Importance of understanding intervals - 1-3-5 and 7

If you have been following my videos I have spoken many times about understanding the concept of intervals and how the root (1) , 3rd and 5th and very important in guitar theory.

So the 1 is the root of where you start, let's start at C and if we write out the C major scale CDEFGAB.

If C is root or 1, 3rd is E and 5ths is G. So if we focus on G which is the 5th or also known as perfect 5th.

So when we learn and start playing and building chords we build them using root, 3rd and 5th which is 3 notes also know as triads. If we take a C chord that's CEG and we keep playing it on a loop the scale that we can play is the C major scale as shown above. All will sound good as they are in the scale but some will sound better than others if you notice. The reason being using chord tones and non chord tones .

So as we are playing a C major chord the notes that are already being played in chord form are CEG

So as CEG are in the chord they are chord tones , other notes that sound good are A the 6th and B the 7th. Reason being they are notes that make the music or the piece sound major . When we empathise notes 1-3rd-5th-6th and 7th . So every root in the major scale has a 6th which is known as relative minor. Think of them as cousins. So for C it's A. Therefore C chords relative minor is Am. Similarly A minors relative major is C because is we write the A minor scale starting from A, ABCDEFG C is the flat 3rd.And if you look closely they share notes Am is ACE.

On the other hand if we want the piece to sound minor and we switch to a Cminor scale what makes a scale minor is we flatten the 3rd,6th and 7th of a major scale.

Flattening moving a fret up or towards the heard and away from the body and we add a 'b'. Sharpening a note is moving towards the body of the guitar and we add a '#'.

Flattening the 3,6,7 I.e. the C minor scale will be CDEbFGAbBb thus the C minor chord would be 1-3b-5 or CEbG notice the root and the 5th have not changed as C is the minor the relative major here would be flat 3rd which is Eb. Again if we play the C minor chord the chord tones are the notes from the chord but what would make it sound more minor and sad is emphasizing on the 3rd,6th and 7th i.e. Eb, Ab and Bb.

So to summarize it's important to know the intervals as it's the foundation for chords building and scale building over any major or minor chord or scale and the circle of fifths can helps us as a tool.