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Interval Meaning: Musical Intervals
Musical intervals can refer to either melodic intervals or harmonic intervals (commonly called chord progressions). For harmonic intervals, the tricky thing is that the name of the interval between chord roots can itself have two meanings.
- It can refer to the movement of a given chord “up” to the next chord in the progression, with respect to the root name—for example, C “up” to G if you go like this: C, D, E, F, G.
- It can also refer to the movement of a given chord “down” to the next chord from the original chord, with respect to the root name—for example, G “down” to C if you go like this: C, B, A, G.
Either way you figure it, you’re still changing from a “C” chord to a “G” chord. But the order of the chords in the progression matters with respect to naming. The chord change from C to G has a different name, and a different musical effect, compared with the chord change G to C.