Lesson with luderart

luderart has already knows his intervals, scales and how to build chords from the Major and minor scales but wants to start his lessons with a review on interval inversions.

Lesson:

Since you already know quite a bit, understanding the inversion of an interval will be easy.

Basically, an inversion of an interval occurs when the notes of the original interval are "flipped". For example, starting on the note C to E is a Major 3rd. To invert this interval we would simply "flip" the relationship between the ntoes. So, instead of C to E (Major 3rd) we would have E to C which would become a minor 6th. If you count the number of whole/half steps from E up to C you will see that you come up with 4 whole steps which gives us the quality of a minor 6th interval. Below I have included a list of interval inversions. The list of inversion works off of an easy pattern to learn and memorize. I have also attached an example using Fianle.

INTERVAL INVERSIONS:

1) A minor 2nd when inverted becomes a Major 7th

2) A Major 2nd when inverted becomes a minor 7th

3) A minor 3rd when inverted becomes a Major 6th

4) A Major 3rd when inverted becomes a minor 6th

5) An augmented 4th when inverted becomes a diminished 5th

6) A Perfect 4th when inverted becomes a Perfect 5th

7) A diminished 5th when inverted becomes an Augmented 4th

8) A Perfect 5th when inverted becomes a Perfect 4th

9) A minor 6th when inverted becomes a Major 3rd

10) A Major 6th when inverted becomes a minor 3rd

11) A minor 7th when inverted becomes a Major 7th

12) A Major 7th when inverted becomes a minor 7th

13) And the Perfect octave always remains a Perfect octave.

I'm sure after you reached a little ways down the list you noticed the patterns.

* minor intervals become Major
* Major intervals become minor
* Perfect intervals remain Perfect
* diminished intervals become Augmented
* Augmented become diminished
* 2nds become 7ths, and 7ths become 2nds
* 3rds become 6ths, and 6ths become 3rds
* 4ths becomes 5ths, and 5ths become 4ths

Let me know if there is anything that is unclear.

Thanks for the clear explanations.

I have the following questions:

1) Are intervals independent of scales? Are they minor or major regardless of the scales on which they exist?

2) Are intervals designated as major, minor, diminished or augmented strictly according to the total of the whole tones and half tones they contain and not according to any pattern of whole-tone half-tone steps? For example C to F is a perfect fourth and E to A is a perfect fourth?

3) Only the perfect intervals become diminished or augmented? The others are only either major or minor?

3) I couldn't open the Finale attachment. I have the Finale NotePad 2001 version. Do I need to download something else?

Thanks for the clear and insightful explanations.

I have the following questions:

1) Are intervals independent of scales? Are they minor or major regardless of the scales on which they exist?

2) Are intervals designated as major, minor, diminished or augmented strictly according to the total of the whole tones and half tones they contain and not according to any pattern of whole-tone half-tone steps? For example C to F is a perfect fourth and E to A is a perfect fourth?

3) Only the perfect intervals become diminished or augmented? The others are only either major or minor?

3) I couldn't open the Finale attachment. I have the Finale NotePad 2001 version. Do I need to download something else?

Originally Posted by luderart

Thanks for the clear and insightful explanations.

I have the following questions:

1) Are intervals independent of scales? Are they minor or major regardless of the scales on which they exist?

2) Are intervals designated as major, minor, diminished or augmented strictly according to the total of the whole tones and half tones they contain and not according to any pattern of whole-tone half-tone steps? For example C to F is a perfect fourth and E to A is a perfect fourth?

3) Only the perfect intervals become diminished or augmented? The others are only either major or minor?

3) I couldn't open the Finale attachment. I have the Finale NotePad 2001 version. Do I need to download something else?

1) Using the C Major scale as an example, if you take a look at it you will notice that the scale is comprised of various types of intervals.

C-D-E-F-G-A-B

From C to D is a Major 2nd
From D to E is a Major 2nd
But, From E to F is a half step and therfore a minor 2nd.
Also, From C to E is a Major 3rd
But, from E to G is a minor thrid

An interval is just the distance between any two notes. Therefore, it is the arrangement of intervals that make-up or create the scale and not the other way around.

2) Right. As I mentioned in the answer to your first question, its all about the distance between any two notes and that distance is measured in half and whole steps. So, from C to F is a Perfect 4th becuase the distance between the two notes adds up to a total of 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step. The same is true about E to A. E to A is also a Perfect fourth because if you count up the number of Half and Whole steps from the note E up to A you will see that it also comes to a total of 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step.

3) When a perfect interval is inverted it will still remain perfect. The only thing that changes is whether or not its a 4th or a 5th. For example, From C to F is a Perfect 4th because it has 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step. If we invert the two notes so that we are now going from F to C you will notice that after counting the number of whole and half steps will give you a perfect 5th. 4ths and 5ths (Octaves and Unisons as well) are the only intervals that can be perfect.

4) You can download a free version of Finale Notepad 2007 here:
NotePad

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Majesty

1) Using the C Major scale as an example, if you take a look at it you will notice that the scale is comprised of various types of intervals.

C-D-E-F-G-A-B

From C to D is a Major 2nd
From D to E is a Major 2nd
But, From E to F is a half step and therfore a minor 2nd.
Also, From C to E is a Major 3rd
But, from E to G is a minor thrid

An interval is just the distance between any two notes. Therefore, it is the arrangement of intervals that make-up or create the scale and not the other way around.

2) Right. As I mentioned in the answer to your first question, its all about the distance between any two notes and that distance is measured in half and whole steps. So, from C to F is a Perfect 4th becuase the distance between the two notes adds up to a total of 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step. The same is true about E to A. E to A is also a Perfect fourth because if you count up the number of Half and Whole steps from the note E up to A you will see that it also comes to a total of 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step.

3) When a perfect interval is inverted it will still remain perfect. The only thing that changes is whether or not its a 4th or a 5th. For example, From C to F is a Perfect 4th because it has 2 Whole steps and 1 Half step. If we invert the two notes so that we are now going from F to C you will notice that after counting the number of whole and half steps will give you a perfect 5th. 4ths and 5ths (Octaves and Unisons as well) are the only intervals that can be perfect.

4) You can download a free version of Finale Notepad 2007 here:
NotePad

Going away and will return on Wednesday. We will resume lessons when I get back.

Hello Majesty,

Where do we go from here?

I will be sending you a PM

Luder,

what is your knowledge of extended intervals (ex. 9th's, 10th's, 11'ths and so on)?

Well, I don't know about them. But I can guess that they are like the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th etc. but including an octave.

Luder