251
Identifying Intervals
Intervals are the distance between two pitches and are the building blocks of melody and harmony. While
intervals may be expressed as acoustic ratios of frequencies (see Appendix 2), we will study intervals expressed
as the distance between pitches on the staff and the keyboard. Remember to also sing and listen to them. We
have already discussed three intervals in Modules 1 and 4 : the octave, whole step, and half step.
Intervals may be drawn and performed in two ways:
- Harmonically,or blocked—notes sounding simultaneously, forming harmony.
- Melodically,or broken—notes sounding consecutively, forming melody.
An interval consists of two parts: an interval quantityand an interval quality.
- The interval quantity(expressed as a number) is determined by counting the inclusive adjacent letter names
between two pitches. For example, the interval from C ascending to E is a third.
251 Identifying Intervals
255 Consonance and Dissonance
256 Defining Quality
256 Intervals of the Major Scale: Perfect and Major
259 Interval Shortcuts
262 Changing Major Intervals: Minor
267 Changing Major and Minor Intervals: Augmented,
Diminished
269 Changing Perfect Intervals: Augmented, Diminished
273 The Tritone
273 Simple and Compound Intervals
275 Descending Intervals (Interval Inversion)
277 Workbook