Music Intervals - Spanning the Distance

Learning music intervals is essential to becoming a good musician. An interval simply is the distance between two notes. It's not quite as simple as it sounds though.

We measure these distances in terms of whole steps and half steps, and according to their position in the scale. While this sounds like it would make things harder, what it actually does is trains you to relate notes in a way that can be universally applied to all scales and positions.

Basic Intervals

In this lesson we cover the system of naming music intervals by their position in the scale. We use numbers instead of letters for this so that we can apply these names in all keys and all scales.

Intermediate Intervals

In this lesson, we'll combine the above system of naming intervals by their position in the scale with a system of naming them by their size. An interval's size is its distance from the lower note to the higher note.

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Music Theory Intervals That Actually Make Sense

Here we're going to work on basic music theory intervals. Ok, I didn’t actually realize until I started writing this, but apparently, I use them all the time without thinking about it. Whether it’s learning harmonies in my vocal lessons, working out new melodies, or tuning the strings on my instruments, intervals are everywhere, and you won’t be able to get around without them. What is an interval? This is an easy question. An interval is just the distance between two notes. That’s it. The distance from A to G is an interval called a seventh. The distance from C to E is an interval called a third. The distance from F to B is an interval called a fourth. Get the idea? There are actually two ways to play intervals: harmonic and melodic. Harmonic intervals are when you play the two notes at the same time, (like in a chord). Melodic intervals are when you play one note, then the other one, (like in a melody). There are different types of sevenths, thirds, and fou...

Music Theory Chords: Chord... That's like a power cable, ...right?

Not quite. Learning music theory chords is a big deal when it comes to understanding music. However, it's not as hard as it seems at first. The key is to take them in baby steps; in small pieces. That why we'll just work with triads, or three note chords for now. Just as notes are the building block of melodies, chords are the building blocks of the general tone of a song. Lots of sad sounding songs will use what we call minor chords. Lots of pretty sounding songs will use major seventh chords or suspended second chords. Chords are simply several notes played together as a group. They can be used to make arpeggios for melodies. They can also be arranged in different orders called progressions to create movement and direction in a song. Let's Start Building! When building chords, we will start with scales. Each scale degree receives a number. These numbers will be used to build different kinds of chords. C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Again, we...

INTERMEDIATE MUSIC

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