The state of the world

Yo, it's Thursday morning in my hometown of Accokeek, and the world is sitting very strange as I see it.

Breaking news! The Catholic Church has officially acknowledged that Mary appeared to a Shepard girl...In the 1600's. Now that's keeping up with the times! I wonder what they'll think of this new cat Mozart?

Speaking of religious nuts, there's a group of folks in California who are praying, and singing a modified version of "We Shall Overcome" to...Lower gas prices.

A person has trained their goldfish to play a sort of underwater basketball. Now that's cool.

Countrywide admits loan officers made errors. Who woulda guessed?

But despite this odd moment in the cosmological sequence of time, there are still constants in the universe. Music theory continues to confuse. But have no fear! Theory Man is here! The alter-ego of mild mannered Josh Urban, Theory Man is strong, smart, and lives to fight confusion and ignorance! In fact, he belongs to the secret soceity of Theory experts. A little known fact: Mr. T is the president. What do ya think the "T" stands for, foo'?

Our next question comes from "Kwame" in...The UK! Hey, has anyone seen "George of the Jungle?" It's got a Kwame in there. "Meanwhile, Kwame and his men were drawing ever closer...Closer, that is, to shoving a coconut up Lyle's...sleeping bag."
Ed's note: Being an editor is fun.

"Kwame" has been a correspondent of mine for a little while, and he's really working hard at being the best he can be on the guitar. Kudos, "Kwame!"

Here's his question:
>>>>>>>>
Hey man, hows it goin?

I've messaged you for help on a few things and you've always been able to offer some good advice, but this time I'm stuck on one of your lessons.

In the crusades 2 and 3 (I haven't got any further yet, I've been learning the names of the notes) you talk about intervals, which is fair enough, but there are some things I don't quite get. First thing is this . . . People say intervals are the difference between notes, but I don't get how you can play the difference between notes. Does it mean (using A as an example) that if you play a minor second (Bb) its just the note next to it, or the other notes that are also Bb like A string 1st fret and so on?

Secondly, in crusade 3, when you are showing how to make chords, you use a few examples. Your first one is a C major chord. And you say that I need a C, a Major third and a minor third. Now I was with you up until this point, and understood the theory, but when I made like a little chart to find out what the major and minor third would be (below) it looked like the minor third was an Eb and the major third was an E.
This made sense to me as well, but then i carried on reading and you said that the major third is an E (which i got) but that the minor third was a G. I'm not too sure how you got that, and I got all confused at that point because I thought that my chart thing worked in theory.

C to C Unison
C to C# minor 2nd
C to D Major 2nd
C to Eb minor 3rd
C to E Major 3rd
C to F Perfect 4th
C to F# Diminished 5th (Also known as a Flatted 5th)
C to G Perfect 5th
C to G# minor 6th
C to A Major 6th
C to Bb minor 7th
C to B Major 7th
C to C Octave

Where have I gone wrong?

Thanks for any help
>>>>>>>>>>>

"Kwame," good work, and good questions.

Question 1: What's an interval?

"The difference between two notes" sounds very zennish, and very confusing. Think of it as a recipe, instead. If we play a C, and add a note a major third above it, that note would be E. From C to E is the distance of a major 3rd. On the guitar, this translates to four frets.

Another way we could phrase our "recipe" is to say: "Play a C, and then play a note four half steps above it." A major 3rd is four half steps, or four frets.

Question 2: Harmonic vs. Melodic intervals

If you play an A on the 5th fret, and then play a Bb on the 6th fret, you've just played a melodic interval. (One note at a time.) If you play an A on the 5th fret, 6th string, and a Bb on the 1st fret, 5th string, at the same time, you've played a harmonic interval. Melodic intervals would make up the melody of the song, and harmonic intervals would make up the harmony (chords) of the song.


Question 3: Where do I start counting?

Q: when you are showing how to make chords, you use a few examples. Your first one is a C major chord. And you say that I need a C, a Major third and a minor third. Now I was with you up until this point, and understood the theory, but when I made like a little chart to find out what the major and minor third would be (below) it looked like the minor third was an Eb and the major third was an E.
This made sense to me as well, but then i carried on reading and you said that the major third is an E (which i got) but that the minor third was a G. Im not too sure how you got that, and I got all confused at that point

A: From C to E is a major third. You would then count from E to G, arriving at a minor third. I think you got confused when you tried to count from C to G, which is a perfect fifth. I feel your pain! But just count from the root to the third, and then from the third to the fifth.

Persnickety Theory Man Chart Correction

As a champion of Justice, Liberty, and the theoretical way, here's a slight correction to your interval chart. The notes themselves would play out correctly on the guitar, but on paper, it's supposed to check out like this:

C to C Unison
C to Db minor 2nd
C to D Major 2nd
C to Eb minor 3rd
C to E Major 3rd
C to F Perfect 4th
C to Gb Diminished 5th (Also known as a Flatted 5th)
C to G Perfect 5th
C to Ab minor 6th
C to A Major 6th
C to Bb minor 7th
C to B Major 7th
C to C Octave

The reason? A minor second must be the second letter above C. C# and Db are enharmonic (the same note) but Db is the correct label. The same logic applies to the other corrections. G is five letters above C, so a flatted fifth must be some sort of a G. If it's an F#, it's a raised fourth. Stupid, yes. But Theory Man must inform everyone of the rules, no matter how stupid they may be! After all, a buncha cats in knee socks invented 'em.

Rock on, "Kwame", and please let me know if this does, or doesn't, answer your questions.

Until next time!

Kaazam!
Theory Man