December 13, 2024 • 29 mins
In Ear Training_Part_1: Intervals, we dive deep into the foundational concepts of ear training and intervals, tailored specifically for beginner music theorists and aspiring musicians. Whether you're a guitar player looking to improve your aural skills, a music student starting your journey in music theory, or simply seeking to sharpen your understanding of musical intervals, this episode is for you.
Learn how to identify and internalize different types of intervals – from simple major and minor intervals to more complex augmented and diminished ones. Developing your ear for intervals is a crucial skill for musicians of all levels, helping you with everything from sight-singing to transcribing music by ear.
We'll also cover practical tips on how to practice interval recognition and suggest easy exercises to integrate into your daily routine. Perfect for music theory for beginners, this episode will guide you step-by-step through the process of interval ear training, providing you with the tools to enhance your musicality.
If you're serious about improving your aural skills, this episode is your starting point. Tune in, and start building your foundational music theory knowledge with us today!
Keywords: Ear Training, Intervals, Music Theory For Beginners, Aural Skills, Music Theory For Guitar, Musical Intervals, Ear Training Exercises, Interval Recognition, Beginner Music Theory
Linear Music Theory Learning For Everyone!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
So,
SPEAKER_00 (00:45):
Hello out there to all my fellow music theory nerds
that are tuning in today.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith.
I do appreciate everybody tuningin and I do hope you are
enjoying my series thus far.
This is episode nine.
I have a very exciting andspecial episode today.
(01:09):
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Ho, ho, ho.
Ho, ho.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah, baby.
Let's go.
Let's go.
So here we are entering episodenine.
Having learned a whole lot inthe previous eight episodes from
(01:32):
starting with one note, how thatnote changed together to create
scales and scale patterns, howscales work, turn into triads
using the skipping method, howtriads turn into chords, and how
chords turn into chordprogressions.
We have studied all of thatstuff very thoroughly so far.
(01:53):
A little bit of a paradigm shiftin today's episode as we are
going to move into the realm ofwhat we call ear training or
aural skills.
Today's episode is going to beall about that.
intervals.
So allow me to get on my soapboxhere for a moment before I start
(02:16):
diving into today's concepts.
What is the number one asset youhave as a musician?
Is it knowledge?
Is it your technical abilities?
No, it's your ear, right?
It's always going to be yourear.
Music is a form ofcommunication.
(02:38):
It is its own language on top ofbeing the greatest art form in
the world that man has everinvented.
And in order to speak thislanguage fluently as we all want
to, you need to be able to hearit with your ear and be able to
recognize sounds, colors,organization of sounds, context
(03:02):
of sounds, going from this tothis, all of that.
You need to be able to use yourear as your number one asset to
understand what you're listeningto.
So let's start off with ourfirst definition today, which
is...
What is ear training exactly?
Ear training is the study andpractice in which musicians
(03:25):
learn various skills to detectand identify pitches, intervals,
melodies, harmonies, and chordprogressions solely by ear.
Think back to our talks aboutthe difference between the
sounds of major and minor onsort of a general broad level.
(03:46):
That really was our introductionto ear training and aural skills
as we were really associatingthose sounds in our minds so
that we could recognize themmore and more in the future.
And that really is the core ofear training.
So let's go ahead and get totoday's concept, which is what
(04:09):
is an interval?
An interval in music is thedistance between two pitches and
the unique sound that itproduces.
Intervals can be evaluatedhorizontally in a melodic
fashion and also vertically in aharmonic fashion.
(04:31):
So in other words, in a melody,you could be going from pitch A
to pitch B, and there's acertain sound that yields
between them, and that's aninterval sound.
Or you could have a chord thathas certain sounds stacked on
top of each othersimultaneously, and that is also
an interval sound.
But for the purposes of thisepisode being the first interval
(04:55):
episode, and I'm sure I'll haveanother, we are going to start
where music theory studentsalways need to start with this
concept, which is learninghorizontal intervals, meaning
melodic.
So we're going to base all oursounds And here's the good news
for those of y'all who have beenfollowing this podcast.
(05:18):
You have actually alreadylearned like four of the 12
intervals we're going to learntoday.
Yeah, that's right.
You've already learned them.
You just need to know how toname them and recognize them
now.
So without further ado, let'sstart big picture.
And I'm going to start off witha list of the 12 intervals.
(05:42):
The 12 intervals are called asfollows.
A minor second, a major second,a minor third, a major third, a
perfect fourth, then a tritone,which is sometimes also called a
sharp four or a flat five,depending on context.
There's a perfect fifth, a minorsixth and a major sixth, a minor
(06:05):
seventh and a major seventh, andthen a perfect octave.
And no need to be intimidated bythis list.
We are going to go through themone at a time and learn them
well.
So remember when I talked aboutyou already know four of them?
You really know the first four,which is kind of awesome.
(06:26):
And one final precursor, thereare ascending intervals and
descending intervals.
So intervals that go from onepitch and go up in sound and
intervals that go from one pitchand go down in sound.
Honestly, the best place tostart is ascending intervals.
So this podcast episode is goingto start with ascending
(06:47):
intervals only.
So intervals start with the twothings that we started our music
theory study with, which is halfsteps and whole steps.
Now we use these as individualunits in context of scale
patterns and things like that,like we did previously.
But when it comes to intervals,a half step is the equivalent of
(07:11):
a minor second.
And we're starting there becauseit is the smallest distance you
can move from one pitch to theother without distortion or
bending, in the Western systemspecifically.
A minor second sounds like this.
A bit lower would sound likethis.
(07:39):
Higher would sound like this.
Or this.
So we are literally moving fromone pitch up to the very next
pitch on any instrument.
In this case, that's one fret ona guitar, but it would also just
be one key on a piano, forexample.
So now here comes the fun part.
(08:02):
Your job as a music theorypractitioner at this point is
now to learn how to associate aclear and definitive sound that
you've heard and recognizedbefore and attach it to this
interval so that when you hearthis interval in its various
(08:22):
forms in music, you willrecognize it as a minor second
that it is.
Sure.
So, for example, any time I heara really low rumbling minor
second, it sounds like this tome.
(08:45):
Sounds exactly like thebeginning of the theme to the
epic horror movie of the pastcalled Jaws.
Now, a lot of you young peopleprobably don't know what that is
and you might have to look it upand that's fine.
But that's what it reminds meof.
That doesn't necessarily meanit's what it reminds you of.
(09:06):
So your job is to take thissound and figure out how to
associate it in your mind withsomething that is stuck in your
mind.
Get it?
My suggestion is start a listright now, whether it's on your
computer, whether it's on apiece of paper, on your phone,
whatever it may be.
Start writing down eachinterval.
(09:29):
And every time you come up witha sound that it reminds you of,
notate it somewhere and stash itaway.
So for me, on my list, we'regoing to start with minor second
equals Jaws theme.
So let's go ahead and move on tothe next interval, which is
called a major second.
Or as we previously learned, awhole step, right?
(09:52):
And a major second sounds likethis.
A little higher.
Super low.
Now, most of us are most highlyaffected by music that really
pulled on us emotionally duringour formative years, i.e.
(10:14):
the high school years and thecollege years, for example.
And I'm no different.
My most formative years wasduring the decade of the 90s,
and because of that, the majorsecond sound you just heard
reminds me of the intro guitarriff to Vaseline by Stone Temple
Pilots, because Stone TemplePilots was the very first rock
(10:37):
band I ever saw live as ateenager.
But to give you another example,my undergraduate chorus teacher
used to refer to a song calledPeople by Bette Midler, and that
always reminded her of A MajorSecond, and I didn't even know
that song at the time.
I had to go look it up.
(10:59):
And you might have to look upboth of the examples I just gave
you, but the most importantthing is that you come up with
your own example that makessense to you.
I'm going to keep reiteratingthat.
So on your list that you'remaking, you should have Minor
Second, and you're going to havean example there eventually, if
not already, and then you'regoing to have A And you're going
(11:19):
to come up with an examplethere.
So a minor second was a halfstep of distance.
A major second is a whole stepof distance or two half steps.
And now we're going to get to athird interval, which is a minor
third, which is three half stepsof distance.
And an ascending minor thirdsounds like this.
(11:45):
Higher.
Lower.
To associate this one in mymind, it always reminds me of
the famous Brahms lullaby, whichsounds like this.
So Now, chances are a lot of youhave already been singing that
(12:10):
to your kids as they grow up,and you already know that tune
pretty well as sort of just achild tune.
So my point is, feel free to useit on your list as a placeholder
for now.
But again, come up with one ofyour own at least.
So no matter what you take fromme and my experience and how I
(12:30):
hear intervals, you shouldalways at least come up with one
more for your own sake.
And we move right along to ournext interval, which is a major
third.
And a major third is four halfsteps of distance between pitch
A and pitch B.
(12:51):
And it sounds like this.
Pitch A.
And a major third always remindsme of a very famous catchy and
fun song, which is calledBlister in the Sun by the
Violent Femmes.
(13:13):
If you don't know that song,look it up and listen to the
first two notes of the main riffon guitar.
It's very catchy, very poppy,and was a huge hit back in the
day.
Sounds like this.
So again, you can use that one,but remember, your job is also
(13:36):
to find one on your own and putit on your list so that you have
your own private personal listof interval sounds.
And let me pause our intervalstudy here for a moment to say
something very important.
So the two intervals we justlearned, a minor third and a
major third, are extremelyimportant in our music system
(14:01):
because those are the intervalsthat we use to stack on top of
each other to create chords.
all our triads and our chords.
So our entire system is basedoff of minor thirds and major
thirds.
The nerd term that shrouds thatentire concept is called tertian
(14:24):
harmony.
Tertian meaning thirds.
So I hope you come up withstrong examples for those two
because it's going to be veryimportant going forward.
But let's go ahead and continue.
We left off on a major third,which was four half steps.
So we progress to five halfsteps of distance between point
A and point B, which is called aperfect fourth.
(14:49):
A perfect fourth sounds likethis.
A perfect fourth.
This one's easy for me.
It is most associated in my mindwith Here Comes the Bride.
And as a classically trainedguitarist, as I have been my
(15:11):
whole life, I've played tons andtons of weddings.
So this tune has always been inmy ear.
Recognize it?
Again, you can write it down asa placeholder on your list, but
you do need to come up with atleast one more of your own so
(15:34):
you can personalize yourinterval list.
Let me take a second to talkabout interval names.
So, so far we've had minors andmajors.
And in our mind, we know minoris kind of a lower, darker,
sadder kind of sound.
And major is more uplifting,brighter, and happier.
But now we're getting to one ofthree intervals that are called
(15:57):
perfect intervals.
And the reason they're calledperfect is because they're not
associated with major or minor.
They're actually intervals thatexist in both major and minor
scales.
Therefore, they're calledperfect.
The next interval actually hasseveral different names and can
(16:19):
be called an augmented fourth ora diminished fifth and sometimes
called a tritone.
Now, tritone is not actually aninterval name.
It comes from tri, meaningthree, of course, tone
representing like whole tone orwhole step.
(16:39):
If you remember, semitone equalshalf step and whole tone equals
whole step.
So three whole tones is thedistance or three whole steps
that gives you what they call atritone.
But the interval itself isactually either an augmented
fourth, or a diminished fifth,depending on context.
(16:59):
And it sounds like this.
And this one reminds me of thebeginning of The Simpsons theme
song, which sounds like this.
(17:21):
And on kind of a funny sidenote, when the whole world was
coming out of the Dark Ages, theMiddle Ages, where you had all
these horrible things, includingthe bubonic plague, wiping out
almost the whole earth andthings like that, the recovery
started going back into theRenaissance period.
This interval, the tritone, wasbanned by the Catholic Church,
(17:46):
by composers that were writingCatholic liturgy and sacred
music, because it was associatedas sounding like it belonged
with the devil or it had somekind of satanic connotation.
So continuing on down the lineright now, our very next
interval, which is going to beseven half steps between
(18:08):
pitches, is going to be called aperfect fifth.
And a perfect fifth sounds likethis.
(18:29):
A perfect fifth always remindsme of a couple of 80s epic movie
theme tunes.
The first of which is Top Gun.
Top Gun.
(18:49):
And then the other one is thetheme to E.T., Extraterrestrial.
UNKNOWN (18:58):
Extraterrestrial.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
And our next interval, which is eight half
steps of distance in between thepitches, is called a minor
sixth.
And a minor sixth sounds likethis.
(19:26):
A minor sixth definitely has apersonal place in my mind with a
quirky reference in my mind froma song called You Enjoy Myself
by Phish, which has an epic partin the middle where they
reiterate this minor sixth overand over again.
(19:47):
And it just rings in my mind andalways reminds me of this
interval.
It sounds like this.
(20:08):
And it's just the first part ofthat that is a minor sixth, but
man, does it ring in my ear justbecause I am a bit of a fish
head and followed them aroundwhen I was younger.
And man, that stuff is justburned in my brain.
And now we move to the nextinterval, which contains nine
half steps from pitch to pitch,which is called a major sixth.
UNKNOWN (20:38):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (20:38):
And I'm going to go with, on my list, the Princess
Leia theme from Star Wars, whichstarts with a major 6th.
(20:59):
And major sixth is kind of atough one to find, actually.
So I urge you to take your timethis week to go find one that
really matches up with what youlisten to and what you remember.
But moving on, we're going to goto 10 half steps of distance
now, which is an interval calleda minor seventh.
(21:23):
And a minor seventh sounds likethis.
This interval reminds me of acouple different things.
If you're old school like me, itreminds you of an old Ford
commercial that sounds likethis.
(21:50):
But another cool and epic one,since I'm a sci-fi nerd as well
as a music theory nerd, is theStar Trek theme that goes like
this.
And now with two intervals togo, we go to 11 half steps of
(22:13):
distance between notes, which isan interval called a major
seventh.
And a major seventh sounds likethis.
Ah.
An example of a major seventh isanother old school 80s tune
(22:38):
called Take On Me by A-Ha.
And we've made it to our finalinterval, which is going to be a
full 12 half steps from onepitch to another.
(22:58):
And they share the same letterbecause it's called an octave.
And an octave sounds like this.
Okay.
(23:19):
And a famous tune that I connectan octave to in my mind is
Somewhere Over the Rainbow fromThe Wizard of Oz.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_00 (23:36):
And there you have it.
We have officially gone throughall 12 ascending intervals in
music.
So how does that feel if you'venever done that before?
So let me wrap up this ascendinginterval study by tying these
intervals into the scalepatterns that you already know,
(23:58):
specifically major scale andminor scale, or intervals.
as in Greek mode form, Ionianand Aeolian.
Remember, everything goes backto scales, and it always will.
So if I start with a C majorscale that sounds like this.
So let me point out, when youstart on a C and you go to the
(24:20):
second note of a C major scale,it's a major second.
Then when you go to the thirdnote, you get a major third.
And then when you go to thefourth note, you get a perfect
fourth.
And then perfect fifth.
And then major sixth, becauseit's a major scale.
(24:45):
Major seventh, because it's amajor scale.
And finally, you get an octave.
UNKNOWN (24:53):
And finally, you get an octave.
SPEAKER_00 (24:56):
But if I were to do that same experiment for the
parallel minor, so I'm going tostart on C again, but I'm going
to build that natural minorscale or Aeolian mode, you would
get, you'd start on C, you get amajor second again.
That's going to be a little bitof a head scratcher because
you're going to ask me, why isit not a minor second?
(25:17):
I'll get to that in a moment.
But your third is a minor third.
Then you get a perfect fourth,which remember, perfect means
both scales.
Then you get a perfect fifth.
Then you get a minor sixth.
Then you get a minor seventh.
(25:37):
And then finally you get anoctave again.
So quick explanation, Aeolianstarts with a major second
interval, but there are a coupleof minor sounding modes, which
are Phrygian and Locrian, thatstart with a minor second.
So Phrygian would sound likethis.
(25:57):
So you can clearly hear theminor second in the beginning.
And then the other mode thatdoes that is called Locrian,
which is based on the seventhscale degree.
And that one's going to soundlike this.
So again, you can clearly hearthe half step in the beginning,
(26:26):
which again is a minor second.
And can y'all recall fromprevious episodes what the three
scale degrees are that aredifferent between major and
minor?
They are three, six, and seven.
So when you're in a major scaleor Ionian, you're going to have
a major third, a major sixth,and a major seven.
(26:49):
Makes sense, right?
When you're in a minor mode likeAeolian, you're going to have a
minor third, a minor sixth, anda minor seventh.
And now that you've learned thebasic setup for ascending
intervals, I will absolutely belooking forward to expanding on
this going forward using moreand more audio examples just to
(27:11):
bring it all home.
Because remember, your ear isyour number one asset as a
musician.
But now it's time for Breakdown.
UNKNOWN (27:27):
Breakdown.
SPEAKER_00 (27:29):
Today we learned all about ascending intervals.
We started by learning what eartraining was and why it's
important.
We learned that we have 12intervals.
(27:51):
We learned that we have majorand minor intervals that are
called that for a reason as wellas perfect intervals.
We learned what tertian harmonymeans, harmony in thirds, what
our system is based off of.
We learned the differencebetween ascending and descending
(28:14):
intervals, as well as thedifference between listening to
horizontal intervals as opposedto vertical, the difference
being melodic and harmonicintervals.
Thanks again for tuning in,everybody.
I hope that you learned a lot.
(28:35):
I hope that you're creating yourinterval list and you update it
as you go to use those sounds inyour mind to relate to
everything else.
Until next time, I will lookforward to...
Continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
So,
SPEAKER_00 (00:45):
Hello out there to all my fellow music theory nerds
that are tuning in today.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith.
I do appreciate everybody tuningin and I do hope you are
enjoying my series thus far.
This is episode nine.
I have a very exciting andspecial episode today.
(01:09):
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Ho, ho, ho.
Ho, ho.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah, baby.
Let's go.
Let's go.
So here we are entering episodenine.
Having learned a whole lot inthe previous eight episodes from
(01:32):
starting with one note, how thatnote changed together to create
scales and scale patterns, howscales work, turn into triads
using the skipping method, howtriads turn into chords, and how
chords turn into chordprogressions.
We have studied all of thatstuff very thoroughly so far.
(01:53):
A little bit of a paradigm shiftin today's episode as we are
going to move into the realm ofwhat we call ear training or
aural skills.
Today's episode is going to beall about that.
intervals.
So allow me to get on my soapboxhere for a moment before I start
(02:16):
diving into today's concepts.
What is the number one asset youhave as a musician?
Is it knowledge?
Is it your technical abilities?
No, it's your ear, right?
It's always going to be yourear.
Music is a form ofcommunication.
(02:38):
It is its own language on top ofbeing the greatest art form in
the world that man has everinvented.
And in order to speak thislanguage fluently as we all want
to, you need to be able to hearit with your ear and be able to
recognize sounds, colors,organization of sounds, context
(03:02):
of sounds, going from this tothis, all of that.
You need to be able to use yourear as your number one asset to
understand what you're listeningto.
So let's start off with ourfirst definition today, which
is...
What is ear training exactly?
Ear training is the study andpractice in which musicians
(03:25):
learn various skills to detectand identify pitches, intervals,
melodies, harmonies, and chordprogressions solely by ear.
Think back to our talks aboutthe difference between the
sounds of major and minor onsort of a general broad level.
(03:46):
That really was our introductionto ear training and aural skills
as we were really associatingthose sounds in our minds so
that we could recognize themmore and more in the future.
And that really is the core ofear training.
So let's go ahead and get totoday's concept, which is what
(04:09):
is an interval?
An interval in music is thedistance between two pitches and
the unique sound that itproduces.
Intervals can be evaluatedhorizontally in a melodic
fashion and also vertically in aharmonic fashion.
(04:31):
So in other words, in a melody,you could be going from pitch A
to pitch B, and there's acertain sound that yields
between them, and that's aninterval sound.
Or you could have a chord thathas certain sounds stacked on
top of each othersimultaneously, and that is also
an interval sound.
But for the purposes of thisepisode being the first interval
(04:55):
episode, and I'm sure I'll haveanother, we are going to start
where music theory studentsalways need to start with this
concept, which is learninghorizontal intervals, meaning
melodic.
So we're going to base all oursounds And here's the good news
for those of y'all who have beenfollowing this podcast.
(05:18):
You have actually alreadylearned like four of the 12
intervals we're going to learntoday.
Yeah, that's right.
You've already learned them.
You just need to know how toname them and recognize them
now.
So without further ado, let'sstart big picture.
And I'm going to start off witha list of the 12 intervals.
(05:42):
The 12 intervals are called asfollows.
A minor second, a major second,a minor third, a major third, a
perfect fourth, then a tritone,which is sometimes also called a
sharp four or a flat five,depending on context.
There's a perfect fifth, a minorsixth and a major sixth, a minor
(06:05):
seventh and a major seventh, andthen a perfect octave.
And no need to be intimidated bythis list.
We are going to go through themone at a time and learn them
well.
So remember when I talked aboutyou already know four of them?
You really know the first four,which is kind of awesome.
(06:26):
And one final precursor, thereare ascending intervals and
descending intervals.
So intervals that go from onepitch and go up in sound and
intervals that go from one pitchand go down in sound.
Honestly, the best place tostart is ascending intervals.
So this podcast episode is goingto start with ascending
(06:47):
intervals only.
So intervals start with the twothings that we started our music
theory study with, which is halfsteps and whole steps.
Now we use these as individualunits in context of scale
patterns and things like that,like we did previously.
But when it comes to intervals,a half step is the equivalent of
(07:11):
a minor second.
And we're starting there becauseit is the smallest distance you
can move from one pitch to theother without distortion or
bending, in the Western systemspecifically.
A minor second sounds like this.
A bit lower would sound likethis.
(07:39):
Higher would sound like this.
Or this.
So we are literally moving fromone pitch up to the very next
pitch on any instrument.
In this case, that's one fret ona guitar, but it would also just
be one key on a piano, forexample.
So now here comes the fun part.
(08:02):
Your job as a music theorypractitioner at this point is
now to learn how to associate aclear and definitive sound that
you've heard and recognizedbefore and attach it to this
interval so that when you hearthis interval in its various
(08:22):
forms in music, you willrecognize it as a minor second
that it is.
Sure.
So, for example, any time I heara really low rumbling minor
second, it sounds like this tome.
(08:45):
Sounds exactly like thebeginning of the theme to the
epic horror movie of the pastcalled Jaws.
Now, a lot of you young peopleprobably don't know what that is
and you might have to look it upand that's fine.
But that's what it reminds meof.
That doesn't necessarily meanit's what it reminds you of.
(09:06):
So your job is to take thissound and figure out how to
associate it in your mind withsomething that is stuck in your
mind.
Get it?
My suggestion is start a listright now, whether it's on your
computer, whether it's on apiece of paper, on your phone,
whatever it may be.
Start writing down eachinterval.
(09:29):
And every time you come up witha sound that it reminds you of,
notate it somewhere and stash itaway.
So for me, on my list, we'regoing to start with minor second
equals Jaws theme.
So let's go ahead and move on tothe next interval, which is
called a major second.
Or as we previously learned, awhole step, right?
(09:52):
And a major second sounds likethis.
A little higher.
Super low.
Now, most of us are most highlyaffected by music that really
pulled on us emotionally duringour formative years, i.e.
(10:14):
the high school years and thecollege years, for example.
And I'm no different.
My most formative years wasduring the decade of the 90s,
and because of that, the majorsecond sound you just heard
reminds me of the intro guitarriff to Vaseline by Stone Temple
Pilots, because Stone TemplePilots was the very first rock
(10:37):
band I ever saw live as ateenager.
But to give you another example,my undergraduate chorus teacher
used to refer to a song calledPeople by Bette Midler, and that
always reminded her of A MajorSecond, and I didn't even know
that song at the time.
I had to go look it up.
(10:59):
And you might have to look upboth of the examples I just gave
you, but the most importantthing is that you come up with
your own example that makessense to you.
I'm going to keep reiteratingthat.
So on your list that you'remaking, you should have Minor
Second, and you're going to havean example there eventually, if
not already, and then you'regoing to have A And you're going
(11:19):
to come up with an examplethere.
So a minor second was a halfstep of distance.
A major second is a whole stepof distance or two half steps.
And now we're going to get to athird interval, which is a minor
third, which is three half stepsof distance.
And an ascending minor thirdsounds like this.
(11:45):
Higher.
Lower.
To associate this one in mymind, it always reminds me of
the famous Brahms lullaby, whichsounds like this.
So Now, chances are a lot of youhave already been singing that
(12:10):
to your kids as they grow up,and you already know that tune
pretty well as sort of just achild tune.
So my point is, feel free to useit on your list as a placeholder
for now.
But again, come up with one ofyour own at least.
So no matter what you take fromme and my experience and how I
(12:30):
hear intervals, you shouldalways at least come up with one
more for your own sake.
And we move right along to ournext interval, which is a major
third.
And a major third is four halfsteps of distance between pitch
A and pitch B.
(12:51):
And it sounds like this.
Pitch A.
And a major third always remindsme of a very famous catchy and
fun song, which is calledBlister in the Sun by the
Violent Femmes.
(13:13):
If you don't know that song,look it up and listen to the
first two notes of the main riffon guitar.
It's very catchy, very poppy,and was a huge hit back in the
day.
Sounds like this.
So again, you can use that one,but remember, your job is also
(13:36):
to find one on your own and putit on your list so that you have
your own private personal listof interval sounds.
And let me pause our intervalstudy here for a moment to say
something very important.
So the two intervals we justlearned, a minor third and a
major third, are extremelyimportant in our music system
(14:01):
because those are the intervalsthat we use to stack on top of
each other to create chords.
all our triads and our chords.
So our entire system is basedoff of minor thirds and major
thirds.
The nerd term that shrouds thatentire concept is called tertian
(14:24):
harmony.
Tertian meaning thirds.
So I hope you come up withstrong examples for those two
because it's going to be veryimportant going forward.
But let's go ahead and continue.
We left off on a major third,which was four half steps.
So we progress to five halfsteps of distance between point
A and point B, which is called aperfect fourth.
(14:49):
A perfect fourth sounds likethis.
A perfect fourth.
This one's easy for me.
It is most associated in my mindwith Here Comes the Bride.
And as a classically trainedguitarist, as I have been my
(15:11):
whole life, I've played tons andtons of weddings.
So this tune has always been inmy ear.
Recognize it?
Again, you can write it down asa placeholder on your list, but
you do need to come up with atleast one more of your own so
(15:34):
you can personalize yourinterval list.
Let me take a second to talkabout interval names.
So, so far we've had minors andmajors.
And in our mind, we know minoris kind of a lower, darker,
sadder kind of sound.
And major is more uplifting,brighter, and happier.
But now we're getting to one ofthree intervals that are called
(15:57):
perfect intervals.
And the reason they're calledperfect is because they're not
associated with major or minor.
They're actually intervals thatexist in both major and minor
scales.
Therefore, they're calledperfect.
The next interval actually hasseveral different names and can
(16:19):
be called an augmented fourth ora diminished fifth and sometimes
called a tritone.
Now, tritone is not actually aninterval name.
It comes from tri, meaningthree, of course, tone
representing like whole tone orwhole step.
(16:39):
If you remember, semitone equalshalf step and whole tone equals
whole step.
So three whole tones is thedistance or three whole steps
that gives you what they call atritone.
But the interval itself isactually either an augmented
fourth, or a diminished fifth,depending on context.
(16:59):
And it sounds like this.
And this one reminds me of thebeginning of The Simpsons theme
song, which sounds like this.
(17:21):
And on kind of a funny sidenote, when the whole world was
coming out of the Dark Ages, theMiddle Ages, where you had all
these horrible things, includingthe bubonic plague, wiping out
almost the whole earth andthings like that, the recovery
started going back into theRenaissance period.
This interval, the tritone, wasbanned by the Catholic Church,
(17:46):
by composers that were writingCatholic liturgy and sacred
music, because it was associatedas sounding like it belonged
with the devil or it had somekind of satanic connotation.
So continuing on down the lineright now, our very next
interval, which is going to beseven half steps between
(18:08):
pitches, is going to be called aperfect fifth.
And a perfect fifth sounds likethis.
(18:29):
A perfect fifth always remindsme of a couple of 80s epic movie
theme tunes.
The first of which is Top Gun.
Top Gun.
(18:49):
And then the other one is thetheme to E.T., Extraterrestrial.
UNKNOWN (18:58):
Extraterrestrial.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
And our next interval, which is eight half
steps of distance in between thepitches, is called a minor
sixth.
And a minor sixth sounds likethis.
(19:26):
A minor sixth definitely has apersonal place in my mind with a
quirky reference in my mind froma song called You Enjoy Myself
by Phish, which has an epic partin the middle where they
reiterate this minor sixth overand over again.
(19:47):
And it just rings in my mind andalways reminds me of this
interval.
It sounds like this.
(20:08):
And it's just the first part ofthat that is a minor sixth, but
man, does it ring in my ear justbecause I am a bit of a fish
head and followed them aroundwhen I was younger.
And man, that stuff is justburned in my brain.
And now we move to the nextinterval, which contains nine
half steps from pitch to pitch,which is called a major sixth.
UNKNOWN (20:38):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (20:38):
And I'm going to go with, on my list, the Princess
Leia theme from Star Wars, whichstarts with a major 6th.
(20:59):
And major sixth is kind of atough one to find, actually.
So I urge you to take your timethis week to go find one that
really matches up with what youlisten to and what you remember.
But moving on, we're going to goto 10 half steps of distance
now, which is an interval calleda minor seventh.
(21:23):
And a minor seventh sounds likethis.
This interval reminds me of acouple different things.
If you're old school like me, itreminds you of an old Ford
commercial that sounds likethis.
(21:50):
But another cool and epic one,since I'm a sci-fi nerd as well
as a music theory nerd, is theStar Trek theme that goes like
this.
And now with two intervals togo, we go to 11 half steps of
(22:13):
distance between notes, which isan interval called a major
seventh.
And a major seventh sounds likethis.
Ah.
An example of a major seventh isanother old school 80s tune
(22:38):
called Take On Me by A-Ha.
And we've made it to our finalinterval, which is going to be a
full 12 half steps from onepitch to another.
(22:58):
And they share the same letterbecause it's called an octave.
And an octave sounds like this.
Okay.
(23:19):
And a famous tune that I connectan octave to in my mind is
Somewhere Over the Rainbow fromThe Wizard of Oz.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_00 (23:36):
And there you have it.
We have officially gone throughall 12 ascending intervals in
music.
So how does that feel if you'venever done that before?
So let me wrap up this ascendinginterval study by tying these
intervals into the scalepatterns that you already know,
(23:58):
specifically major scale andminor scale, or intervals.
as in Greek mode form, Ionianand Aeolian.
Remember, everything goes backto scales, and it always will.
So if I start with a C majorscale that sounds like this.
So let me point out, when youstart on a C and you go to the
(24:20):
second note of a C major scale,it's a major second.
Then when you go to the thirdnote, you get a major third.
And then when you go to thefourth note, you get a perfect
fourth.
And then perfect fifth.
And then major sixth, becauseit's a major scale.
(24:45):
Major seventh, because it's amajor scale.
And finally, you get an octave.
UNKNOWN (24:53):
And finally, you get an octave.
SPEAKER_00 (24:56):
But if I were to do that same experiment for the
parallel minor, so I'm going tostart on C again, but I'm going
to build that natural minorscale or Aeolian mode, you would
get, you'd start on C, you get amajor second again.
That's going to be a little bitof a head scratcher because
you're going to ask me, why isit not a minor second?
(25:17):
I'll get to that in a moment.
But your third is a minor third.
Then you get a perfect fourth,which remember, perfect means
both scales.
Then you get a perfect fifth.
Then you get a minor sixth.
Then you get a minor seventh.
(25:37):
And then finally you get anoctave again.
So quick explanation, Aeolianstarts with a major second
interval, but there are a coupleof minor sounding modes, which
are Phrygian and Locrian, thatstart with a minor second.
So Phrygian would sound likethis.
(25:57):
So you can clearly hear theminor second in the beginning.
And then the other mode thatdoes that is called Locrian,
which is based on the seventhscale degree.
And that one's going to soundlike this.
So again, you can clearly hearthe half step in the beginning,
(26:26):
which again is a minor second.
And can y'all recall fromprevious episodes what the three
scale degrees are that aredifferent between major and
minor?
They are three, six, and seven.
So when you're in a major scaleor Ionian, you're going to have
a major third, a major sixth,and a major seven.
(26:49):
Makes sense, right?
When you're in a minor mode likeAeolian, you're going to have a
minor third, a minor sixth, anda minor seventh.
And now that you've learned thebasic setup for ascending
intervals, I will absolutely belooking forward to expanding on
this going forward using moreand more audio examples just to
(27:11):
bring it all home.
Because remember, your ear isyour number one asset as a
musician.
But now it's time for Breakdown.
UNKNOWN (27:27):
Breakdown.
SPEAKER_00 (27:29):
Today we learned all about ascending intervals.
We started by learning what eartraining was and why it's
important.
We learned that we have 12intervals.
(27:51):
We learned that we have majorand minor intervals that are
called that for a reason as wellas perfect intervals.
We learned what tertian harmonymeans, harmony in thirds, what
our system is based off of.
We learned the differencebetween ascending and descending
(28:14):
intervals, as well as thedifference between listening to
horizontal intervals as opposedto vertical, the difference
being melodic and harmonicintervals.
Thanks again for tuning in,everybody.
I hope that you learned a lot.
(28:35):
I hope that you're creating yourinterval list and you update it
as you go to use those sounds inyour mind to relate to
everything else.
Until next time, I will lookforward to...
Continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
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