Need some help with intervals

[stratking]

I've found a few good exercises on learning the fretboard via scales on wholenote.com. The lesson I'm working on is using intervals of the F maj scale. I'm actually surprised how I can now noodle around almost anywhere on the first two strings and actually stay in the F maj key just by "seeing" the notes. The problem I'm running into is there termonology when using intervals. Back in the day when I was but a young lad and taking lessons, my teacher briefly hit on this subject. Unfortunately all I really know is how to do intervals of three with box patters, such as taking, say, A maj 5th position and going 1-2-3-2-3-4-3-4-5 and so on.

The exercise I'm working on looks like this:

1------3---5---6---8-10-------------13---------
--1--3---5---6---8-------10-11-13-------------
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They say that this is an interval of fourths. To make it easier, I wrote out the F maj scale like this:

F - G - A - Bb - C - D - E - F
1   2    3   4     5   6   7   1

but for some reason I still just can't wrap my head around it. Can anyone help me visualize this in a better way(i.e. dumb it down)?

[matsb]

"Fourth" can mean the fourth note of a scale, in Fmaj = Bb, but it can also mean (and even more so means) the distance from one note to another. So when they write that the excercise is in fourths they mean that the melody makes leaps (mostly) of the interval of a fourth.

Hope that helps a little. :)

[sliding-tom]

"Fourth" can mean the fourth note of a scale, in Fmaj = Bb, but it can also mean (and even more so means) the distance from one note to another. So when they write that the excercise is in fourths they mean that the melody makes leaps (mostly) of the interval of a fourth.

Hope that helps a little. :)

Footnote: (just to be sure) a (perfect) fourth is an intervall of five half-notes.

[matsb]

Footnote: (just to be sure) a (perfect) fourth is an intervall of five half-notes.

Thanks sliding-tom, I forgot that little detail...

[Tele-Bob]

For what it's worth, I was taught that an interval is the space between notes.

[Gravity Jim]

TB is correct. In music, "interval" refers to the distance between any note and another (in a chord) or the next (in a melody), expressed as the number of notes between them in a major scale. For example, if you play a "C" and a "G" above it (one after the other or at the same time) the interval you're playing is a 5th. If the upper note is a G flat instead, the interval is a flat 5, if it's an A flat, it's a sharp 5, if it's an A, the interval is a 6th.

Stratking, what I think you're describing are scales or patterns... i.e., a SERIES of intervals, but not "intervals of the F maj scale."