Intervals: Part I - Half of Everything You Need To Know In 7 Minutes

intervals part one half of everything you need to know so you don't fail music class in seven minutes intervals are a measurement of the distance between two notes they're an important part of the vocabulary of music and are useful in discussion the qualities structure and functions of scales chords and melodies they are also useful for increasing your prowess and sight reading sight singing composition and improvisation as with most things in music theory familiarity with major scales and key signatures is fundamental to understanding intervals if you're not confident on those concepts you're going to have a bad time check the links in the description if you need to brush up on those concepts intervals are defined by a quality and a number they have names like major third minor third diminished third or Augmented third or perfect fifth diminished fifth or Augmented fifth the quality of an interval is determined by comparing the top note to the major scale of the bottom note the number is much simpler so we'll start there the number in an interval is a measure of the relative position of two notes on the staff it's defined by how many letter names are between the two notes including the notes themselves for instance this is a 5th because from A to E there are 5 letter names you might imagine there are notes on every line in space and count each one one two three four five a to e is a fifth it's important to note that the number of the interval is independent of any accidentals that might be on the notes so this is still a fifth as is this in this and even this they're all five letter names away on the staff so they're all fifths let's look at a few more this is a second a third and a fourth here's a sixth and a seventh and here's a ninth and eleventh intervals of one or eight have special names because they involve two notes of the same name like C two C or C to see they're still notated with the number but are commonly referred to as unison and octave a fifteenth is two octaves like C to C but for some reason it doesn't have a special name personally I like to call it de baak dia the destroyer to review this is a unison second third fourth fifth sixth seventh and octave as well as 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th and de baak dia the destroyer as we said before intervals also have a quality such as major minor part augmented or diminished there are a number of different symbols and abbreviations that are used for these qualities but I'll be using these because I think they're the least ambiguous in any major scale the interval from the first note of that scale to the first fourth fifth or eighth notes of the scale are referred to as perfect perfect unison perfect fourth perfectly fifth and perfect octave the distance from the first note of the scale to the second third sixth and seventh note are all referred to as major major second major third major sixth and major seventh of course these interval qualities are the same for any major scale for instance in D major from the first note of the scale the interval of unison fourth fifth or octave are all called perfect and a second third sixth and seventh are all called major you may be wondering why are some intervals called perfect and some intervals are called major look I know it seemed arbitrary there's a reason I promise it just won't make any sense until we cover a little bit more for now just go with it so far we've only been looking at intervals from the first note of a major scale to any other note in that scale but what happens if the upper note doesn't appear in the major scale the bottom note that's when you get into those other qualities minor diminished and augmented the quality of an interval is determined by comparing it to the major or perfect interval that normally occurs in a major scale for instance these are all thirds CTE is a major third because E is natural in C major all the other thirds have been altered from the major third in some way C to E flat is one semitone smaller it's referred to as a minor third any major interval that's been made smaller by semitone is referred to as minor any interval that's been made to semitones smaller like C to E double flat is known as diminished finally any major interval that's been made a semitone larger is augmented like C to e sharp this applies to all the major intervals these are all sixths the first one is major because a is natural in the key of C the next is a minor sixth because the interval is one semitone smaller than the major next is diminished because it's two semitones smaller than the major and the last one is augmented because of the one semitone larger than the major these are all seconds and sevenths as you can see the major intervals are just as they appear in the major scale the minor intervals are one semitone smaller the diminished intervals are to 7 Joan smaller and the augmented intervals are one semitone larger let's try another key D to F sharp is a major third because F is sharp in D major D to F natural is one semitone smaller than the major third so it's a minor third D to F flat is two semitones smaller than the major third so it's diminished D to F double sharp is one semitone larger than the major third so it's an Augmented third and here are the different possible seconds sixths and seventh in D major pause the video if you'd like to inspect and compare the intervals so far we've only been talking about alterations from major intervals the perfect intervals are similar with one important difference while the major intervals have four forms major minor augmented and diminished the perfect intervals only have three automated is the same one semitone larger but one semitone smaller is called diminished there is no minor version of the perfect intervals I know you're still wondering why some intervals are perfect and others are major I haven't forgotten we're getting there so this first interval is a perfect fifth because G is natural in C major but if it's made a semitone larger it's an Augmented fifth and if it's a semitone smaller it's a diminished fifth same thing for fourth this is a perfect fourth one semitone larger is augmented and one semitone smaller is diminished also the perfect octave can be made augmented or diminished by making it a semitone larger or smaller a perfect unison can be augmented but a diminished unison isn't really a thing remember an interval is always evaluated by the key of the lower note if you had a perfect unison and made the upper note lower then you've actually made it lower than the first note and now nothing makes sense it's kind of like dividing a number by zero it makes things complicated so to review a major interval is any 2nd 3rd 6th or 7th where the upper note appears in the major scale of the lower note a major interval that's been made a semitone smaller is known as minor to semitones smaller is diminished and a semitone larger is augmented a perfect interval is any unison fourth fifth or octave where the upper note appears in the major scale of the lower note a perfect interval that's been made a semitone smaller is known as the mid if it's been made a semitone larger it's augmentin and that's half of what you need to know about intervals in part two we'll cover intervals larger than an octave what to do at the bottom note isn't in a major scale and inversions which will finally explain why some intervals are perfect and some are major be sure to LIKE comment share and subscribe for more videos thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Brad Harrison Music

Views: 228,460

Keywords: music, music ed, music education, music lesson, lesson, music theory, materials of music, how not to fail music class, made easy, for dummies, help, intervals, augmented, diminished

Id: 8RPggfJ5bjQ

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019