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All intervals

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• When we looked at simple intervals we learnt that an interval is a description of the pitch difference between two notes

• It is very useful for sight-singing to understand intervals and to be able to pitch at least common intervals

• A full interval description consists of an ordinal number (second, third, fourth etc.) preceded by an adjective which defines the interval more precisely, for example "perfect fifth", "major third", or "diminished fourth".

• The ordinal number (as we saw in the simple examples) is simply a count of the number of note names between the two notes, counting inclusively.
  • So for example, the interval between C and E is a third (C, D, E is 3 notes); between F and B is a fourth (F, G, A, B is 4 notes).
  • This number can be written in words or more commonly as a number, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc.

• The preceding adjective can be one of five things: perfect, major, minor, diminished or augmented

• The following rules apply to these adjectives:
  • An interval of a 2nd, 3rd, 6th or 7th must be one of: major, minor, augmented or diminished.
  • An interval of a 4th or 5th must be one of: perfect, augmented or diminished.

  • A major interval appears in the major scale of which the bottom note of the two is the key-note.
  • A minor interval is one less semitone than its equivalent major interval.
  • A perfect interval appears in the major and minor scales of which the bottom note of the two is the key-note.

  • A diminished interval is one semitone less than its equivalent minor or perfect interval.
  • An augmented interval is one semitone more than its equivalent major or perfect interval.

• These rules giving what adjective is allowed with what intervals and the relationships between them can be shown in the following table:

  Number of semitones adjustment	-2	-1	0	+1
  Interval of 4th or 5th		Diminished	Perfect	Augmented
  Interval of 2nd, 3rd, 6th or 7th	Diminished	Minor	Major	Augmented

• The central column headed with a zero represent the intervals found in a major key when the lower note of the two is the key note.

• You can also count the number of semitones in an interval.
  • In the following table, the first column is the number of semitones in the interval, the next two columns give alternate description of that interval, and the last column give examples of tunes that contain the interval.
  • You can click on each tune to hear the interval followed by a the first few notes of the piece that contain the interval.
  • Try singing each interval as you hear it.
  • If you can get used to what the common intervals sound like, it might help with sight-singing.
  • Each song or piece given has the specified interval between the first and second notes (unless otherwise stated).

  Num	Descriptions		Tunes to help you remember the interval
  0	Diminshed 2nd	Unison	(The same note, so no tune)
  1	Minor 2nd	Semitone	I'm dreaming of a White Christmas (the whole of this phrase is minor 2nd intervals)
  2	Major 2nd	Diminished 3rd	Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer - up and down on “Rudolph the” Happy birthday to you - 2nd and 3rd notes on “-py birth” and down again on “day”
  3	Augmented 2nd	Minor 3rd	Greensleeves (Alas! my love) After the ball is over - up and down Star Spangled Banner (Oh! say can you see - USA National Anthem) - down
  4	Diminished 4th	Major 3rd	Blue Danube - the first ascending interval While Shepherds watched their flocks by night
  5	Perfect 4th	Augmented 3rd	Away in a manger Amazing Grace how sweet the sound
  6	Augmented 4th	Diminished 5th	Mar-i-a, I just met a girl called Maria (from West Side Story) The Simp-sons - main theme of cartoon signature tune
  7	Diminished 6th	Perfect 5th	Dear Lord and Father of mankind Twinkle, Twinkle little star - between two “twinkles”
  8	Minor 6th	Augmented 5th	Hearts and Flowers (tear-jerker tune played at silent movies) The Entertainer (otherwise known as the theme from “The Sting”) - the first big jump up between the 3rd and 4th notes
  9	Major 6th	Diminished 7th	Dashing though the snow (verse from Jingle Bells) Oliver (from the show Oliver) - up and down Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken (lay a little egg for me) - up and down several times
  10	Augmented 6th	Minor 7th	The theme from the original Star Trek (actually has the words "Beyond the rim of the starlight")
  11		Major 7th	Climax of the theme from Superman
  12	Octave	Augmented 7th	Somewhere (over the rainbow - from The Wizard of Oz)

• An augmented 4th will sound the same as a diminished 5th, but will be described and notated differently, so is a different interval.

• The following simple tune (of my invention) has all the most common intervals in the key of C major contained within it. Learning it may help you to recognise intervals within a major scale, and might help you to identify intervals by ear: Hear it