Why Should I Learn Intervals in Music?

Duane: Good morning, this is Duane and we’ve talked about music intervals a lot. Intervals being the distance between any two notes and the reason we talk about them is because in music, of course, we use them all the time. [PLAYING PIANO] That’s an interval, isn’t it and it’s helpful to know what interval that is when you’re picking it out by ear or there’s lots of reasons why you should learn intervals.

We’ve learned that that’s a second because it’s a second note above the first note, right and that’s the third. Same reason, one, two, three. That’s a fourth, that’s a fifth, that’s a sixth, that’s a seventh, that’s an eighth.

We learned that there’s two kinds of intervals, there’s harmonic intervals if you play them together and there’s melodic intervals if you play them separately, so what is this? [PLAYING PIANO] That’s right, that’s a harmonic six because I played them together.

What’s this? [PLAYING PIANO] That’s a melodic fifth because I’m going up five notes and it’s a melody isn’t it, it’s not a harmony it’s not played together. Bear that in mind. Now, once you know the intervals the numbers of them then there’s different kinds, there’s major intervals, there’s minor intervals, there’s augmented intervals, there’s diminished intervals, just like chords, plus there’s perfect intervals.

Let’s do that today. What’s a major interval? A major interval is one whole step above the bottom note so that’s a major second. If I want it hear that would still be a second but it would be a minor second. Why? Because I’m lowering the second a half step so the closest possible two notes would be a minor second.

Major second, what would that be? One, two, three, it’s a major third, it’s the third note of the major scale actually, okay. If I move E to E flat what’s that? It’s a minor third, okay. So far we have a minor second, major second, minor third, major third. When we come to C and F that’s a fourth isn’t it, one, two, three, four and fourths can’t be major or minor but what they are is they’re perfect, they’re perfect.

The word perfect puzzles a lot of people but it simply means that F’s in the scale of C which is obvious but the bottom note, C is also in the scale of F, if I play the F scale, C’s in it. That’s the definition of a perfect interval, they have to be in each other’s scale.

If I go up a half step from that perfect fourth what do I get? I get an augmented fourth. Augmented because I’m augmenting the interval from a perfect up a half a step, augmented fourth. We could also call that a diminished fifth because I’m moving down a half step, it’s not a minor fifth by the way, you can’t make major, you can’t make perfect intervals major or minor. Perfect intervals are always perfect or they’re diminished or they’re augmented.

Let’s come back to C and F, that’s a perfect fourth, that’s an augmented fourth, what’s that? It’s a perfect fifth. How do I know? Well, G is in the scale of C and if I play the scale of G I find that C is in it also so they have a perfect relationship.

Now if I raise G a half step to G sharp, what’s that? That’s an augmented fifth, augmented fifth, remember fifths, fourths and fifths, perfect intervals cannot be made major or minor but they can be made augmented or diminished, okay, so that’s an augmented fifth.
It could also be called a minor sixth because that’s a major sixty, isn’t it? One, two, three, four, five, six, sixth note of the scale and if I lower it a half step that’s a minor six. What’s that? It’s a seventh of some sort, isn’t it? It’s a minor seventh, isn’t it?

Minor seventh and that’s a major seventh because it’s the seventh going to the C scale, that’s a major seventh so that would be a minor seventh. We’re not talking about chords here, we’re talking about the intervals. That’s a minor seventh but this chord is a minor seventh too, so we’re talking about apples and oranges this is a, that’s an interval because it just has two notes. That’s a chord because it has more than two notes.

Intervals are parts are a part of a chord aren’t they? Intervals are always a part of a chord, I mean unless you play them separately but they can be made up into a chord but intervals are just two notes, either harmonic, or you play them at once, or melodic where you play them separately.

That’s a major seventh because B is the seventh note of the C scale and that’s a perfect eight, a perfect unison. It’s eight notes above C and it’s name is C so it’s perfect, it has a perfect relationship. Obviously, C is in the scale of C and C is in the scale of C. There’s three kinds of perfect intervals, octaves, fours and fifths, that’s it, there are no more perfect intervals, just octaves, fourths and fifths.

When it comes to major intervals, any major interval can be made minor by lowering the third, major third, minor third, major six, minor six, major seventh, minor seventh. Where as a perfect interval can be made diminished, diminished fifth, augmented fifth, okay, got that?

It’s a lot to think about because there’s a lot of categories but try to get a hold on that because you’re going to run into that your whole musical life so hopefully that helps and if you like this sort of thing come on over to Play Piano and sign up for free piano tips, you’ll get something like this most every day and I think you’ll like it, so thanks, see you tomorrow, bye-bye.

Here is the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWhxjNhUTiw&feature=youtu.be

Here is a good article on intervals: http://www.musicalintervalstutor.info/