Guitar Interval Truth

A minor 2nd is always a half-step ... but so is an augmented 1st! A whole-step is two half-steps and a major 2nd is always a whole-step, but a whole-step is not always a major 2nd ... a whole-step can also be a diminished 3rd! A minor 3rd is three half-steps, but so is an augmented 2nd ... How can that be? We look at the perils of counting intervals by half-steps only ... and we'll emphasize the importance of the alphabet!

Intro music excerpt: "Lucky Number" by MN - https://youtu.be/hOCNoxzA6jY Outro music excerpt: "The Only Color in the Sky" by MN - https://youtu.be/Xph8wfuzfgo Guitar, piano and bass : M. Newstetter Drums: Joyce Baker Recording Engineer: Rob Preston Link to Interval Chart: https://fretography.blogspot.com/p/di...

The Symmetrical Guitar!

 

This video highlights an essential navigational element on the guitar fretboard. The juxtaposition of the Diatonic Axis positions and the 3rd Rail.

__________________________________________ Index of Highlights: 00:00 — Intro 00:25 — 'Four-top-string' 7th chord arpeggios — key of C 01:49 — Diagram of 7th chord symmetry 02:12 — The same arpeggios in D 02:38 — Finding the middle of the middle 03:51 — Fingering tricks 04:34 — Palindrome of the V and the viiº chord 05:23 — Landmarks on the 3rd Rail ( I - IV - V ) 08:05 — The four minor 3rds 08:10 — Counting 'Fret Spans' 15:19 — What comes after C? (high volume issue?) 18:52 — Visualize the keys 20:21 — Summing up (high volume issue?) 21:44 — Outro __________________________________________ More about Symmetrical Arpeggios: http://fretography.blogspot.com/2011/12/7th-chord-symmetries-around-3rd-rail.html http://fretography.blogspot.com/2011/12/7th-chord-symmetries-around-3rd-rail_18.html http://fretography.blogspot.com/2011/12/7th-chord-symmetries-around-3rd-rail_19.html http://fretography.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-diagonals-indicate-minor-3rds.html Tab and Notation: https://fretography.blogspot.com/p/symmetrical-arpeggios-7ths-upper-string.html __________________________________________ Musical excerpts from my songs: 'Lucky Number' * ( 00:07 and 22:18 ) 'Can't Blame it All on the Drug' ** ( 05:23 ) 'Tea and Cactus' ** ( 15:19 ) 'Wisest Dreams' ( 18:52 ) Personnel: Guitar, Bass, Percussion: Mark Newstetter * Drums: Joyce Baker ** Drums: Dave Scheff  

Special thanks to Lucy Hudson All music and visuals © 2022 Mark Newsetetter

Pentatonic/Diatonic Relationships

When you think of pentatonic scales do you connect them to the diatonic key? Do you think of a major pentatonic scales as being rooted in the tonic of the key? 

For instance — most of us might believe the following; C major pentatonic 'belongs' to the key of C major ... G major pentatonic 'belongs' to the key of G major ... etc ... So that each major pentatonic scale is matched to a single major key. And of course, the relative minor pentatonic is matched to the relative minor of each key, so A minor pentatonic 'belongs' to the key of A minor, and so on.

You may also understand that when playing blues based music you can use an A minor pentatonic scale to riff on an A dominant7 chord, and also use an A major pentatonic with that same chord, and that doing so falls outside standard diatonic theory. 

But what about fully exploring diatonic possibilities of the pentatonic scale? Are you aware that each diatonic key contains not one, but three pentatonic scales, each with the same interval structure?

The key of C includes not only the C major/A minor pentatonic scales, but also G major/E minor and F major/D minor. 

Here are the notes of the key of C: C D E F G A B C ... 

... and here are the notes of the C major pentatonic scale: C D E G A C. 

Now, here are the notes of the G major pentatonic scale: G A B D E G, and the F major pentatonic scale: F G A C D G.

Notice that G maj. pent. and F maj. pent. contain no sharps or flats. So not only is each pentatonic scale rooted in the tonic of its own key, but it is also positioned within two additional keys. To be more precise, the I, IV and V degrees of any major key will produce a pentatonic scale with the intervals Wholestep, Wholestep, Minor 3rd, Wholestep,  Minor 3rd. 

Below you see the notes of each scale in the key of C as they appear on the fret board. The first is C major pentatonic, followed by F major pentatonic and then G major pentatonic:

(Zone names are based on the degrees of the diatonic major scale.)

And the interval structure of each scale:

We'll look deeper into the applications of this in the next post.