In the world of intervals everything relates to the major scale. From the root note, a major third is the same as the third note of the major scale. A perfect fifth interval is the same as the fifth note in the major scale. A flat third is the same as a major third, except that it is flattened by one note. The same can be said about all other notes. There is a name (sometimes more than one) for every different interval. There is a lot of seemingly complicated words that are related in naming these, but it's really not that difficult. Here is a list of terminology relating to intervals... Augmented - Increased by one note Sharp - Increased by one note Flat - Decreased by one note Double sharp - Increased by two notes (not commonly used) Double flat - Decreased by two notes (not commonly used) Major - Relating to all intervals of the major scale Minor - Relating to all intervals of the minor scale Dominant - Relating to all intervals of mixolydian mode (most often the flattened seventh and major third)
If you want to know more about when you say 'second' and when you say 'ninth' this is explained in the 'naming chords' section. Here are a number of graphs illustrating all the different names of intervals relating to the root note.
R - Root |
