The Minor Interval
Before, we discussed that a major interval is one semitone wider than a minor interval, right? When we say wider we're referring to raising the UPPER note in the interval. This means that we can now kinda see that any minor interval can be found simply by lowering the upper note be a semitone or minor second. Speaking of which, a minor second is a major second with the upper note lowered by a semitone, so that makes plenty of sense. We can easily find minor intervals on the COF as well but this way, you don't have to memorize more interval movements. The Minor Third can be found by taking a major third and lowering the top note by a semitone. For example, AC# = Major third and AC = Minor Third. Ok, we can do the same with a Major Sixth. If we have DB, we have a major sixth because we moved three steps clockwise as
D A E B then flat the B to get D Bb which is a minor sixth. Major Seventh are the same way. Remember, this can ONLY be done on major intervals. We cannot flat a perfect fifth to get a minor fifth as there is no such thing in our music. However, there is one more interval we haven't looked at.
The Tritone
The Tritone is the result of dividing the octave in half as it is the dead middle of the octave. If you look below:
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
This interval is odd because it goes under two names other than tritone. So think of "tritone" as a name like semitone and whole tone. Another name this goes by is Diminished Fifth which is a Fifth that is lowered by a half step. For example if we have a perfect fifth of DA and we flat the A then we get D Ab which is a tritone or diminished fifth. However, we can also sharp a perfect fourth to get the same interval. DG, sharp the G and get DG# which is an "augmented fourth" DG# and DAb are the EXACT SAME interval. We just call one an augmented fourth and one a diminished fifth. This will make a whole lot more sense in a moment.
Scale Alterations
Most people will not bring this up till around the advanced level but I feel that this is important to understand so you're not confused later. Since we already know how to make all the major scales, I will tell you something important. Any note in those scales, can be altered to make a different scale. That's a no brainer but many people get confused when they hear "alteration" An alteration is nothing more than raising or lowering a note by either a whole or half step. For example, if we have a C scale and we sharp the D, then we have an alteration on the D note. The scale C D# E F G A B C is not a C major scale anymore because we altered one of it's notes. We could flat the note as well, C Db E F G A B C and it makes no difference, it's still not a C scale anymore.
Naming the Tritone
The way intervals in scales are named depends on what number of note the upper note falls in on the scale.
In other words, if we have a fifth, that means that the top number of that interval is on the fifth note of the scale. As a general rule, there cannot be two versions of the same number of interval. Meaning, a scale cannot generally have a sharp four and a regular perfect fourth. So, this means that if we have a Sharp four, then we cannot have a another interval with the name of any kind of fourth in the scale. If we have a perfect fourth, then we cannot have a sharp fourth and therefore, the scale would contain a diminished fifth.
So a scale can have either a diminished fifth and perfect fourth or a perfect fifth and a augmented fourth. If this is difficult to understand, don't worry, knowing whether or not a tritone is a diminished fifth or augmented fourth doesn't matter very much as understanding that they are the SAME interval.
Just remember that the Tritone, Augmented Fourth and Diminished fifth are all the same interval.
ASSIGNMENT
Practice making minor intervals and tritones on different scales.
Try to find all the intervals of different scales.
In the next lesson we'll dive into chords.
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