Chart of all the intervals and then a couple of worksheets for you to test out on your intervals.
View the full lesson at Chromatic Intervals Worksheet | JustinGuitar
Gotta say I feel like pulling my hair out with the second set of 20 questions. I’m scoring inconsistently, but won’t let myself move on until I come down with a 100%.
-One specific one giving me a big headache is: Why is the Minor 3rd above G# not B?
-I mentally keep track of sharps/flats of keys using something of the Cato diagram and/or Circle of Fifths. But I feel like this is a very clunky way of counting out what notes I’m on…is there a better way? Or is it just the hard road to memorizing all the keys and notes with time?
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Hi there,
According to the solutions, the minor 3rd above G# is indeed B, so you got that correct.
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You’re right. In my frustration, I was actually answering Bb on my own worksheet and accidentally typed B here (the right answer! lol). Thanks for your response, I need to slow down and clear my head some more.
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100% correct on the first try. It was a good idea to do the music theory slow and not go through the whole course fast. I think one year has gone since I began this course.
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Hello there, long time since my last post!
I have a question about the table with the names of every possible way to name an interval. I’m missing the 2nd diminished interval .
In the table from the lesson https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/chromatic-intervals-mt-506 doesn’t say anything about 2nd interval being an exception of the rule.
| AUGMENTED | AUGMENTED | |
|---|---|---|
| ↑ | ↑ | |
| PERFECT | < in the Major Scale > | MAJOR |
| U, 4, 5, 8 | 2, 3, 6, 7 | |
| ↓ | ↓ | |
| DIMINISHED | MINOR | |
| ↓ | ||
| DIMINISHED |
There’s something I’m not getting here? Thank you!
IMO, a diminished 2nd would imply that it is a minor second (1 semitone between notes) flattened by 1 semitone, resulting in perfect unison.
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But something similar happens with the 6th diminished. It is a perfect 5th.
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Hi Edgar.
Intervals can be a little bit tricky to learn and understand initially. I wrote a full topic recently prompted by a discussion and set of questions elsewhere in the Community. That topic is here: Intervals, scale degrees and more
In one post I wrote the following:
I have made bold three sentences to help answer your question. They are:
The unison, fourth, fifth and octave are perfect.
The second, third, sixth and seventh are major.
Diminished is the named quality given to intervals one semitone smaller than both perfect and minor intervals.
The only intervals that can become diminished are PERFECT and MINOR.
Perfect intervals are found within the major scale - they are the Root, fourth and fifth. Think of the I, IV and V chords of a typical blues or rock ‘n’ roll song. Those I, IV and V chords are built on the perfect intervals.
Minor intervals are created by reducing the size of any major interval. This means there exist minor 2nd, minor 3rd, minor 6th and minor 7th intervals (not minor 1st or minor 4th or minor 5th or minor 8th because they are perfect).
Let us look at the major 2nd reducing to minor 2nd - based on your question.
From Root to major 2nd is a distance of two semitones. If that major interval is reduced in size, to become just one semitone, it will then be a minor 2nd. Reducing it in size one further semitone takes it back to zero, back to the Root, to a point where it does not actually exist as an interval.
Root → minor 2nd → major 2nd
diminished 2nd ← minor 2nd ← major 2nd
This hopefully explains why there is no diminished 2nd interval.
For all other perfect and minor intervals, reducing them by one semitone (to make them become diminished) does not lead back to zero (the Root) but to a note that is still at a distance away from zero.
Cheers
Richard
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I thought I had replied to you 
. Sorry Richard. At least I thanked you on our class. This helped a lot. And the fact that an interval of 1 isn’t an interval to begin with because there is no distance of separation.
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In the previous lesson Justin points out that an augmented 2nd in D is E sharp, not F, in order to preserve the alphabet count. On that basis I’m unclear why a minor 3rd in G sharp is B, rather than C flat. Doesn’t that break the alphabet count? A to B implies (in Justin’s words) that it’s ‘some sort of second’. What am I missing?
