Chapter 12:Transcribing What You Hear 161
Interval Song-Specific Phrase
Major second “Three Blind Mice” THREE BLIND mice ...
“Mary Had a Little MA-RY had a little lamb ...
Lamb”
“Yesterday” (The Beatles)YES-TERDAY, all my troubles seemed
so far away ...
Minor third “Jesus Loves Me” JE-SUSloves me this I know ...
“Hey Jude” HEY JUDE ...
(The Beatles)
Major third “Swing Low, Sweet SWING LOW, sweet chariot ...
Chariot”
“Good Night Ladies” GOOD NIGHT ladies ...
(from The Music Man)
“Summertime” (from SUM-MER-time, and the livin’ is easy ...
Porgy and Bess)
Perfect fourth “Born Free” BORN FREE ...
“My Girl” MY GIRL, talkin’ ’bout my girl ...
(The Temptations)
Tritone European police siren
Perfect fifth Theme from FLINT-STONES,meet the
The Flintstones Flintstones ...
“Feelings” FEEL-INGS,whoa, whoa, whoa,
feelings ...
Minor sixth Theme from Love Story WHERE DO I begin ...
Major sixth “Over There” O-VERthere ...
“Nobody Knows the NO-BOD-y knows ...
Trouble I’ve Seen”
Minor seventh “Watermelon Man” Water-MEL-on MAN
Major seventh “Have Yourself a Merry So HAVE YOUR-self a merry little
Little Christmas” Christmas now ...
Octave “Salt Peanuts” Salt PEA-NUTS, salt peanuts ...
(Dizzy Gillespie)Exercise your interval memory the same way you did your tonal memory. Start by
listening to a song and picking two adjacent notes in the melody—the first two
notes are often the best to work with. Wait a few seconds; then try to sing the two
notes. Verify your accuracy by playing the song again.
Once you can internalize the interval, try to determine what interval it is that
you’re singing. Is it a second? A third? Is it major or minor? Determine the inter-
val, and then try to reproduce the interval on your instrument. Once you can accu-
rately play the interval, you can verify the specific interval you guessed. (For
example, if you find yourself playing a G and then a B, you know you’re playing a
major third.)