3 Ear Training – How Intervals Work

Intervals are the fundamental building blocks of melody and harmony. We will learn to identify and notate intervals outside of melodic and harmonic context. Many learners initially find this challenging. The learning process becomes much easier if we can invent an “imaginary context” based on the commonest melodic and harmonic uses of intervals. For example, it is easy to identify an ascending major sixth if we are able instantly to imagine it in a context such as the first two pitches of a well-known song, such as “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

Please study this table of recommended solfege syllables for every interval, and commit it to memory. At this stage, we will learn the intervals within the concept of the major scale only, to avoid confusion, though of course there are common intervallic contexts within the tones of the minor scales too.

Note: try to avoid identifying all intervals in relation to do. For example, there is no common melodic or harmonic context in diatonic music for a minor second spelled do, ra. Its commonest contexts are ti, do and mi, fa.