Intervals

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Understanding musical intervals, how and where to use them.

At all levels of music, sooner or later you’ll come across the subject of intervals. There are tests on them in both practical and theory exams, but they’re not just a theoretical concept - they’re actually pretty useful.

An interval is quite simply the gap between one note and another. Each size of gap has a different musical name.

The simplicity of intervals lies in the fact that they exist completely separately from keys - In fact, you can describe a complete tune to someone using only intervals. Picking a random starting note and following a set of given intervals, the player will replicate the tune in the same way as if they had been given notes to play.

Intervals are also used widely in defining harmonies (where they are integral to describing chords), and in the relationships between transposing instruments, so understanding how they work will really help in your ability to play along with others.

So, here’s a “starter for ten” on intervals. It’s essential though, that you first understand the difference between semitones and tones. Check out the diagram below.

A semitone, or half step, is a jump from one note to the next in a chromatic scale (using all of the sharps / flats). The diagram shows a semitone between C - C#. E - F is also a semitone.

A tone, or whole step, is unsurprisingly twice that of a semitone.

Tones can occur between two ‘white notes’ on a piano, e.g. A-B as shown on the right. Tones can also be found elsewhere - e.g. F# - G#, and Eb - F.

Intervals can be defined in terms of the number of semitones involved - as we’ll show further down.

The diagrams below show a range of intervals as seen on a piano keyboard. We haven’t included all the intervals here, but these are the common ones you’ll need up to intermediate level.

Identifying intervals in music isn’t as difficult as you might think, as you can associate the sounds they make with well known tunes. Here’s a few to start you off, together with the gap in number of semitones for each interval.

Minor 2nd

Major 2nd

Minor 3rd

Major 3rd

Perfect 4th

Perfect 5th

Major 6th

Dominant 7th

Major 7th

Octave

Jaws, Fur Elise

Happy Birthday to you

Greensleeves

While Shepherds Watch / Morning Has Broken

Auld Lang Syne, Ellan Vannin

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, Star Wars

My Bonny lies over the Ocean

There’s a place for us

Bali Hi (South Pacific)

Over the Rainbow

1 semitone

2 semitones

3 semitones

4 semitones

5 semitones

7 semitones

9 semitones

10 semitones

11 semitones

12 semitones

For those of you who are not familiar with a piano keyboard, here are the same intervals in stave format, based on middle C as the starting note. Please bear in mind though, that intervals can start from any note in any scale or key.