This video builds on what we've learned so far in the Reading Music, Key Signature, and Building Scales videos.
So if you haven't seen those yet, please watch them first. Links are in the description.
In music, intervals are the relationship between any two notes.
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The name of the interval has two parts. First, the type of the interval, and second, the distance the two notes are from each other.
To find the distance two notes are from each other count the lines and spaces on the staff separating the two notes
including the line or space the first note is on.
For example, if we have this F and C on the treble clef,
we will count the F space as one, the G line as two, the A space as three, the B line as four,
and the C space as five. So the distance these two notes are from each other is a 5th.
Let's do another example in bass clef this time. If we have this B and D
we will count the B line as one, the C space as two, and the D line as three.
So the distance these two notes are from each other is a 3rd.
Practice on your own finding the distances between
two notes by counting the lines and spaces between them to get more comfortable with the process.
When first learning about intervals some teachers only want the distance of the interval and not the type,
so definitely practice learning how to find the distance of an interval first before moving on to the type of intervals.
Now for the second part of any interval name: the type.
The type of an interval can be described with a number of different names,
including: major, minor, perfect, augmented, and diminished.
Notice that all of these names also have a shorthand. Major is a capital "M," minor is a lowercase "m."
Perfect is a capital "P,"
Augmented is a capital "A," or a "+" sign, and diminished is shortened to "dim" or a small circle. [°]
Let's take this C Major scale as an example to find the distances of the intervals
between the tonic and the rest of the scale degrees.
The first interval is from the tonic to the tonic. You might think we would call this distance a first,
but it has a special name.
The distance between any two identical notes is called a unison.
This is a unison, this a unison, and all of these are unisons.
Next, the distance between C and D.
If we count the C line as one and the D space as two, this is a distance of a 2nd.
Next, the distance between C and E. C line is one, D space is two, and E line is three.
So this distance is a 3rd.
We can repeat this process all the way up through the seventh scale degree
where the distance between C and B is: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
So we would call this distance a 7th.
The last interval, from low C to high C, also has a special name.
This distance is called an octave.
An octave is the distance from one note to that same note name either higher or lower on the staff.
This is an octave, this is an octave, and all of these are octaves.
Now that we know the distances, let's label the type for each of the intervals.
In any major scale, the unison 4th, 5th, and octave are Perfect, and the rest of the intervals are Major.
So we have a Perfect unison (PU), a Major 2nd (M2), a Major 3rd (M3),
a Perfect 4th (P4), a Perfect 5th (P5), a Major 6th (M6), a Major 7th (M7), and a Perfect octave (P8).
These intervals will be the same in any major scale.
Now let's look at a minor scale.
If you notice the distances stay the same. You can double-check by counting the lines and spaces.
However, some of the types of the intervals will change.
The unison, 4th, 5th, and octave remain perfect,
but the 3rd, 6th, and 7th are now minor
because a minor interval is one half-step smaller than a major interval.
This leaves the 2nd.
It stays a major second because the number of half-steps in the interval didn't change from the major scale to the minor scale.
So we have a Perfect unison (PU), a Major 2nd (M2), a minor 3rd (m3),
a Perfect 4th (P4), a Perfect 5th (P5), a minor 6th (m6), a minor 7th (m7), and a Perfect octave (p8).
These intervals will be the same in any natural minor scale.
If we compare the intervals of the major and minor scales, we can see that the third sixth and seventh are the only
intervals that change type from Major to minor.
The rest of the intervals stay the same.
So what about Augmented and diminished intervals?
Well, remember that minor intervals are one half-step smaller than Major intervals,
and if we make a minor interval one half-step smaller it becomes diminished.
If we go back to the original Major interval and make it one half-step larger it becomes Augmented.
For Perfect intervals, it's a little different.
There is no minor version of a perfect interval.
If we make the perfect interval one half-step smaller it becomes diminished,
And if we make the perfect interval one half-step larger it becomes Augmented.
I know there was a lot to unpack this episode,
but if you start by practicing finding the distances of intervals before moving on to identifying the types,
that should make it easier than trying to learn everything at once.
If you have any questions about today's video, or if you have any ideas for future music theory videos,
please let me know in the comments below.
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