Hey guys...........

I'm new here and was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to learn intervals....I'm hopeless at them!!!!

Thanks and pleeeaaassseee reply!

Lil x

learning to identify by ear, or learning to play them on an instrument, or what?

Soz....

It's for my theory exam (g.5)

Lil x

It's most useful to practice them on something like a piano, where you can hear the results. Using a DAW piano roll works pretty well too. Try out writing a phrase that goes through the intervals in a sorta song-like pattern.

Like 4 bars, where it goes between a repeating a root and a minor third(+3 semitones from the root), then a root and 5th(+7 semitones from the root, or +4 from the minor third), then back to root + minor third, then root & minor 7th(+10 semitones).

Since you'll have written out the diddy yourself, when you listen to it, and remember it, you'll be able to remember those intervals pretty easily. Could be a good basis to work with.

Good luck.

List of intervals and corresponding well-known songs that begin with these intervals.

http://www.earmaster.com/intervalsongs/

Other useful tools on the same site.

Good luck!

If Lily is having a test she should have this stuff down by now.

She should be able to determine any scale and or mode by the intervals including irregular scales. She should be able to figure out the key of a song by one note and the intervals around it.

If she were studying guitar she would have to be able to perform intervalactic
pieces based on the intervals not note values and she would have to be able to transpose them at will.

learn intervals in the full context of some music, identify intervals that produce their effect in a song.

way, UP, high, in Somewhere Over the Rainbow; way>UP is a major sixth.

Ma-RIIIII-A!, in "Maria" fr West Side Story'; Ma to ri is an aug. 4th...

Learn principles in the fullness of musical meaning.
Last edited by jancivil on Sun May 27, 2012 3:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

I was thinking scale assembly/distance between notes
Ionian mode W-W-H-W-W-W-H
Whole Tone Scale W-W-W-W-W
Half Whole scale H-W-H-W-H-W-H-W (Also referred to as the diminished or Octatonic scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octatonic_scale

Thanks for your comments,

Still don't understand them though!!!

Lily

You need to be more specific. Do you not understand what they are? Do you fail to identify them when you hear examples? Do you fail to see how they apply to other areas of music theory? Are you supposed to be able to do the things Tapper Mike mentioned a few posts earlier and unsure where to start?

this may help :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dalL5FpWR8

explains what intervals are...

I don't know what 'G5' means in Scotland, but grade five here means you're like, ten, so if so you're to be given some slack I think.

It'll be the Grade 5 ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) music exam, probably the aural test for a practical exam rather than Grade 5 Theory.

It's about 20 years since I last did an exam and I don't know what might have changed in the meantime. I recall that you had to identify an interval played by the examiner and possibly for the higher grades you might have had to sing an interval from a given root note, but I really can't remember.

I can't remember which intervals were in the syllabus for which grade, you'll need to ask which ones you need to be able to identify for Grade 5. Is your teacher not helping you practice for the aural test?

Seconds and thirds are easy enough to count up the intervals in your head. With the others it can be helpful to use well known songs to recognise certain intervals, as jancivil suggested. London's Burning will give you a perfect fourth, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean a major sixth and so on - see here for other examples. You'll probably find more if you google.

well, I firmly believe in remembering intervals from songs you know. For people with perfect pitch that isn't so needed. I never had a test like that.
Conservatories I know about here aren't interested in that as particularly practical to know about a student I guess.

Sorry guys..... I'm trying to learn how to name the interval-( perfect/ major/minor/diminished/augmented.) It's for my grade 5 theory (ABRSM)exam.
I'm NOT talking to an examiner in the exam!!....the exam is all written on pieces of paper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though that youtube recording is good for the aural side of things...I'm NOT doing that kind of an exam!!!

Thanks
Lil