Unlocking the Sound of the Major Scale: A Guide to Musical Intervals

Have you ever wondered how musicians can identify a melody or a chord just by hearing it? The secret lies in understanding intervals, which are defined as the distance between one note and another. By learning the individual "sound" of each interval, you can begin to hear what is happening musically without having to "hunt and peck" around your instrument to find the right notes.

The Foundation of the Major Scale

In the context of a major scale, intervals are named based on their distance from the first note (the root). For example:

• Second: The distance from the 1st to the 2nd note.
• Third: The distance from the 1st to the 3rd note.
• Fourth/Fifth/Sixth: Following the same pattern up the scale.

A great way to build familiarity is to run up and down the scale (1-2-3-4-5...) while saying the note names aloud.

The "Perfect" Shortcuts

Some of the most "consonant" or pleasant-sounding intervals are known as perfect intervals. Interestingly, a standard root-fifth power chord (containing the root, the fifth, and the octave) actually houses all three types of perfect intervals.

To help you memorise these sounds, you can use famous melodies as mental anchors:

• The Perfect Fifth: Think of the first two notes of the Star Wars theme. This interval exists between the 1st and 5th notes of the scale.
• The Octave: This is the distance from the bottom note to the 8th note (the same note name, just higher). A classic reference for this is the opening of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
• The Perfect Fourth: This can be found between the 5th note (the G in a C major power chord) and the upper octave. While there are millions of tunes that start with a fourth, identifying them is easier once you recognise them within the scale structure.

Here's a list of options for each interval. The more personal to you there better so explore other lists. There are hundreds out there on the internet.

Ready to stop "hunting and pecking" around the neck and start hearing the music like a pro?

Take your playing to the next level with personalised lessons at www.leedsguitarstudio.co.uk. Whether you are mastering the major scale or perfecting your ear training, we are here to help you unlock the fretboard.

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Mastering the Static Vamp: Using Triad Pairs for Harmonic Movement and Color

When playing over a long, static section of harmony—such as a G Minor 7th chord in a Steely Dan-style backing track—it can be challenging to keep your improvisation from sounding stagnant. One highly effective technique for creating both movement and color within these areas is the use of Triad Pairs. By pairing different triads, you can weave complex textures that are either consonant or dissonant depending on your musical goals.

The Core Concept: The G Minor and F Major Pairing

In this specific approach, the foundation is built on two very standard triads: G minor and F major. Combining these two creates a six-note hexatonic scale. This pairing allows you to navigate the static G minor 7th harmony by alternating between the tonic feel of the G minor triad and the more "open" color of the F major triad.

Breaking Down the Line

A great way to implement this is through a structured line that moves through different octaves and harmonic shifts:

• Chromatic Enclosures: The line begins with a "bebop-style" chromatic enclosure around the root of G to establish the tonal centre.
• Ascending Harmonic Scales: From the root, you can proceed up the harmonic scale; as you reach the second octave, you naturally transition into the F major portion of the hexatonic sound.
• Descending Triad Sequences: To create interest, you can descend using a sequence of triads that move chromatically. For example, shifting from F major down a semitone to E major creates significant tension when played over a G minor 7th chord.

Creating and Resolving Tension

The real magic of triad pairs happens when you step outside the primary dionic relationship to create "outside" sounds. A compelling sequence for creating and then resolving tension over G minor might look like this:

1. F Major moving to E Major (High Tension).
2. G Minor moving down to G-flat Major.
3. B-flat Major (Returning to the G minor "vibe").
4. A Major resolving finally to G.

The Logic of Inversions

To add another layer of sophistication, you can apply a specific logic to the triad inversions you use throughout your line. In the example provided by Graham Young, there is a clear structural progression:

• The first pair of triads are played in root position.
• The second pair utilizes second inversions.
• The final pair (if completed) would use first inversions.

By experimenting with these intervals—such as incorporating third and fourth patterns—you can find unique routes through the harmony that provide a sense of logical "flow" even when playing dissonant notes.

Whether you stay strictly within the hexatonic scale or venture into chromatic territory, triad pairs are an essential tool for any guitarist looking to master the art of the static vamp.

Master Triad Pairs Improvisation and modern jazz guitar vocabulary with advanced fretboard concepts, perfect 4ths tuning ideas, and creative melodic approaches.

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Beyond the Box: 5 Pro Secrets to Total Fretboard Fluency

Are you feeling stuck? Many guitarists find themselves trapped in "the box"—those vertical scale shapes that keep your playing anchored in one spot on the neck. If you’re struggling to achieve true fluency across, along, up, and down the fretboard, it’s time to change your perspective.

By shifting from vertical patterns to horizontal movement, you can unlock the entire neck. Here are five killer exercises to help you escape the box and slide into a more fluid playing style.

1. The "Swinging" 1-3-2-4 Permutation

This exercise focuses on moving along a single string using a specific finger pattern: 1-3-2-4. To move up the neck, you use a "swinging" motion:

• Play the pattern (1-3-2-4).
• Pivot on your fourth finger.
• Bring your first finger up to the fret immediately below the fourth (compressing the hand).
• Shift your weight onto the first finger, letting it "pop" forward into the next four-fret block. This technique creates a smooth, shifting motion that can also be combined with string shifts for maximum mobility.

2. The Five-Note "Rhythmic Ambiguity" Pattern

To add flavor to your solos, try a five-note descending pattern on a single string. The fingering is 3-4-2-3-1.

• Play the sequence once.
• Shift your third finger back exactly one fret and repeat the pattern. Because you are playing five notes over a standard 4/4 beat, it creates a "rhythmic ambiguity" that makes your lines sound much more sophisticated and less predictable.

3. Mastering Finger Substitutions

Before you can fly up and down the neck, you need to master finger substitutions. A great preparatory exercise is to play the exact same fret while cycling through your fingers (e.g., 4-3-2-1 or vice versa). This coordination allows you to change your hand's "anchor" without stopping the sound, leading to some very cool, unique textures.

4. Extending Lines via Hand Shifts

You can use finger substitutions to extend a scale across the neck seamlessly. For example, in C Major, try a three-note hammer-on pattern (E-F-G):

• Hammer-on the notes, landing on your second finger.
• Immediately replace that second finger with your first finger on the same fret. This "substitution" instantly puts your hand in position to reach the next three notes in the scale, allowing you to travel the length of the fretboard with ease.

5. The Pedal Tone Pivot

For players who want to stay "constantly on the move," try a pedal tone lick using the pattern 4-2-1-4. By substituting fingers 1 or 2 during the sequence, you can move the lick up and down the string, creating a rolling, continuous sound that defies traditional box shapes.

Putting It All Together

Once you master these movements, you can apply them to diatonic lines (like G Major) or even "chromatic, diminishy" runs to create professional-sounding solos.

The Key to Success: Get stuck into these exercises every day. Consistency is what builds the muscle memory needed to stop thinking about "shapes" and start thinking about music.

For more guitar goodness and to see these techniques in action, don't forget to practice these shifts until they feel "groovy".

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Chromatics Day 1

  I always like to practice chromatic patterns. Not only are they a good way of maintaining your technique but it's also very useful to have a large repetoire of them when improvising.

So to kick of the new year I'll try and post a new one each day. Some of these will be taken from my Digital Hell series whilst others will be new.

As ever the golden rules are:

Practice these slowly and cleanly at first
Build up the speed gradually using a metronome for much of the time
If you can't sing these patterns as you play them then learn to


As usual I'm playing in P4 tuning in the video but for you unfortunate souls still in standard tuning I've tabbed it that way.

Here's the dots....

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www.grahamyoungguitarist.com

Guitar Tone Secrets of the Pharaohs.

OK I fess up. That title is entirely misleading and designed to lure the unsuspecting guitarist into reading this blog and watching the video. The clue was the use of the word SECRET. It's a bit like when it says 'Rare unseen footage of player X' in a Youtube description. If it's on YouTube it's no longer rare or unseen! But I digress...

 Guitarist's are suckers for anything that promises to aid them in that endless quest for tone and the guitar mags are full of it.

'10 things you must do to sound like Eddie Van Halen'
1: Huff Schwinn cycle paint (it's what Eddie used)
2: Rewire your guitar only on a full moon and don't forget to bypass the tone pot.
3. Get some authentic Marlboro burns on your headstock etc....

And on it goes.....

Whilst a lot of this stuff us usefull and valid advice the fact of the matter is these mags are there to sell product whether it be the artists (their latest CD) or the manufacturers (their latest amp).
 Often I find the latest offering from Blackmarstarshall or whoever to be completely unusable but these products are aimed at a mass market and the key thing here is finding something that works for you.

So here's the real meat of this article - after this you can go back to watching Ukrainian midget tossing, pictures of donkeys wearing fedoras or whatever else you do with your internet time.

Okay so the tone secret of the Pharaohs is.......

It's at either end of the tone chain that the major changes can be achieved. The bit in the middle...well.....meh!

The beginning.
The player's ears, hands and heart.
They make the single biggest difference but you can't buy those.

Strings
Great strings are the heart of your sound and anyone that says they don't make a difference is frankly an idiot. For years I used Ernie Balls and thought they were the best you could get. Until I tried Newtones that is. They sound and feel better last far longer and because they're wound for YOU the gauges and core can tailored to your instrument and requirements. Over the years either through necessity or curiosity I've tried others but they just don't cut it. A big shout out to Kurt Mangan strings by the way who've come the closest!
Pickups
Getting the right pickup for the guitar is crucial and handwound pickups are always better. More articulation and detail. In terms of bang for you buck it's hard get more for less. Amps only do just that...amplify. Feed crap in at one end and they'll throw crap out at the other end. Loud, distorted crap!
This is why I pay more attention (and money) to this stage than any other. I think that without the right pickup you're fighting a losing battle.

The end.

Speakers
Finding a speaker you like sound of is critical and can transform the sound of an amp for better or worse in 5 mins. This is easily controlled by you and doesn't cost a fortune to experiment with.

Finally the listeners ears. People do hear things differently and there's nowt you can do about it.
Some have golden ears whilst some are made of cloth.
Anyway....watch my video and check out Catwhiskers Pickups.

www.catswhiskerpickups.co.uk

Q&A time

Here's a quick Q&A video made in response to some questions I received online.

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Learning Songs

   Well if you viewed my post entitled "Getting your playing out there"  you'll no doubt have scored yourself the gig you've been looking for. Brilliant! The only thing is that now you've got another problem. Learning all the tunes they want you to play on the gig - next week! 
 Although I have a repetoire of hundreds of songs I still have to learn tunes at short notice all the time. After all, nobody knows all the thousands of songs there are out there. 

So here's how I approach learning sets quickly and efficiently. 

I create A5 sheets for each song containing just the critical information required to get through the song. A5 is more manageable on a gig but big enough to get most songs onto.

Roughly these are the steps I go through to distill the song down.

• Identify the key center and the main chord progressions for each section of the song
• Label these sections - Verse, Chorus middle 8 etc. It's actually not that important that your labels coincide with anyone else's as long as you know what they mean. 
• Work your way through the tune getting the structure clear in your mind and down on paper. 
• From there it'll be a matter of notating the exceptions to the likely Verse-Chorus repeat format. 
• I include rhythmic notation and simple melodic directions - just note letters and a contour.
• Stops are very important to get right. If you're playing when everyone else stops they're gonna notice! 
• Include vocal cues and reminders of extended sections

Here's an example sheet and a line by line breakdown. The song is the soul classic 'Hold back the Night'

Normally I write the title at the top but forgot on this occasion!

From top to bottom, line by line:

Intro chord sequence which also happens to be the Chorus sequence (not uncommon).

A triplet ascending chord pattern (a major feature of the song) 

A reminder of a specific arpeggiated verse pattern (again - an important detail)

From there it's just structure and any exceptions to the regular verse - chorus repetitions.

By the time I've prepared this I'll already know the song but I'll practice with it front of me for a while and quickly start to ignore it. Chances are I won't need it by the time comes to play it with the band but if I do it'll be clear to read from and will guide me through - even with my hand writing! 

If there are sets that you don't play often it's good to keep these sheets as they'll serve as an excellent memory aid and you'll be back up to speed more or less straight away.

 Over time you'll find your own ways of representing the important information.

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Harmonic Scales - Hearing chord tones

One of the trickiest aspects of improvising is negotiating chord changes. It's fairly straightforward when all the chords belong to the same key. In that instance one single scale will suffice but rarely does a piece of music stay in one key. Even a basic 12 bar blues uses chords belonging to 3 different keys and most jazz standards will migrate through several tonal centers. 
  
To be truly harmonically aware one must hear all the way up through a chord. 
A 7th chord comprises of a root, 3rd, 5th and a 7th but whether they're played or not the there's also the 9, 11 and 13 in there as well. This requires you to practice modes/scales in a harmonic fashion or what I term Harmonic Scales. 

Harmonic Scales

  

This is where you play up through a scale in 3rds - 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 and back to the octave again. As you're playing every other note in the scale this takes two octaves to complete and spells out the innate tonality of a given mode. I've seen these described as"super arpeggios" by Larry Carlton but I dislike the term and thus describe them as Harmonic Scales because they're exactly that: scales played in a harmonic manner, spelling out the tonality. 

  
  It would be hard to overstate the importance of getting these under the fingers and more importantly into the ears. Everything that follows in this lesson requires familiarity with them. 

Freedom through Discipline 

This exercise is just one of a group of exercises that I collectively refer to as 'The Disciplines'. Over time I will do videos for all them. Read the summary below and then watch the video. Like all of the disciplines it's very simple conceptually but can be practiced at any level of difficulty.

• Position yourself on the bottom string anywhere on the neck
• You will have 4 or 5 notes under your fingers 
• When you hear the random chord play through the harmonic scale that sounds correct starting on one of the notes that are under your fingers.
•  Play all the way back to the root passing through the 2 octaves. 
• When the next chord sounds try and find the nearest note to the one you finished on to begin the harmonic scale descending. It may be the same note of course! 
• I recommend singing the notes as you play them. 

You can either use the mp3's or better still have a friend play you random chords. 
These need to be either Major 7th, Minor 7th or Dominant 7th. 

To increase the difficulty use a metronome and do it in tempo, add altered chords or have someone fire ping pong balls at you whilst you play.

Download link: http://www.leedsguitarstudio.co.uk/randomchords.zip

www.leedsguitarstudio.co.uk 

Pentatonic Bending done right!

Here's a quickie that came out of a lesson I gave this morning. In short:

When playing pentatonic based bends many guitarists will tend to avoid the minor 3rd intervals within that scale.
That tends to make everything sound a bit samey. This exercise will open things up a bit, improve bending strength and the accuracy of your pitching. It's pretty self explanatory!

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Getting your playing out there

  If you're a guitarist looking for gigs it really helps if you've a quick way of showing people what you can do. A calling card if you will. This is even more important if you play numerous styles like I do. Generally people are resistant to the idea that a guitarist can be accomplished in more than one idiom.  To combat this it helps to have the different styles back to back as they are in the video below. This way you're on to the next thing before they've got time to think, 'I don't like/am not looking for rock'. You also benefit from a sense impact as one style bumps up against another.

 Making a video is a good idea even if there's no real visuals as sharing video on social media is a lot easier than just audio alone.
 Enjoy and yes, I'm looking for gigs, so please share around!

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Chromatic 3rds - Putting exercises into practice

  At some point or another every guitarist will practice sequences. Usually the focus of these is the development of technique but there's a bit more to it than that. Or rather there should be...

    Playing with intervallic patterns can give you the raw material for improvisation. Short phrases that can be recombined in many ways to form longer musical statements that have their own internal logic and flow. At that point what started out as a dry, technical exercise becomes a creative act which is what all practice should ideally be. 

The genesis of this idea was hearing chromatic 3rds in the playing of Scott Henderson. He was clearly using them as a way of introducing an 'outside' kind of falling motion into his playing. I then set out to catalogue all the different chromatic 3rds patterns I could and notate them as part of my 'digital hell' series. The 3rd is a harmonically defining interval so it's good for creating 'outside' lines.

Here's some of the patterns I used in the video.

Here's a summary of the concept I explain in the video.

• Start any of these 3rds patterns within the chord tones. i.e. Over Bm7 you could start the pattern on D and F# (the 3rd and 5th of the chord) 

• Move it chromatically in either direction until you 'hook' back into the chord and resolve the tension created by the chromaticism. IN - OUT - IN again. 

It's a really simple concept and not the only way of applying these by a long chalk but it is very effective. The improvisation at the end is a little more repetive than I would have liked but I was really focusing on this one concept and as such it's a little unbalanced. Enjoy!

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Digital Hell # 1

  Over 30 years of teaching guitar I've created many exercises for developing technique. These have turned into a whole series I've dubbed 'Digital Hell'. 

Here's an extract from number 1 in the series. This particular one focuses on 'squeeze-release', left-right synchronisation and economy picking all packed into nutritious bite sized exercises.

Here's the extract 

and here's the video. Skip to 0.45 to see the examples notated above.

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Hybrid Picking and tempo delays

Hybrid picking is all the rage these days and why not?! It's great for developing patterns and rhythms that you might not play otherwise.
 Here's an example of it I used whilst composing the riff for the Dirty Fakirs tune, Highs and Lows. It was played with a stereo tempo delay which fills out the sound and gives it extra rhythmic energy but it works just as well without. 

 The Sound Here's a screenshot of the cubase arrange page showing the two plugins I used for this guitar sound. The guitar was recorded via DI and then I used Cubase's own Chorus plugin going into the wonderful Nasty DLA by Boosty. If you're not familiar with his work you're missing out big time. 
The tempo is 116bpm and you can see from the screen shot that I used quaver notes on one side and dotted crochets on the other. Any half decent processor should be able to replicate this sound for you.

  The Technique
I've annotated the picking/fingering that I used but don't feel compelled to follow them if something else works better for you. It's just that my ring finger falls nicely over the higher notes. Your index finger might work better if your hands are bigger!
 The riff works nicely because of the contrary motion and parallel 6ths. Note also that this is played and tabbed in P4 tuning although it's playable in standard. It'll just be slightly stretchy! 

You can hear the full track and a minus guitar version at the bottom of the page. Once you've got the riff up to speed try it with the delay and then play along with the backing track version.


Let me know how you get on and if you're feeling brave maybe I'll transcribe the solo!

Here's a video showing the riff in close up at various speeds.

Getting the most from your Capo.

  Virtually every acoustic guitarist has a capo. You know, that clampy thing that lives in your guitar case. 

  Every once in a while you'll get it out when your singer's complaining that the Oasis song he wants to sing "Isn't in his key". And let's face it, the poor lamb's only got one to chose from!

   So you slap it on at the 2nd fret and transpose up a tone and suddenly Wonderwall is in F# minor - a key the Gallagher brothers haven't even heard of let alone written in! 

 Well that's only a part of what you can do with a capo. We studio hounds know a few tricks for creating those lush acoustic textures you hear on the records - Here's one of them. 

It's all down to how the guitar is tuned. Here's the theory in short.

How it works:

Capoing at the 5th fret use the open chord shape found one string down from where you are. 

So D major is now an A major shape.

Capoing at the 7th fret use the open chord shape found one string up from where you are. 

So D major is now an G major shape.

The only thing to remember is the tuning break between the G and B strings. You need to add one note in that case.

e.g. 

Capoed at the 7 fret a G chord would be C shape not a B shape. 

It doesn't take a lot of practice to get used to doing this quickly. After all there's a finite number of possibilities. 

This trick is a great way of creating arrangements and variety when playing with another guitarist. There's rarely any point you both playing the same open chord shapes and if anything it'll cause problems.

Enjoy! For more free lessons subscribe to this blog or visit:

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Arpeggi-oh?

 I must confess to spending a lot of time on arpeggios. I've several 'systems' for them that I use in my own playing and much of that effort goes into disguising them, recombining them and generally trying to make them more interesting and melodic. All that stuff would fill a book so occasionally it's a good idea to go back to basics and look at simple, major key, diatonic arpeggios played in 'situ'. That just means that each arpeggio is played within it's corresponding modal scale shape without any position movement. 

i.e.

I            G Ionian - G major

ii           A Dorian - A minor

iii          B Phrygian - B minor

IV         C Lydian - C major

V          D Mixolydian - D major

vi          E Aeolian - E minor

viidim  F# Locrian - F# diminished

Technical notes
These are technically very straightforward and the only difficulty you might find is my habit of using separate fingers the cross from the 5th to the Octave. It's trickier but gives proper control over note length and articulation so well worth working on. You could just use alternate picking as I did here or a combination of sweeps and alternate. You could even hybrid pick these, particularly if you require a specific repeating pattern involving a pedal tone. Go nuts!

 Here's the video



and here's the dots and complete with the devils own work - Tab :(

Practice advice.
Transpose this to every key, break into different groupings, string together top and bottom, change the rhythm and generally get creative with them. 
Also, as ever, sing everything you're playing. If you can hear it you can play it! 
This is so important!

I didn't do this in the video but it's a good idea to play the mode, then the arpeggio and finally the corresponding chord for each position. The chord can be a full barre chord or a simple triad. 

 Just because they're simple it doesn't they can't be cool!

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There's backing tracks and then there's BACKING TRACKS!

One of the advantages of running a commercial studio is that you end up with some great sounding versions of pop songs in all styles. One of the bands I play in is called the Mojo Party Band. We do a lot of ska and funk covers plus one or two unusual TV theme tunes. Obviously we use the www.muttsnuttsrecordings.co.uk to record website examples and that means that it's a moments work to create 'minus guitar' versions.
    This is great for Leeds Guitar Studio students as I teach them a song and then provide a cracking backing track for them to practice with. 
 Erstwhile LGS student Eamonn had been focusing on his rhythm and rhythm playing in general. Ska is great for developing an awareness of the off beat because that's all you ever play in a skank, the 'ands'! Knowing that we had a great version of Baggy Trousers by Madness that's the tune we chose. 

Here's the full version
Mojo Party Band - Baggy Trousers

and the minus guitar version
Mojo Party Band - Baggy Trousers minus guitar

and the original of course......