Just a little confused on the major 3rd / minor 3rd intervals I think. I'm not quite sure how to explain what I'm not understanding is part of the issue ! In a major scale I know it goes up like: maj, maj, maj, min, maj, maj, maj, min, but I am confused on the interval part being (c for example): major third, minor third, minor third, etc...
I guess what I'm looking for is a little more of an explanation of what I should understand from this video.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Edit: The only thing I can think of is the interval being major 3rd / minor third is based off of what the third note would be for the respecting key (M3 in the key of D would be F#, but because we are following along in C, the second interval is Minor third because two notes after D in the C Maj scale is F?)
Hi Chris,
I think what's tripping you up is you're probably getting the intervals and degrees of scale mixed up.
In key of C, the scale would be:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B
Using Arnav's post below for reference, it takes a whole step (2 half steps or 2 frets in the guitar) to get to D which is a major 2nd interval, a whole step to get to E which is a major 3rd, half step to get to F which is a perfect 4th... and so on till you reach the next root (octave).
In a C scale however, each note is a degree of a scale which has different tonality.
C - maj - I - Ionian
D - min - ii - Dorian
E - min - iii - Phrygian
F - maj - IV - Lydian
G - mai - V - Mixolydian
A - min - vi - Aeolian
B - dim - vii - Locrian
Using that C scale again as an example, build a triad starting from C and you'll get C-E-G which is a major triad. If you build a triad starting from D in C scale, you'll get D-F-A which is a minor triad, i.e., since F is only whole and a half step from D, it is the minor 3rd of D and gives it a minor sound. Same with E-G-B, the G is only a half and whole steps from E so G is minor 3rd of E. Moving on, F will have F-A-C (Maj) as it's triad, G will have G-B-D... if you add the 4th note to G, which is F which and is minor 7 relative to G, you get the dominant 7 chord. That's why the 5th degree of C is a dominant chord.
Knowing that, you can then build the triad of a chord in any key with the same formula... R-M3-5 or simply R-3-5 for Major chord, R-m3-5 or R-b3-5 for minor chord. When you add a 4th note on a triad, which is usually a 7th, you'll get a R-3-5-7 for Maj7, R-b3-5-b7 for min7, R-3-5-b7 for dominant chord.
Since the only thing that's changed between major and minor chord is the third, it's possible to remove the 5th and still have a major or minor sound. An example is at around 5:12 of the B17 video.
BTW, if you build your triad starting from the 7th degree (of key of C) which is B, it's triad is B-D-F which is R-b3-b5 (dim) and with 4th note, it's B-D-F-A which is R-b3-b5-b7 which is half diminished or min7b5 chord.
Hope that helps.