Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

23: Intervals

A Brief Note on Ear Training

Knowing these intervals intellectually is valuable, but knowing them by

hearing them is priceless. If you’ve ever struggled with learning a song

by ear, you’ll appreciate knowing intervals by the way they sound.

The trick is to sing or play each interval over and over and over until you

can sing any interval from any note. There are many ways to do this. One

way is to pick an interval a week and sing/play that interval from every

note you can sing/play until you’ve memorized the difference in pitch.

Do this everywhere you won’t be looked at strangely (or if you don’t

mind looking strange, do it everywhere): in the car, in the shower, hum

them under your breath at a boring lecture or meeting, use your

imagination. Knowing these intervals by ear is a valuable skill for any

musician of any level. If you can hear an interval correctly, writing it out

is a cinch.

Moving On

It may take some time living with these intervals before they really stick

in your head. Keep at it until you’ve got them. Knowing your intervals

will be necessary when we get to building chords, which is coming up in

a few chapters.

Coming up in the next chapter are minor scales.

M6 4 1/2

a6 5

min7 5

M7 5 1/2

a7 6

dim8 5 1/2

P8 6

a8 6 1/2

INTERVAL

NUMBER OF

STEPS