intervals on the guitar ii

So now we come to the part of tuning the guitar that makes life interesting...the B string. In our last post we conquered the first four strings of the guitar (which are the same as the bass except that the bass being a bass has its strings an octave lower). Check out this diagram: I've made the B string red here to call attention to it:



Under each string is listed the number of frets that that string is distant from its neighbor to the left. If you wanna check this for accuracy consider the following: the low E and high E strings are 2 octaves apart (E2 and E4 respectively). Now look at the numbers: if we simply add up them up we get 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 5 = 24 frets. What's the interval corresponding to 24 frets? It's 2 x 12, which is the same as 2 octaves.

So let's take an example: what is the following interval?

We've traveled down the neck 2 frets and laterally 1: but this lateral move has brought us onto the B string. Checking our chart up above we see that that means we've moved the equivalent of 4 frets down the neck. Consequently our interval is (2 + 4 = 6 frets which we know from the last post's first chart is) a tritone. You'll see this show up in A-form dominant chords.

Here's one more:


In this case we've moved laterally 2 strings, one of which is the B string, and backwards 1 fret. The B string is 4 frets, the E is 5 and our "backwards" move is -1, and all of that adds up to 8 frets, a minor 6th.

That really wraps up our discussion. One loose end, though: we've always considered our intervals from lowest to highest, but this may not be the order in which they occur melodically. Just keep in mind that from C up to G is the exact same as from G down to C (a perfect 5th). You can always measure from the bottom up even if you want to know the interval starting from the higher note.