Intervals - the distance between two tones

Now we will look at building intervals. First we need to know what the term interval actually means:
An interval is the distance between two tones. It's as simple as that. So the interval of a 2nd is two half steps (or one whole step), a 3rd is two whole steps, a 4th is two whole steps and one half step (figure 1)

fig. 1

C D E F G A B C

1  2  3  4 5  6   7  8

In other words, from C to D (1 to 2) is a 2nd, C to D (1 to 3) is a 3rd, C to F (1 to 4) is a 4th, etc. This is where the scale degrees come into play.

Next time we will venture into building chords.

 If you have any questions or comments on any of the posts feel free to comment or ask.