Generic Intervals

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From the course by Michigan State University

Getting Started With Music Theory

134 ratings

Michigan State University

Getting Started With Music Theory

134 ratings

This course is a brief introduction to the elements of music theory for those with little or no music theory experience. We will explore pitch, rhythm, meter, notation, scales, keys, key signatures, meter signatures, triads, seventh chords, and basic harmony. If you listen to music or play music by ear, and you want to know more about how music is organized and notated, this course is for you. By the end of the course, you should know all major and minor keys, how to read and write in treble and bass clef using standard meters and rhythmic values, and how to notate and harmonize a simple melody. This course can serve as a stand-alone basic music theory course, or it can be a springboard to more advanced theory and composition courses. Your instructor is Bruce Taggart, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Michigan State University, in the College of Music, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate music theory since 1996.

From the lesson

Scales, Keys, and Intervals

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, you should be able to (1) describe the diatonic set and understand how it is used to create major and minor scales, (2) sing major and minor using solfeggio (solfege) syllables, (3) explain the difference between natural, harmonic, and melodic minor, (4) spell major and minor scales starting on any note using accidentals in treble and bass clef, and (5) spell parallel and relative major and minor scales. You should also be able to (6) identify and spell by size and quality diatonic intervals (within a key) and chromatic intervals (outside a key).

Generic Intervals6:49

Interval Quality and Diatonic Intervals6:38

More Diatonic Intervals7:33

Chromatic Intervals and Inversion5:55

Meet the Instructors

Bruce Taggart
Associate Professor
College of Music

[MUSIC]

In this module, we're going to go into more detail on naming and

writing intervals, I hope you are feeling comfortable with keys and

key signatures because they are very helpful as we start giving intervals

specific names based on their spelling.

In previous modules we learned that scales are constructed from whole steps and

half steps, in Western music, whole steps and half steps forming scales

are the building blocks of tonality, although jazz styles use altered notes

called blue notes that fall between half steps, which we won't discuss here.

We said that the term half step is a description of the sound created

by playing two adjacent notes on a piano, white key to black key, or

white key to white key when there is no black key between them.

Or two adjacent frets on a fretted instrument, so here's a half step.

[SOUND] A whole step is equivalent to two half steps or two notes on a piano,

or a fretted instrument that have a note between them.

[SOUND] There's a whole step.

Because the terms half step and whole step describe sounds,

it doesn't matter how they are notated, we can use any enharmonic spelling we like.

So, for example, these two notes on the piano [SOUND] form a half step,

regardless how they are spelled.

The notes could be called E and F.

[SOUND] E and E sharp.

[SOUND] F flat and F.

[SOUND] Even E and G double flat.

All of these spellings produce the same sounding notes which form the sounding

interval called a half step, but when we start working with scales, and keys,

and notated music, the spellings of notes do make a difference.

In C major, the key with no sharps or flats,

the diatonic spelling of these two notes [SOUND] is E and F.

In addition to describing the sound as a half step, we have a precise way of

labeling this half step based on the spelling of the notes that form it.

In this size quality labeling system, we refer to the so-called generic

size of the interval with a number, such as a 2nd or a 3rd, to which we

add a quality label such as major, minor, perfect, diminished or augmented.

The size label is based on notes spelling and

the quality label is based on the number of half steps.

Let's talk about the size label, the interval between a note and

itself, or another note with the same note letter name but a different accidental,

would be called a 1st, except that we traditionally refer to it as a unison.

A note to the note with the next letter name such as C to D is a second,

and so on, up to the interval between low C and high C, which is an 8th,

which we typically call an octave.

Notice that a second is the interval between notes that are separated by

one notated letter names, such as E to F or

A to B, regardless of what they sound like and regardless of accidentals, so

this E to F is a second, as is this E flat to F.

This E flat to F sharp is a 2nd,

even this E to F flat is called a 2nd, even though this is what it sounds like.

[SOUND] It sounds like unison, but

when we spell it this way we have to call it a 2nd.

For this naming system,

notation is everything when determining the size label.

Figuring out the generic size of intervals is easy, we just count the note letters or

lines and spaces on the staff separating the two notes,

C to E is three letters if we count the first note one so it's a 3rd,

C up to D is seven letters E, F, G, A, B, C, D, so it's a 7th.

As a quick rule of thump, odd numbered intervals go from a line to line on

a staff, while even numbered ones go from a line to a space or a space to a line.

When using movable do sol phase syllables,

in which the first node of the scale is always do, the same procedure applies,

do to re is a 2nd, do to mi is a 3rd, and so on.

When in an interval is larger than an octave,

which means 8th, we can either continue with double digit numbers, or

we can reduce the interval to its less than an octave equivalent.

When use a larger than octave numbering,

the intervals are called compound intervals, so for example, this C to D,

which is an octave plus one step, is called a 9th.

A 9th sounds like an octave plus a second, notice that because a note to itself is

a first, an octave plus a second does not equal a 10th, it equals a 9th,

C to E, an octave plus two steps is a 10th, which reduces to a 3rd.

To calculate compound intervals you must add a multiple of seven for

every octave to the simple interval, we can confirm this by adding an octave to

a unison, one plus seven equals eight.

So a 5th plus an octave is a 12th, five plus seven,

not a 13th, a 7th plus two octaves is a 21st, 7 plus 14,

not a 22nd, we rarely refer to compound intervals larger than a 12th, however.

Reversing the process, a 14th is the compound interval that reduces to a 7th,

14 minus 7 equals 7, an 18th would sound like a 4th

plus two octaves, So 4 plus 14 equals an 18th.

Again, we will rarely refer to compound intervals larger than a 12th,

which sounds like a 5th plus an octave.

We usually simplify such large intervals to their less than an octave equivalent,

in summary, the term half step refers to the smallest interval in Western music,

regardless of spelling.

When we use the label 2nd we are requiring the note letter names to be adjacent A,

B, C, D, and so on.

Intervals have a generic number,

such as 2nd and 3rd based on the number of letters or lines and spaces and

the staff, compound intervals are larger than an octave.

We determine the size of a compound interval by adding multiples

of seven to simple intervals.

In the next lesson, we'll learn how to determine the quality labels for

intervals, starting with those that occur within the same key.

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