a 4th), so any shape that crosses from the G string to the B string reaches one fret further. Those notes glow.
4 frets up the string.
1 fret back.
1 fret back.
1 fret back.
straight across; a fret further for the B string.
1 fret back.
What intervals build
- Power chords are a root and a 5th (and often the octave): two strings, one fret-shape, moved anywhere. Green on red.
- Major and minor chords differ by one interval: a major 3rd or a minor 3rd. One fret, the brightness of a whole chord.
- Chords are built by stacking 3rds: root, 3rd, 5th, then 7th. That is why the blues and greens and purples repeat through every chord page.
- Melodies move mostly in steps (2nds) and leap for effect: an octave or a 6th for a big moment, then steps back down.
- Modes differ by single intervals: the colour note of each mode is the one interval that sets it apart.
Look it up
See intervals at work in the major scale, name the intervals in any shape with the chord finder, or find the notes themselves on the notes on the fretboard page.
Questions
What is an interval in music?
The distance between two notes, counted in letter names (a 3rd, a 5th) and made exact by its size in half steps (a minor 3rd is three, a major 3rd four). On the guitar one half step is one fret.
How do I learn intervals on guitar?
By shape and by ear together. Learn each interval’s shape on one string and across two, play it slowly, and sing the two notes. Then find it from different roots on the map above.
Why is the B string different?
Every pair of neighbouring strings is a perfect 4th apart except the G and B strings, which are a major 3rd. So shapes that cross that pair move up one fret.
What is the difference between a major and a minor interval?
One half step. A major 3rd is four frets, a minor 3rd three; a major 6th nine frets, a minor 6th eight. Seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths come in both; unisons, 4ths, 5ths and octaves are called perfect.
What is a tritone?
Six frets: half an octave, between the 4th and the 5th. It can be called an augmented 4th or a diminished 5th. Tense and restless, it is the sound inside every dominant 7th chord.