Where's My Note? (Getting to know your intervals)

In the world of music theory, an interval is the difference in pitch between two sounds. When we sing we refer to a horizontal or melodic interval (the different between adjacent notes in a melody. In Western music based on a diatonic scale (12 notes) an interval is described by its quality and its number. 

Quality refers to 5 options: perfect, major, minor, augmented and diminished. (We'll use another blog post to explain what each of those means but they refer to the number of semitones or half steps between letters). 

Here are the main conventional intervals used in a chromatic scale that we refer to in the world of sight singing. The names we use not only tell us the difference in semitones between the first and second note, but also how the interval is spelled. (Basically, just what letters are involved!)

Number of semitones	Minor, major, or perfect intervals	Short	Augmented or diminished intervals
0	Perfect unison	P1	Diminished second
1	Minor second	m2	Augmented unison
2	Major second	M2	Diminished third
3	Minor third	m3	Augmented second
4	Major third	M3	Diminished fourth
5	Perfect fourth	P4	Augmented third
6			Diminished fifth
			Augmented fourth
7	Perfect fifth	P5	Diminished sixth
8	Minor sixth	m6	Augmented fifth
9	Major sixth	M6	Diminished seventh
10	Minor seventh	m7	Augmented sixth
11	Major seventh	M7	Diminished octave
12	Perfect octave	P8	Augmented seventh

But at this point, your brain is probably starting to hurt and you're wondering what the heck this has to do with sight singing and how on earth am I going to memorize all of these! e answer is - the more and more you practice, the quicker you will become at identifying intervals. 

For example, if you were given this piece of music you could quickly identify the intervals between each notes by counting the semitones and letters. 

But then the next question is - how do we sing it and know what each of those intervals sound like? We could whip out our old VHS tapes of "The Sound of Music" and listen to 'Do-Re-Mi' on repeat until we learn all of our solfege syllables. 

OR you can use a list like this dandy one below to help memorize the intervals based on songs you already know my heart. Then, when you see an ascending minor 6th in real life, you can access your best Anthony in Sweeney Todd and start singing "...I feel you....". And you'll get the interval right every time!

Each example is referencing the first two notes of the vocal line unless otherwise noted. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ascending Minor 2nd

• Beethoven "Ode to Joy" (2nd and 3rd notes)

Descending Minor 2nd

• Beethoven - "Fur Elise"

.....

for more please contact me at www.katherineriddle.com

Ascending Major 2nd

• "A Change in Me" - Beauty and the Beast 
• "Silent Night"

Descending Minor 2nd 

• "Three Blind Mice" 
• "Friday" - Rebecca Black (every time she sings the word "Fri-day"

Ascending Minor 3rd

• "So Long Farewell" - The Sound of Music (Interval between so-long and fare-well)

Descending Minor 3rd

• "Hey Jude" - The Beatles

Ascending Major 3rd

• Kumbaya 

Descending Major 3rd

• "Goodnight Ladies" - The Music Man

Ascending Perfect 4th 

• "On My Own" - Les Miserables
• "A Lovely Night" - Cinderella 

Descending Perfect 4th

• Mozart - "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"

Ascending Tritone

• "Maria" - West Side Story 

Descending Tritone

• "Turn Back Oh Man" - Godspell

Ascending Perfect 5th

• "One Boy" - Bye, Bye, Birdie

Descending Perfect 5th

• "A Little Bit in Love" - Wonderful Town (Mmmhmm)

Ascending minor 6th

• "Johanna" - Sweeney Todd 

Descending Minor 6th

• Johanna - backwards (??) - admittedly I haven't found a great example of this - please send me your ideas!

Ascending Major 6th

• "I Hope I Get It" - A Chorus Line ("I really need this job")
• "Little Lamb" -Gypsy
• "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"

Descending Major 6th

• "The Music of the Night" - The Phantom of the Opera

Ascending Minor 7th

• "Santa Fe" - Newsies (And I'm ---- free)

Descending Minor 7th

• American in Paris (in the main theme of the American in Paris ballet)

Ascending Major 7th

• Tell Me on a Sunday - "Song and Dance" (on the section "from a friends apart----ment")

Descending Major 7th 

• "I’m Not at All in Love" = Pajama Game  (I’m not - at all - in love)

Ascending Octave (they're everywhere!) 

• "Singin' in the Rain" - Singin' in the Rain
• "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Wizard of Oz 
• "Bring Him Home" - Les Miserables 
• "Come To My Garden" - Secret Garden 

Descending Octave

• "My Husband Makes Movies" - Nine (hus--band and mov--ies)

If you want to hear each of the intervals and do a little practice - try this!