Interval recognition, the ability to name and reproduce
musical interval
In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch (music), pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and v ...
s, is an important part of
ear training
In music, ear training is the study and practice in which musicians learn various aural skills to detect and identify pitch (music), pitches, interval (music), intervals, melody (music), melody, chord (music), chords, rhythms, solfeges, and other ...
,
music transcription,
musical intonation and
sight-reading
In music, sight-reading, also called ''a prima vista'' (Italian language, Italian meaning, "at first sight"), is the practice of reading and performing of a piece in a music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Sight-singi ...
.
Reference songs
Some music teachers teach their students relative pitch by having them associate each possible interval with the first interval of a popular song. Such songs are known as "reference songs". However, others have shown that such familiar-melody associations are quite limited in scope, applicable only to the specific scale-degrees found in each melody.
[Rogers, Michael (1983): "Beyond Intervals: The Teaching of Tonal Hearing", '' Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy'', (6):18-34]
Here are some examples for each interval:
In addition, there are various
solmization
Solmization is a mnemonic system in which a distinct syllable is attributed to each note of a musical scale. Various forms of solmization are in use and have been used throughout the world, but solfège is the most common convention in countries ...
systems (including
solfeggio,
sargam, and
numerical sight-singing) that assign specific syllables to different notes of the
scale. Among other things, this makes it easier to hear how intervals sound in different contexts, such as starting on different notes of the same scale.
References
External links
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{{Ear training
Music-related lists
Ear training
Intervals (music)