Post by Steven Charles WhiteI'm curious what language/terminology you'd use to explain the difference between distances measured in semitones and distances measures in intervals.
Personally, I tend to use language like "physical" and "musical", respectively. So I might say that three semitones is a physical distance (because semitones exist on physical instruments such as a piano or a guitar) and that "minor third" and "augmented second" (for example) are musical distances (aka intervals). Those examples happen both to be three semitones in size, physically.
I know that's not perfect (for example, folks might think of feet and inches when they think of physical distance) but is it good enough? What would you recommend instead?
Thanks!
Steve
well, Wouldn't it all depend upon the context and there are a lot of contexts involved in this concept.
Take the semitone for example. its half of a tone.
take the aug2 or m3, they are each a tone and a half.
what does each or either of these statements mean to you?
with only that to go on, the semitone is only used to define define an interval. but the interval chosen in the example means some specific things. In the harmonic minor scale, the augmented 2nd is a scale step but the minor third can be a melodic skip or it can represent two scald steps.
The minor third is the one of the very first melodic intervals that children naturally sing while playing yet the augmented 2nd is considered a very dificult interval to sing. They even created the melodic scale to remove this hideous interval for singers.
The point I am alluding to is that you use the terminology that applies to the use of term in any given instance.
We use intervals to build chords, to describe melodic distances, semitones is more of an exact measurement that has its own special context, the context of using a tempered scale. we divide the octave in to 12 equal parts and we call each of distances one semitone.
In all the instances that I can recall where I use the term semitone, it is always used as a specific measurement used in music except possibly in analyzing 12-tone music where one might use this measurement to describe an interval. But even in that case, the fact that you use the term semitone, I find that it is talking about a specific distance between two tones. But unlike an inch, the semitone is not a specific spacial measurement. if you take an octave and measure the distance between the semitones, the lowest semitone is larger as measured by cycles per second of vibration than the one above it and so on and so on.
So what am I really saying? Not much. But semitones do seem to be the way we can measure intervals in a musical context Beyond that, intervals will have a different meaning depending upon how they are used and the context in which we use them.
By convention, we build diminished chords in with minoor thirds. We could say that in this case the minor third would be a unit of measure. But in this case, you can only use it to build or measure 4 unites. after the 4th interval you are repeating the same thing up an octave.
For me, personally, I would generally say that a semitone is one twelft of an octave. U can also use it to measure resolution. "the augmented 4th resolves outwardly with both tones moving one semitone (well, I would generally say a half step) outward to a minor 6th. OR that it contracts a half step or semitone to a major 3rd.
BUT if you are analyzing 12 tone music, there are some that would use semitones to measure the distance between tones instead of terms like major or minor.
Music is contextually a nightmare. If you want to be clear, you must use what ever fits the occasion and accurately describes what you want to explain.
LJS