Chapter 3. Music theory

Table of Contents

Interval names

In Solfege 3.0 a small article about intervals was written. The plan was to add a section of music theory articles related to ear training, but as you can see, I never got any further. This article is not yet marked for translation because I want to improve it, and I also need to find a nice way to provide translated text in the musical scores.

Interval names

In music theory we use the word interval when we talk about the pitch difference between two notes. Interval names consist of two parts, the general and the specific part. You find the general name by counting the steps between the notes, and counting in the first note:

Not all intervals with the same general name has the exact same size. From the tone c to the tone d there is two semitone steps, but from e to f there is only one semitone step. Both intervals are called a second, but the first interval is a major second and the second is a minor second. The specific name of an interval tell you the exact size of the interval.

The easy way to remember the specific names of intervals is to think of a major scale starting from the lowest of the two notes.

If the upper note is higher or lower than the scale note, then we find the name by counting how many semitone steps larger of smaller the interval is comparted to the interval from the major scale.

  • A minor interval is on semitone step smaller than a major interval.

  • A diminished interval is one semitone step smaller than a minor or a perfect interval.

  • An augmented interval is one semitone step larger than a major or a perfect interval.

Examples: