Chapter 6 ::
Intervals
Major, Minor, and perfect Intervals
An interval is the distance between two notes. An interval is defined by quantity and quality. Quantity is the number of lines and spaces between each note. For example, the quantity of the interval of A and C is 3 (A, B, C). Quality is a more way to define an interval. An interval can be major, minor, perfect, augmented, or diminished. Any interval with a quantity of 2, 3, or 7 will have a quality of either major or minor. An interval with the quantity of 1, 4, 5, or 8 are perfect. The only interval that is not major, minor, or perfect is 6. This is commonly known as tritone. In the video below, it gives examples of each interval as referred to a popular song. This can be very beneficial in trying to train your ear to memorize the types of intervals.
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I have come a long way in learning intervals. I didn't even know what an interval was before this class. Now, I can identify the different types just by listening. It took a lot of ear training. A lot of the ear training came from working in class. However, there was quite a bit of work that came from outside of class that I did to learn them. I used Youtube videos and musictheory.net to strengthen those skills. I feel that I as much as I have grown, there are still some gray areas that could use some fine tuning. I believe that as I continue to work on my other skills that relate to this like identifying triads, those skills will sharpen.
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Augmented and Diminished Intervals
Other than major, minor, and perfect, there are two more words that describe an intervals quality. Those are augmented and diminished intervals. Augmented means that a note is raised by a half step. For example, C and E has an interval of an augmented 3rd because the quantity of the interval is a third, but it has 5 half steps instead of 4. Therefore, that interval is augmented.
The other type of interval is diminished. Diminished means that a note is lowered by a half step. For example, D and F flat has an interval of a diminished 3rd because the quantity of the interval is a third, but it only has 2 half steps. Considering that, the interval is diminished. The image to the right shows more examples of augmented and diminished intervals. Click on the black button below to see a chart of all the intervals, according to quantity and quality. |