Easy Intervals
If you’ve ever struggled with ear training, here is a mini lesson on easy intervals. An interval is a musical term used to describe the distance between any two notes.
In ear training, we learn to hear these distances and identify them by how they sound. The goal is to hear and identify the distances up to and including an octave (from letter note to the same letter note).
In order to learn intervals, it is helpful to use songs to aid in identifying the note distances. The songs that I have collected below give a few options. (For a printable version of this chart, download the PDF here).
EASY INTERVALS – THE CHART
Interval |
Ascending |
Descending |
Minor 2nd |
A Hard Day’s Night – Beatles Jaws Pink Panther
|
Fur Elise – Beethoven Joy To The World O Little Town Of Bethlehem |
Major 2nd |
Do Re Mi (Sound of Music) Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping, Brother John) Happy Birthday Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Silent Night |
Deck the Halls The First Noel Mary Had A Little Lamb Three Blind Mice Yesterday – Beatles |
Minor 3rd |
Brahms’ Lullaby Georgia on My Mind Greensleeves O Canada So Long, Farewell (Sound of Music) What Child Is This |
Frosty the Snowman Hey Jude Jesus Loves Me Misty This Old Man |
Major 3rd |
For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow From the Halls of Montezuma Kum-Ba-Yah Oh When the Saints |
Good Night Ladies Summertime Symphony No. 5 – Beethoven Swing Low Sweet Chariot |
Perfect 4th |
Amazing Grace Hark the Herald Angels Sing Here Comes the Bride Love Me Tender Someday My Prince Will Come Taps We Wish You A Merry Christmas |
Do You Want To Build A Snowman (Frozen) Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Mozart O Come All Ye Faithful Old MacDonald Shave and a Haircut |
Tritone Aug. 4th/Dim. 5th |
Maria (from West Side Story) The Simpsons Theme Song |
Blue Seven – Sonny Rollins |
Perfect 5th |
ABCs Star Wars Main Theme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star |
Feelings Flintstones Theme Song Minuet in G – Bach |
Minor 6th |
3rd and 4th note of The Entertainer Theme from Love Story |
Theme from Love Story |
Major 6th |
“Dashing Through The Snow” (Jingle Bells) It Came Upon A Midnight Clear My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean |
Music of the Night – Phantom of the Opera Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen |
Minor 7th |
La Cumparsita Star Trek (Original Series) Theme Somewhere (West Side Story) |
Theme from American in Paris – Gershwin Watermelon Man – Herbie Hancock |
Major 7th |
Bali Hai (South Pacific) Theme from Fantasy Island |
I Love You – Cole Porter |
Perfect 8th(Octave) |
Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting….) Let It Snow! Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Wizard of Oz) Take Me out to the Ballgame |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind There’s No Business Like Show Business |
A FEW HELPFUL TIPS ON USING EASY INTERVALS:
- Use these songs to make your own personal list of songs that you are familiar with and can recognize quickly and easily
- If you want to simplify this list even further, just have songs for the ascending intervals. The descending intervals are just ascending intervals played in reverse.
- When you are trying to identify intervals, hum the two notes that you are trying to figure out–match the tone as much as possible and (in order to narrow it down) ask yourself: Is it a large leap? Look at Perfect 5ths and above. Is it a small leap? Look at Perfect 5ths and below.
- If you hum or sing major scales ascending and descending to yourself, that will also be helpful in deciding what the interval is. Major scales are made up of Perfect and Major intervals. If the note doesn’t sound like it fits in the major scale, it’s probably a minor interval. If it sounds really strange, maybe an augmented/diminished interval).
- Get yourself an ear training app. If you need suggestions, check out “Free Apps for Piano Students“. (Useful free app #2).
- Play yourself a starting note and try to hum a chosen interval and your note with a keyboard.
THE FINAL GOAL FOR EASY INTERVALS
You eventually want to get to the point where you don’t even have to go through this process. The songs are to be used as memory aids only. With practice, you’ll soon be able to hear notes and know exactly how far the notes are from each other, i.e. the intervals or relative pitches!!
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