What each interval does
An interval is the distance between two notes.
On a guitar you count it in frets, and each distance has its own character. Once you know the twelve, a scale reads as a set of distances from its root, and you can pick out the one or two that give it its colour.
How each interval feels
The more it shakes, the more it wants to move. The minor second is the harshest sound here. The tritone is the least settled.
Every shape starts from a root on the low E or A string. Press an interval to see its shape on the neck.
Stable
Little needs to move. A song can end on the octave or the fifth.
Octave P8
Two strings up, two frets higher.
Stable. Little needs to move. A song can end on the octave or the fifth.
Perfect fifth P5
Next string up, two frets higher.
Stable. Little needs to move. A song can end on the octave or the fifth.
Perfect fourth P4
Next string up, same fret.
Stable. Little needs to move. A song can end on the octave or the fifth.
Sweet
Colour without strain. A third makes a chord major or minor; a sixth adds to it.
Major third M3
Next string up, one fret back.
Sweet. Colour without strain. A third makes a chord major or minor; a sixth adds to it.
Minor third m3
Next string up, two frets back.
Sweet. Colour without strain. A third makes a chord major or minor; a sixth adds to it.
Major sixth M6
Two strings up, one fret back.
Sweet. Colour without strain. A third makes a chord major or minor; a sixth adds to it.
Minor sixth m6
Two strings up, two frets back.
Sweet. Colour without strain. A third makes a chord major or minor; a sixth adds to it.
Tense
At least one of the notes wants to move.
Major second M2
Two frets up the same string.
Tense. At least one of the notes wants to move.
Minor seventh m7
Two strings up, same fret.
Tense. At least one of the notes wants to move.
Major seventh M7
Two strings up, one fret higher.
Tense. At least one of the notes wants to move.
Minor second m2
One fret up the same string.
Tense. At least one of the notes wants to move.
Unstable
Exactly half an octave. Move either note one fret and it resolves.
Tritone A4
Next string up, one fret higher.
Unstable. Exactly half an octave. Move either note one fret and it resolves.
In a scale
A scale keeps some of the twelve distances above and leaves the rest out. Every scale on this site makes that pick from the same home note, so they can be laid side by side.
Read the grid down the columns as well as across. The root and perfect fifth columns are full: every scale has both. So a power chord, the root and fifth alone, sits under any of the six without a clash.
The two thirds, in columns 3 and 4, never fill together. Every scale keeps exactly one of them, and the one it keeps decides whether the scale is major or minor.
The three minor scales are identical up to the fifth. Everything that tells them apart sits in columns 8 to 11, the 6th and the 7th.
A dot is a note the scale keeps, a cross one it leaves out. The ring at the end is the root again, an octave up.
Each number is the frets to the next note. An arrow marks a one-fret step and points to the note it leans into. A dashed line is three frets.
| Scale | Root, 0 frets | Minor second, 1 fret | Major second, 2 frets | Minor third, 3 frets | Major third, 4 frets | Perfect fourth, 5 frets | Tritone, 6 frets | Perfect fifth, 7 frets | Minor sixth, 8 frets | Major sixth, 9 frets | Minor seventh, 10 frets | Major seventh, 11 frets | Octave, 12 frets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major, steps of 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2 and 1 frets | Root | not in this scale | Major second | not in this scale | Major third | Perfect fourth | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | not in this scale | Major sixth | not in this scale | Major seventh | Octave, the root again |
| Natural Minor, steps of 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 and 2 frets | Root | not in this scale | Major second | Minor third | not in this scale | Perfect fourth | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | Minor sixth | not in this scale | Minor seventh | not in this scale | Octave, the root again |
| Harmonic Minor, steps of 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3 and 1 frets | Root | not in this scale | Major second | Minor third | not in this scale | Perfect fourth | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | Minor sixth | not in this scale | not in this scale | Major seventh | Octave, the root again |
| Melodic Minor, steps of 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2 and 1 frets | Root | not in this scale | Major second | Minor third | not in this scale | Perfect fourth | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | not in this scale | Major sixth | not in this scale | Major seventh | Octave, the root again |
| Major Pentatonic, steps of 2, 2, 3, 2 and 3 frets | Root | not in this scale | Major second | not in this scale | Major third | not in this scale | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | not in this scale | Major sixth | not in this scale | not in this scale | Octave, the root again |
| Minor Pentatonic, steps of 3, 2, 2, 3 and 2 frets | Root | not in this scale | not in this scale | Minor third | not in this scale | Perfect fourth | not in this scale | Perfect fifth | not in this scale | not in this scale | Minor seventh | not in this scale | Octave, the root again |
| in all six | one third, never both | in all six | |||||||||||
- P1 and P5 are in all six.
- m3 and M3: one third, never both.
- The three minors differ only from m6 to M7.
Where a scale leans
Switch the grid to steps to show the distance from each note to the next instead of from home. The one-fret steps are where a scale leans: a note one fret away from a note of the home chord tends to fall or rise into it.
Major has two, and they point at the third and the root. Natural minor also has two, but they point at the third and the fifth, never at home. Melodic minor has two as well, and one of them lands on the root. Harmonic minor has three, more than any other scale here.
Six fifths
Stack perfect fifths, seven frets each, starting from F: F, C, G, D, A, E, B. Six fifths give you seven notes, and sorted from C they are the C major scale.
Take the middle five (C, G, D, A, E) and you have C major pentatonic. The two it leaves out, F and B, are the ends of the chain, and together they make the tritone.
Natural minor is a chain too: A minor has the same seven notes as C major, three frets up. Harmonic and melodic minor are the only scales here that break it. Both raise natural minor’s 7th by a fret so it leans into the root, and melodic minor raises the 6th as well.
On the guitar
A fifth is the power-chord shape: next string, two frets up. Walk it from C on the A string’s 3rd fret. G, then D, then A on the B string’s 10th fret (one fret further than the shape suggests), then E on the high string’s 12th. Five notes on a diagonal: the whole of C major pentatonic, drawn as a chain of fifths.
In a chord
An interval is always measured from somewhere. In a chord, that somewhere is the root, so the same note can be a different interval in every chord it belongs to. The note doesn’t change; the point you measure from does.
- High E string: G, the fifth at fret 3
- B string: E, the third at fret 5
- G string: C, the root at fret 5
- D string: not played
- High E string: A, the root at fret 5
- B string: E, the fifth at fret 5
- G string: C, the third at fret 5
- D string: not played
- High E string: A, the third at fret 5
- B string: F, the root at fret 6
- G string: C, the fifth at fret 5
- D string: not played
- High E string: A, the fifth at fret 5
- B string: F, the third at fret 6
- G string: C, the seventh at fret 5
- D string: D, the root at fret 0
Step 1 of 4. Keep C where it is: the tinted row, one pitch all the way across. In the C chord, C is the root.
The seventh is the job with a pull. As root, third or fifth, C is part of the chord’s frame. As the seventh it leans, and it wants to fall a fret, to B. Play Dm7 and then G, and that’s exactly what happens: C drops to B, the third of G.
Under one finger
Put a finger on the G string’s 5th fret. That’s C, and it stays there for this whole section.
Add the B string’s 5th fret and the high E’s 3rd: a C chord, and C is the root. Move the high E finger to the 5th: Am, and C is the third. Move the B string finger up to the 6th: F, and C is the fifth. Now let the open D string ring under that F shape: Dm7, and C is the seventh.
Four chords, and the finger on C never lifted.
In a progression
The last section followed one note. Follow all three notes of a chord through a progression, and each of them does the same thing: the notes that stay keep changing jobs.
- High E string: G, the fifth at fret 3
- B string: E, the third at fret 5
- G string: C, the root at fret 5
- High E string: A, the root at fret 5
- B string: E, the fifth at fret 5
- G string: C, the third at fret 5
- High E string: A, the third at fret 5
- B string: F, the root at fret 6
- G string: C, the fifth at fret 5
- High E string: G, the root at fret 3
- B string: D, the fifth at fret 3
- G string: B, the third at fret 4
- High E string: G, the fifth at fret 3
- B string: E, the third at fret 5
- G string: C, the root at fret 5
Step 1 of 4. Start on C: C, E and G on the top three strings, from the bottom.
Fret numbers
| Chord | G string | B string | High E |
|---|---|---|---|
| C I | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Am vi | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| F IV | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| G V | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| C I | 5 | 5 | 3 |
Why these shapes
For every note to move as little as possible, most of these chords aren’t in the order you’d normally stack them. Am is played C–E–A. F is C–F–A. Same notes, rearranged so nothing has to jump.
All five shapes sit on the top three strings, between the 3rd and 6th frets. Play them in order, then play them again listening to one string at a time. It’s the smallest way to hear a progression move.