Listening for Music

Intervals are basic building blocks of music. All musicians should be fluent with them. Many see them as distraction from studying “music” or practicing their instrument. But I encourage you to regard studying intervals as a means to open up your musical mind. You can deepen your love of music by knowing more about the mechanics and having more of an awareness of the details of the music you hear.

My app, Intervallic, is designed to help study and assimilate intervals. And have a bit of fun while doing it! More information is at http://tomgullion.tingjing.com/apps/intervallic.html

It’s available for iOS and Android devices.

Identifying Intervals
Studying Intervals
Combining Intervals
Two-Note Exercises
Three-Note Exercises
One-Note Exercises
Triads
Seventh Chords

Identifying Intervals

Many people start off studying intervals by creating a list of intervals that are present in music they already know. This is a great way to strengthen the connections in your brain between something well-known and something new. Which tends to help you remember it!

There are many examples of intervals occurring as the first two notes (or important notes) of famous songs. You should create your own list of songs that you know well. This approach works best with songs that you know and love.

The Interval recognition entry on Wikipedia is quite excellent and contains a good list of both ascending and descending interval examples.
Interval recognition – Wikipedia

Studying Intervals

First, let’s isolate the intervals and work on them in small groups. This helps to build a solid foundation which we’ll add to in subsequent steps.

Many people make the mistake of starting with ascending intervals and not spending equal time with descending intervals. Please avoid this trap! Start out your study using both ascending and descending intervals.

If you’re using Intervallic, go to the Settings page to configure which intervals to study. Simply adjust the switches to include/exclude intervals in the exercises. For this section, use “Two-Note” mode.

* Step 1: First Intervals
  * Start with Perfect Fifth (P5) and Perfect Octave (P8)
* Step 2: 3rds
  * Configure for minor and major 3rds
* Step 3: 4ths and 5ths
  * Configure for Perfect 4th and Perfect 5th
* Step 4: 6ths
  * Configure for minor and major 6ths
* Step 5: 2nds
  * Configure for minor and major 2nds
* Step 6: 7ths
  * Configure for minor and major 7ths

Combining Intervals

After you’ve built some confidence in hearing the above intervals, it’s time to combine them! It’s helpful to combine intervals based on their relations. There’s a bit of magic in intervals. If you invert a P4, you get a P5. That is, if you take a P4 (e.g., C-F) and transpose one of the notes by an octave (e.g., F-C), you’ll get a P5. Pretty cool. And pretty tricky for our ears sometimes.

Our ears/brains can easily transpose octaves. It’s the “same note,” just an octave away. But that can make things complicated when studying intervals – so I suggest combining intervals in the related pairs.

If you’re using Intervallic, go to the Settings page to configure which intervals to study. Simply adjust the switches to include/exclude intervals in the exercises. For this section, use “Two-Note” mode.

Step 1: 4ths and 5ths
Step 2: 3rds and 6ths
Step 3: 2nds and 7ths

Two-Note Exercises

This is the classic exercise to study intervals. Which makes sense because an interval by definition is the distance between two notes. The exercise is to play two notes and then identify the interval.

As written previously, don’t fall into the trap of focusing on ascending intervals and neglecting descending ones. You should have equal facility with ascending and descending intervals.

There are many ways to work on these exercises: alone at a piano or with your instrument, with a buddy who will play a series of intervals for you to identify or with an app like Intervallic which will never tire of playing intervals for you!

It’s also really helpful to do these exercises silently in your mind, perhaps while walking. The goal is to internalize this information and train yourself so it is effortless to hear the music. So working on intervals in multiple contexts will really help.

Intervallic has a auto-play mode where it will play intervals for you and speak the answers. This is a great way to keep your ears engaged fully. And works really well while walking to class or riding public transportation.

Three-Note Exercises

This exercise simply chains together two intervals. It’s a small step toward hearing intervals in real music. It helps develop your musical memory since you have to hold both intervals in your mind simultaneously. It’s a great skill to have.

One-Note Exercises

This is a great game to play with your friends. One person plays a note and tells you what note it is. Then they play another note and your job is to identify the new note. The way to do that, of course, is to recognize the interval and do the calculation to determine the note name.

For instance, person 1 plays a C4 and tells you they played a C. Then plays an Eb4. Now, you hear the interval as a minor 3rd, do the musical math to determine what note is a minor 3rd above C, and finally answer Eb!

You may want to limit the types of intervals to include in this game when getting started. Slowly adding intervals as you improve.

Intervallic fully supports this exercise type and has a auto-play mode where it will play the notes and speak the answers. This is a great way to keep your ears engaged fully. And works really well while walking to class or riding public transportation.

Triads

Being able to hear/identify triads is also an important skill. Identifying their quality (major, minor, diminished or augmented), root and even their inversion. This can be quite challenging but it’s a really great way to stretch your hearing.

Intervallic has settings to select the qualities and inversions.

Seventh Chords

Being able to hear/identify seventh chords is also an advanced skill. Identifying their quality, root and even their inversion. This can be quite challenging but it’s a really great way to stretch your hearing.

Intervallic has settings to select the qualities and inversions.

I wish you great success in your musical study!. Have fun and please send me a note at tom@tingjing.com if you have questions or comments.