Identifying Intervals by Ear
To become a good musician, it is essential to learn to identify intervals by ear and be able to reproduce them at will both with your voice and on your instrument. If you can sing something accurately, it means you are hearing it accurately.
Here are some ways of developing your ability to identify and reproduce intervals. The example given in the first two exercises is a minor 3rd, but it is essential to go through these processes with all intervals.
- Choose an interval you wish to work on (e.g. minor 3rds). Play a starting note (e.g. C) and sing it. Then sing a minor 3rd up from that note (Eb). Hold the note with your voice while you test its accuracy on your instrument. Then choose another starting note and repeat the process. Keep doing this until you are accurate every time. The next step is to sing the interval (in this case a minor 3rd) downwards from your starting note. Again, do this repeatedly until you are accurate every time.
- Sing the same interval consecutively upwards and then downwards several times. E.g. start on C and sing a minor 3rd up from it (Eb). Then sing a minor 3rd up from Eb (Gb). Then another minor third up from Gb (B~ – which is enharmonically the same as A). Then up another minor 3rd (C an octave higher than the starting note). Once you can do this, reverse the process (Start on C and sing a minor 3rd down to A, then another minor 3rd down and then another, etc).
- Play and sing a starting note (e.g. C) and then think of it as the first degree of the chromatic scale – sing "one". Now sing the flattened second degree of the scale – sing "flat two". This note is a minor 2nd up from your C note (a Db note). Then sing the C again ("one"). Then sing the second degree of the scale (a D note – sing "two"). Next, sing your C Note again ("one"). Continue in this manner all the way up the chromatic scale until you reach C an octave above. The entire sequence goes: 1, b2, 1, 2, 1, b3, 1, 3, 1, 4, 1, b5, 1, 5, 1, b6, 1, 6, 1, b7, 1, 7, 1, 8, 1. As with the previous exercises, once you can do this accurately (check your pitches on your instrument), reverse the process and sing downwards from the top of the scale, working your way down the chromatic scale again. The downward sequence goes 1(8), 7, 1, b7, 1, 6, 1, b6, 1, 5, 1,b5, 1, 4, 1, 3, 1, b3, 1, 2, 1, b2, 1, 1, 1(8).
- As well as hearing intervals melodically (one note at a time), it is important to be able to hear them harmonically (two notes played together). A good way to develop this is to have a friend play random harmonic intervals on either guitar or keyboard while you identify them. Keep your back to the instrument while you do this, so that you cannot identify the intervals by sight.
It is important to work at these things regularly until they become easy. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t hear intervals accurately at first. Most people have trouble with this. If you work at it for several months, you will see a dramatic improvement in your musical hearing, and will be able to improvise much more freely as well as being able to work out parts off CDs more easily.
Class Sessions
1- Dotted Notes
2- Tones and Semitones
3- The Major Scale
4- Dynamics
5- Keys and Key Signatures
6- Transposing
7- Sixteenth Notes
8- Leger Lines
9- Simple and Compound Time
10- Intervals
11- Chords
12- INTRODUCTION
13- Note Values
14- GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS
15- Chord Inversions
16- How to Read Music
17- LESSON TWO
18- Minor Keys and Scales
19- Accidentals
20- Sharps
21- The Octave
22- Learning Minor Scales in all Keys
23- The Key Cycle
24- Chord Construction–Triads
25- G Major Chord Inversions
26- Exercises
27- Six Eight Time
28- Using the Compact Disc
29- Interval Qualities
30- Notes on the Treble Staff
31- Exercises
32- Grouping Eighth Notes
33- Volume Changes
34- Exercises
35- Bar Lines
36- Double Sharps and Double Flats
37- The Lead-in
38- Enharmonic Notes
39- Grouping Notes in Compound Time
40- Interval Distances
41- Time Signatures
42- Grouping Notes and Rests
43- The Grand Staff
44- Exercises
45- Exercises
46- Relative Keys
47- Approach to Practice
48- Major Scales in all Keys
49- Tempo Markings
50- The Chromatic Scale
51- Scale Degrees
52- Tempo Changes
53- Slurs
54- Final Exercises
55- Flats
56- Arpeggios
57- Chord Symbols
58- C Major Scale Over Four Octaves
59- Exercises
60- Rests
61- Exercises
62- Exercises
63- Staccato
64- Exercises
65- Exercises
66- Twelve Eight Time
67- Major Scale Pattern
68- Identifying Intervals by Ear
69- Exercises
70- Exercises
71- The G Major Scale
72- Ties
73- Exercises
74- The F Major Scale
75- Other Major Scales
76- Exercises