Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled Identifying Intervals.

Today we're gonna be looking at some strategies and techniques for identifying intervals by ear and how we can then apply them to melodic dictation.

Our outcome is I can accurately identify a range of intervals by ear and notate them.

Here's some key words.

Interval.

This is the distance in pitch between two notes.

So for example, a 5th.

Semitone, that's the smallest interval in most Western music.

So a semitone example would be moving from C to C#.

Tone, now this is an interval of two semitones.

So for example, that would be like moving from C up to D.

It's also known as a major 2nd.

You might have heard it called that as well.

The first part of today's lesson is looking at basic interval identification.

An interval is the distancing pitch between two notes.

Identifying intervals helps give more accuracy to the melodic shape when we're doing melodic dictation.

Can you think of any examples of different intervals? Pause my video while you have a quick think.

And hopefully you manage to name some of these.

The smaller intervals are semitones, 2nds, or you might have said tones, 3rds and 4ths.

And larger intervals are 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and octaves.

You might have even named some bigger intervals than that as well.

To measure an interval, we count the two notes plus the number of notes in between.

So let's look at what that means.

We've got A and C here.

We're gonna try and work out the interval between them.

We start by counting A as one, then we move up by step.

So we've got B is two.

And then we finally land on our target note, our second note, which is C.

So that's three.

So this is an example of a 3rd, because we count three notes including the first note to get to the second one.

That's a key error that people make when they're working out intervals is forgetting to count both notes.

So make sure bottom note of the interval is number one, and if you move by step, you will then work out the correct interval.

I'm gonna do an example here and then we're gonna check your understanding.

So we want to work out this interval on the left hand side.

Well we've got, that's one, two, three, four, five, six.

So this interval is a 6th because we counted six notes to get to the second note.

Remember I'm counting that bottom note as number one.

Now I'd like you to have a go at this example here.

So how many notes are between G and C? And then try and work out the interval.

Pause my video while you do this.

Look for here then you've got one, two, three, four.

So this is a 4th, because we counted four notes to get to the second note.

If you didn't get that, see if you can work out why.

Make sure that you're counting the bottom note as number one and the last note as a number as well, and that way you always get the correct interval.

Now the first step in identifying an interval is to approximate its size.

So is it a large interval or is it a small interval? Have a look at these two examples here and I'll play them for you as well, which is a large interval and which is a small interval.

Here's the first one.

(music note chimes) And here's the second one.

(music note chimes) So quick think which one is small and which is large.

Hopefully here you identified the first one is small, that interval is a second.

And the second one is large, that is a 7th.

Now we approximate interval size because it helps to narrow down our list of possible options.

If we notice a small interval, for example, we could rule out the larger intervals like 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and octaves and vice versa.

So if we know it's a large interval, we can rule out some of the smaller intervals.

Listen again to this interval.

Which of these three options could we rule out as the correct interval and why? Let's have a listen.

(musical note chimes) I'll show you it again.

(musical note chimes) So which one could we definitely rule out out of 2nd, 6th and 7th? And here we can rule out a 2nd because we can hear that it's a large interval.

So even if we can't identify exactly what interval that is, we know it's a large interval so it cannot be a 2nd.

Well done if you picked that one.

Singing or humming intervals is also a powerful way to recognize them.

That's 'cause singing helps us to reinforce our listening skills, memorize interval sounds more easily.

So rather than having to listen back to it constantly, we can listen to it in our heads or singing it.

And it also makes interval recognition quicker and more natural.

So it's actually a really useful tool when you're doing this.

When you hear yourself singing an interval, it becomes easier to compare it as well to a well-known reference melody.

And that's something that we're about to look at in a second.

Well-known melodies that use a specific interval can be used as a reference to help us identify intervals.

So a tone or a major 2nd, that's two names for the same interval, is used at the beginning of "Happy Birthday." That sounds like this.

("Happy Birthday") So that interval there is a tone.

If we hear an interval that we think might be a tone, we can sing the two notes of the interval to ourselves, then sing the start of "Happy Birthday" and compare it and see if they sound the same.

So that's how we use a reference melody.

We sing the interval, then we sing the reference song that we know for that interval and see if they sound the same.

For a semitone we can use the "Jaws" theme, which you might know, or the start of "Fur Elise," which you might also know.

That sounds like this.

("Fur Elise" by Beethoven) So that first interval there, (musical note chimes) that's a semitone.

If we can sing that to ourselves or the "Jaws" theme, then we can compare it to the interval we're trying to identify.

From minor 3rd, we can use the start of "Greensleeves," that sounds like this.

("Greensleeves") So the minor 3rd is that very first interval there.

(musical note chimes) Singing it to ourselves to help us identify minor 3rd.

And for a major 3rd we can use the start of "Oh When the Saints," that's this one here.

("Oh When the Saints") So those first two notes, (notes chiming) are a major 3rd.

True or false? Singing is useful for identifying intervals.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And this one is definitely true.

Have a think about why.

Why is it useful for identifying intervals? And it's useful because hearing the intervals back through singing or humming allows us to compare them to the reference melodies.

And without this identifying intervals is much harder.

So it enables us to compare it to songs and intervals that we already know.

Listen to this interval, you're gonna sing it back to yourself, then compare it to the references.

Which one do you think it is? So here's the interval.

(music note chimes) Sing it back to yourself.

I'll play it for you again.

(music note chimes) Sing it back to yourself one more time.

Now let's compare it to these four references.

Here's a semitone.

("Fur Elise") Here's a tone.

("Happy Birthday") Here's a minor 3rd.

("Greensleeves") And here's a major 3rd.

("Oh When the Saints") So sing it back to yourself.

Compare it to the starts of those melodies.

Pause my video while you work this one out.

So this one was a major 3rd.

That interval matches the start of "Oh When the Saints.".

Really well done if you picked that up.

And even if you didn't get exactly that one, we can approximate it.

We could probably rule out a semitone and a tone.

So get narrowing it down is an important first step as well.

Even if you're not getting the exact right answer yet.

Let's have a go at this one.

Listen to the interval, sing it back to yourself then compare it with those reference songs.

Which interval do you think it is? Here is the clip.

(music notes chime) Play it for you again.

(music notes chime) Sing it back to yourself.

And 3rd and final time.

(music notes chime) So pause my video while you're comparing it to the reference now, please.

Correct answer here was this is a semitone.

It's the same as the "Jaws" interval or the "Fur Elise" interval as well.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Have a go at this one.

This is a slightly different interval.

Here's the clip.

(musical notes chime) Play it again, remember and sing it back to yourself.

(musical notes chime) Third and final time.

(musical notes chime) Now working it out by comparing it to those melodies.

You can pause my video.

Well done then if you got that that was a tone or a major 2nd.

It's the same as the start of "Happy Birthday." Even if you're not getting the exact right interval at this stage, if you managed to rule out some of those options so you were sure it wasn't the bigger major 3rd or the minor 3rd, for example, that's a really good step at this stage.

We can use the same strategy for larger intervals.

So for a 4th we can use the opening to "Here Comes the Bride." ("Here Comes the Bride") It's a 4th.

For a 5th we could use "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") It's a 5th at the start.

For a 6th I tend to use the "Jingle Bells" verse.

So the bit where it says "Dashing through the snow," that sounds like this.

("Jingle Bells") So that first interval ♪ Dashing ♪ is a 6th.

For a 7th, now this is quite an interesting one.

It's quite an unusual sounding interval.

So there are some songs that use it, but nothing that's particularly memorable and well known.

I would just think of this as the sort of weird sounding interval that doesn't quite match any of the other ones that's a big interval.

This is what a 7th sounds like.

(musical notes chime) And if you manage to rule out the other big options, then there's a good chance it'll be that one.

But that's quite an uncommon interval to get in most melodies.

And then finally, an octave, which uses the big jump in "Happy Birthday." So we've already seen the tone comes from the start of "Happy Birthday." ♪ Happy birth ♪ That's a tone, but the big jump is an octave.

("Happy Birthday") That's the octave there.

("Happy Birthday") So if you can memorize what these reference songs are and you've always got them in your head, you can then always compare them to intervals that you're trying to identify.

Let's have a listen to this interval.

Then I'd like to compare it to the reference songs.

Which interval do you think this is? Here we go.

(musical notes chime) I'll play you it again.

(musical notes chime) So singing it back to yourself and then seeing if you can compare it to those different melodies.

Pause my video while you do this.

So that one was a major 6th because it matches the sound of the start of the verse in "Jingle Bells." That's this one.

("Jingle Bells") So it's that same size of leap.

Well done if you managed to identify that.

And again, even if you just managed to rule out some of the smaller intervals or the big octave, that's great at this stage.

We're gonna check your understanding.

Let's try this one.

We're gonna listen to the interval, sing it back to yourself, then compare it to those references.

Which interval do you think it is? Here we go.

(musical notes chime) Let's hear it again.

(musical notes chime) And the third time.

(musical notes chime) Sing it back to yourself.

Compare it to the references and choose an answer.

You can pause my video while you do this.

And the correct answer here was that was an octave.

So that was the same as the big jump in "Happy Birthday." Well done if you've got that.

And again, well done if you managed to rule out just some of the smaller intervals there.

Let's try this slightly different one.

Here we go.

(musical notes chime) I'll play it for you a second time remember to sing it back to yourself.

(musical notes chime) And the third time.

(musical notes chime) Pause my video, see if you can work this one out.

And the correct answer was that was a 4th.

It was the same as "Here Comes the Bride." ♪ Here comes the bride ♪ It's that same interval there.

Really well done if you identified that.

And again, as always, well done if you just managed to rule out some of the bigger intervals and narrow it down to one or two of them.

To identify an interval, then, start by accurately singing the interval back to yourself to get used to the sound of it.

That's the first step.

Memorizing that in your voice and in your head.

Then approximate its size so you can rule out some of the intervals.

For example, if it's definitely a small interval, you can rule out the big ones and vice versa.

Sing the relevant reference melodies back to yourself, comparing them to the interval.

So if you ruled out that it's all the big intervals, I think maybe it's a 2nd, maybe a 3rd, could be a 4th.

Sing it back to yourself.

Compare it to the reference melodies for those intervals to find the right one.

And when you think you have a match, sing the interval and the reference again to check the answer.

So double check it by comparing it to the reference song.

Now the reference songs that we've looked at all use ascending intervals, so they're all jumping from a lower note to a higher note.

If you're trying to work out an interval and you hear that the second note is lower than the first, that means you are listening to a descending interval.

So if you want to compare it to the reference song, what you need to do is swap the order of the notes when you're singing them back to yourself.

This is a descending 4th.

(musical notes chime) ♪ Dum dum ♪ That's our descending 4th.

When we're singing them back to ourselves, we're gonna swap the order around so that the higher note is second.

So rather than ♪ Dum dum ♪ We're gonna go, ♪ Dum dum ♪ So I'm just changing the order around.

And then it will match the reference melody.

So in this case it's the, "Here Comes the Bride." ♪ Here comes the bride ♪ So make sure you turn your intervals into ascending intervals before you try and compare them to the reference melodies.

If you can't remember the reference song, you can also work out the interval by singing up a scale and counting the notes in between.

So say I've got this interval, (musical notes chime) I can sing it back to myself.

♪ La la ♪ And I can then sing a scale between those two notes counting how many notes I sing.

♪ La, la, la, la ♪ So that's four notes, meaning this is a 4th.

So that's another strategy you can use.

It's a little bit tricky when you're first learning to identify intervals though.

Let's check your understanding.

What's the first step when identifying an interval? Is it sing the reference melodies to yourself.

Sing the interval back to yourself, or approximate the size of the interval? I'll give you a few seconds.

The correct answer here is sing the interval back to yourself.

Before you do anything else you want to really embed that interval in your memory and in your voice.

Once you've sung the interval back to yourself, what should you do? Do you sing the reference melodies to yourself? Check your answer or approximate the size of the interval? I'll give you a few seconds.

Correct answer here is you should approximate the size of the intervals.

So you've sung it back to yourself and then you're thinking, "Does this sound like a small interval or a big interval? And therefore, which intervals can I rule out that it definitely is not?" So for task A, listen to each clip and identify the interval.

Follow these steps in order.

Accurately sing the interval back to yourself and get used to the sound of it.

That's the first step.

Approximate its size to rule out intervals.

So for example, if it's definitely a small interval, rule out the larger ones.

Sing the relevant reference melodies back to yourself, comparing them to the interval.

And then when you think you have a match, sing the interval and the reference again to check your answer.

So here are four questions and there are your different reference songs.

Let's listen to the first example.

(musical notes chime) I'll play it you again.

(musical notes chime) Let's have a third time.

(musical notes chime) Fourth time, (musical notes chime) and a fifth time.

(musical notes chime) Pause my video and choose your answer for question one.

Let's do question two.

(musical notes chime) Let's hear it for a second time.

(musical notes chime) For a third time.

(musical notes chime) Fourth time.

(musical notes chime) For the 5th and final time.

(musical notes chime) So pause my video and choosing your answer.

Question three, now here we go.

(musical notes chime) Want to hear it again? (musical notes chime) Third time.

(musical notes chime) Fourth time.

(musical notes chime) And the final time? (musical notes chime) Pause my video now and see if you can work out this one.

And finally, question four.

(musical notes chime) And again.

(musical notes chime) For the third time.

(musical notes chime) The fourth time.

(musical notes chime) The final time.

(musical notes chime) Pause my video and see if you can answer this one.

Okay, let's go through these.

So question one was a tone or you might have said a second.

That was this.

(musical notes chime) And that's the same as the start of "Happy Birthday." Question two was a 5th, that was this one.

(musical notes chime) That's the same as the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" melody.

Question three was a 6th.

That sounds like this.

(musical notes chime) That's the same as the dashing through the snow part of "Jingle Bells." And finally question four was a major 3rd.

(musical notes chime) That's the same as "Oh When the Saints" at the start of that.

So well done if you've got those correct.

This is quite a tricky, challenging thing to do when you first start it.

And even if you've not got them all correct, if you're getting in the right ballpark, in the right area, roughly, that's really good.

So even if for example, you didn't know that last one was a major 3rd, but you thought maybe it was a minor 3rd or a 4th, you're in the right region and it just takes more practice to get really accurate when you're doing this.

The second part of our lesson today is looking at notating individual intervals.

After identifying an interval, it needs to be correctly written on the stave.

So this interval is a 5th.

(musical notes chime) And if we know that the first note of that is an F, we can work out a 5th above it on the stave.

As it's an ascending interval, the next note is gonna need to be higher than the F.

So when we're counting intervals, the starting note is always number one.

So if that's F on one, we count up and we get to number five because we're trying to create a 5th, which means that the second note is C.

This is a 5th above F.

So we've counted up from F five notes to find the next note, in this case that is C.

This one is a descending interval.

(musical notes chime) And this interval is a tone.

It's a major 2nd.

So if we know that we're starting on a D, for example, have a think what note comes next.

It's descending and we're descending by a tone or a major 2nd.

That's one step.

Pause my video while you work this one out.

Well done if you identified then that the second note should be a C because it's just below 'cause we're descending, and it's only descending by a tone.

So one step down the stave.

This is another descending interval.

(musical notes chime) In this case we know it's an octave.

So say we've worked out it's an octave and we're giving that starting note as a high F.

Have a think.

If we know it's descending and it's descending by an octave, what note should we draw next? Again, pause my video, try and work it out.

And the answer here is a lower F, so the F in the octave lower.

So you can see the process here.

If we know what the interval is because we've worked it out and we know what the starting note is, then we just need to think carefully about what note to draw on the stave by counting correctly through the different notes.

Now the correct answers in melodic dictation questions will always be within the key signature.

You're never gonna have chromatic questions like this.

If you identify that the interval is a type of 3rd.

So say you know it's a major or minor 3rd, counting three notes within the key signature will give you the correct answer.

So in this case we've got A, we know we're gonna be moving by a 3rd.

Say this is the key signature with no sharps and no flats.

Then the next note is gonna be a C.

Now this interval is an ascending minor 3rd and the starting note is E.

So we know it's gonna be ascending, going up, by a minor 3rd.

Remember we're staying in the key signature and the key signature here has no sharps and no flats.

So I'd like to see if you can work out the next note.

Here's the clip.

(musical notes chime) Pause my video and work out what the next note would be.

And here the next note would be G.

That's because it's the 3rd above E.

Well done if you chose that one.

Which of these intervals is a descending 4th? You can pause my video while you choose one.

The correct answer is option B.

Option A is an ascending 4th.

So it's definitely not that.

And if we're counting the notes, we'll see that option C is a 5th.

So that leaves us only option B.

Which of these is an ascending 7th? Make sure you're counting carefully here, pause my video.

And the correct answer is option A.

That one is a 7th, option B is an octave if you count carefully.

And the 3rd one is a major 6th.

So it's the first one.

Well done if you correctly got that.

If the interval is an ascending semitone and the first note is B, what note would come next, pause my video while you work this out.

And the correct answer is the next note would be C because that's the smallest possible step above B.

For task B, for question one and two, I'd like to draw the next note accurately based on the interval and the starting note.

So question one, the interval is gonna be an ascending 5th.

And our starting note, as you can see there is G.

So you're gonna draw in the second note, ascending a 5th from G.

For question two, it's a descending 6th.

And our starting note there is F.

So you can be finding the note that is a 6th below F and drawing it in next to it.

You can pause my video while you do question one and question two.

Let's move on to question three.

Here we're gonna listen to three different intervals.

I'd like to work out the interval, whether it's ascending or descending, and then have a go at drawing the second notes.

It's quite tricky, but give it your best shot.

Here is question A and I'll give you it a few times.

(musical notes chime) So the first step is working out the interval, sing it back to yourself, use the reference melodies if you need to.

(musical notes chime) Let's hear it for a third time.

(musical notes chime) And now pause my video, fill in the table for question A.

Now let's do question B.

(musical notes chime) I'll play it you again.

So sing it back, working out the interval first.

(musical notes chime) Third, and final time.

(musical notes chime) Pause my video while you fill in answers for question B.

And finally question C.

(musical notes chime) Play it you again.

(musical notes chime) And third and final time.

(musical notes chime) So pause my video and finish off this question.

Okay, let's review this task.

Question one, ascending 5th, starting on G.

So our second note should have been that D, that is a 5th above G.

The second one is a descending 6th starting on F.

So a 6th below F.

And that key is to note A.

Well done if you've got both of those correct.

And if you didn't, just make sure you're counting properly.

There's a very good chance that error you've made is forgetting to count your starting note as number one.

So that's really key when you're working out intervals.

So question three, these were tricky questions and don't be disheartened if you didn't get them all correct.

We'll go through them.

So the first one was a 3rd and it was ascending.

(musical notes chime) And if we know that information that's starting on a C, then the second note should be an E, as we can see there.

Fantastic effort if you managed to do that correctly.

For question B, it was an octave and this time it was descending.

(musical notes chime) So if we know that our starting note is the high D, then the second note is gonna be a low D.

Again, fantastic effort if you actually get that correct.

And then question C was an ascending 6th.

It sounded like this.

(musical notes chime) We know that the starting note was D, so a 6th above that would be the note B.

Now these are really tough questions and when you start identifying intervals by ear to begin with, it can be quite an intimidating, challenging process.

The key point here is that we're practicing the steps of this really systematic way of working out the intervals.

So even if you didn't get all of those answers correct, don't be disheartened.

It just takes lots of practice of listening to, of training your brain to use this process and eventually it becomes really natural and automatic to be able to identify intervals.

But brilliant effort for getting stuck into it.

And hopefully if you did make some errors there, you can start to understand where those errors are coming from.

Maybe it's that you're miscounting the intervals, maybe it's that you're not correctly identifying if they're ascending or descending, or maybe it's that you've not yet quite got used to notating different intervals on the stage.

So work out what it is you need to practice and try and find some further opportunities to practice these steps.

Let's summarize today's lesson.

Identifying intervals, including whether they're ascending or descending, is key to melodic dictation.

Singing reference melodies helps us to identify intervals by comparing the interval to the specific well-known melody.

And there's our list there of the reference melodies that we've chosen to use in this lesson today.

Once the interval's been identified, it can be notated by drawing it on the stave next to the given starting note.

So that's the end of today's lesson.

I hope you managed to get stuck in with these quite challenging tasks and are feeling that you've started to develop the skills and the tools to be able to identify intervals and correctly notate them.

Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.