Question about Intervals

Boudoir Guitar said:
More context may allow you to say more about the interval...but the interval is still the interval.

The names are there because major 7th is a whole lot less of a mouthful than "Five whole steps and a half step". My name is Boudoir Guitar because I do most of my guitar playing in the sexy bedroom. But my name is still Boudoir Guitar, and I am still Boudoir Guitar, even when I am playing outside the bedroom.
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Take it out of context and it’s just a distance between two notes in semitones. But in a piece of music its name is its function. Major minor, diminished, augmented, perfect, sharp, flat, natural . The idea is to give you more information.
In your example you use the major scale as context.
 
Eagle said:
Take it out of context and it’s just a distance between two notes in semitones.
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That's the definition of interval. The distance between two notes regardless of context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music)

Eagle said:
But in a piece of music its name is its function. Major minor, diminished, augmented, perfect, sharp, flat, natural . The idea is to give you more information.
In your example you use the major scale as context.
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Nope. a major7th interval may have different function or different context and you can describe that function in whatever way you want, but that function IS NOT THE INTERVAL.

The interval is just the distance between two (not three) notes. The distance between the notes will always be correctly called a "major 7th" or incorrectly called a diminished octave, or incorrectly called a flat octave, or incorrectly called an augmented minor 7th, or incorrect called a perfect 7th, or incorrectly called a natural 7th. The distance between the 3rd degree of the dorian mode and the 9th degree of the dorian mode is a major 7th. The distance between the 4th degree of the major scale and the 3rd degree an octave higher is a major 7th.
 
Boudoir Guitar said:
Nope. a major7th interval may have different function or different context and you can describe that function in whatever way you want, but that function IS NOT THE INTERVAL.
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I think a lot of the confusion is coming from the same thing used in different contexts. One would be to describe an absolute distance, the other (while, to make matters worse, still containing that absolute distance) describing whatever harmonic "qualities".
"This is a major 7th interval" describes nothing but the distance between two notes.
"This is a major 7th chord" describes a pretty distinct character and often even hints at some function.
 
Sascha Franck said:
I think a lot of the confusion is coming from the same thing used in different context. One would be to describe an absolute distance, the other (while, to make matters worse, still containing that absolute distance) describing whatever harmonic "qualities".
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Yes. OP was about harmony, which is a wildly more useful concept to understand overall. And the point that Eagle’s completely incorrect statements actually apply to.

But given that the thread topic is “intervals” and the original question was about “interval”, it seemed a little clarification was needed.
 
TSJMajesty said:
That's all an interval is. You're trying to make the definition of interval more than it is.
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Look back at the context I was talking about.
I was describing diatonic harmony up a 5th from each degree in a major scale.
Not an abstract interval.
What I said is correct but the other descriptions are too. There is no such thing as a context free word.
 
Boudoir Guitar said:
Yes. OP was about harmony, which is a wildly more useful concept to understand overall. And the point that Eagle’s completely incorrect statements actually apply to.

But given that the thread topic is “intervals” and the original question was about “interval”, it seemed a little clarification was needed.
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Non of my statements are incorrect.
 
Eagle said:
Look back at the context I was talking about.
I was describing diatonic harmony up a 5th from each degree in a major scale.
Not an abstract interval.
What I said is correct but the other descriptions are too. There is no such thing as a context free word.
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If some asks “what’s a dinosaur”

And I say “when a dinosaur is a bear, it is a furry mammal” that’s not context, it’s in incorrect definition.
 
Eagle said:
Look back at the context I was talking about.
I was describing diatonic harmony up a 5th from each degree in a major scale.
Not an abstract interval.
What I said is correct but the other descriptions are too. There is no such thing as a context free word.
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If you play THE INTERVAL of a 5th above each note, you wind up with non-diatonic harmony.

If you play FIVE DEGREES ABOVE each note you have harmonized the scale and created a series of perfect fifth intervals and one diminished fifth interval.
 
Eagle said:
Look back at the context I was talking about.
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Doesn't matter. The definition of the word interval in music is the distance between 2 notes.
Eagle said:
I was describing diatonic harmony up a 5th from each degree in a major scale.
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Which I already told you you were getting into scale degrees, which is different.
Eagle said:
Not an abstract interval.
What I said is correct but the other descriptions are too. There is no such thing as a context free word.
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Ok Bill Clinton. :rolleyes:
 
An interval is a relation between two notes by default. Taken into a wider harmonical context they serve different purposes. E.g. in counterpoint a fourth is treated very differently according to context. If the lower note is tonic, the interval is considered a dissonance that has to be resolved (like a sus chord resolving into the tonic harmony) where the upper note goes from fourth to major third descending. However if the lower note actually is the fifth making the higher note the tonic, it is treated as a imperfect consonance on par with thirds and sixths.

And let´s get the types listed for the sake of order.

Perfect consonance: unison. Fifth, Octave..
Imperfect consonance: Third and Sixth, amd forth given the lower note is the fifth
Dissonance: Second, Tritonus, Seventh, Nine and Fourth given the lower note is tonic
 
Last edited:
What do you call the space between the first and third in a Dorian mode?
An interval of a diatonic third in Dorian.
Or three semitones,
Or a minor third.
 
Eagle said:
What do you call the space between the first and third in a Dorian mode?
An interval of a diatonic third in Dorian.
Or three semitones,
Or a minor third.
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If someone asked “what’s the space”? Three semitones, minor third, whole step + a half step.

If someone asked what is the interval? Minor third. Period.

I have no idea what “a diatonic third in Dorian” is. If someone asked me what that was, I’d say “depends. Diatonically the Dorian mode contains some major third intervals and some minor 3rd intervals”.
 
Boudoir Guitar said:
If someone asked “what’s the space”? Three semitones, minor third, whole step + a half step.

If someone asked what is the interval? Minor third. Period.

I have no idea what “a diatonic third in Dorian” is. If someone asked me what that was, I’d say “depends. Diatonically the Dorian mode contains some major third intervals and some minor 3rd intervals”.
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You don’t know the modes of major, melodic and harmonic minor?
 
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