How to Study Musical Intervals

Introduction

Musical intervals are the first tool we have to learn to read music more fluently, since they group two notes into a single musical concept.

---

---

---

In a previous article we saw how harmful it is for our ability to read piano reading only one note at a time. Reading by notes taken individually, in itself, is not wrong: it becomes such when it remains for too long the only procedure we use to read a score on the piano. In this way we risk proceeding like the horse with blinders, and not not realizing the broader meaning of writing.

Walter Piston's Definition

As we have said, we begin to get out of the horizon of the names of the notes taken individually with the introduction of the intervals, which are so to speak the syllables of music. These represent the precise distances that elapse numerically between the nouns of note that are on the pentagram. In Walter Piston's Harmony manual you will find the following definition for the classification of any range:

The name of a range is divided into two parts […]. The first part of the name (we could say the "generic name") of an interval is found by counting the lines and spaces that separate the two [i due nomi di] notes on the line.

Let us dwell precisely on this first part of the name of an interval, since it is the most important for a first approach to reading. On the Piston, which you can buy by clicking on the banner you see above, we read that to know if the interval I am reading is "third" or "fifth" it is sufficient to count the rows and spaces that separate the lowest component of this interval from the one that is higher.

This means that for the moment even the knowledge, presence or absence of accidents is a secondary fact, which therefore will be treated later, when we talk about the second part of the name of an interval. Therefore, the primary purpose of reading will be to make the calculation of this distance between the points of the pentagram as quick as possible, and then establish an association between certain combinations of distances.

The Techniques of Piano Reading Method

I want to suggest some techniques taken from the Piano Reading Method that I consider valid to speed up this process. You can buy the paper manual by clicking on the banner below.

---

In the following examples you will find, next to the rhythmic figures, signs of alteration. I wrote them to you so complicated to show you that any score you encounter, even if new or incomprehensible, will not change the validity of these techniques.

(1) First Technique: if the lower component of the interval is on a space, and the upper one on a line or vice versa, the interval will be expressed by an even ordinal, in other words: second (also called joint degree), fourth, sixth, eighth.

(2) Second Technique: if both the lower component of the interval and the upper one are located on lines or spaces, the generic name of the same will be expressed by an odd ordinal: in addition to the unison, third, fifth, seventh and ninth.

To apply these two rules to your reading, do the following:

1. First, read the position (row or space) of the lower component;
2. Second, compare it to that of the top component (row or space).

Simple Intervals VS Compound Ranges

In this first phase of study, it is not necessary to consider wider intervals than those shown. When you progress in reading and feel ready to face wider intervals, know that to obtain the generic name of an interval that exceeds the octave it is sufficient, starting from the two note names that compose it, to apply the two rules indicated above based on the cases indicated by the following model also taken from Walter Piston's Harmony:

If the amplitude of an interval does not exceed one octave, it is called a "simple interval", if that amplitude is greater than an octave it is a "compound interval". Generally when we talk about a compound interval we refer to it as if it were simple. To obtain this reduction one must subtract the octave from the compound interval, subtracting from the number of the interval the digit 7 (so for example, a twelfth becomes a fifth). Some compound intervals, such as the ninth, are however characteristic of the structure of certain chords and are usually defined with the largest number.

In this latest model Walter Piston talks to us about agreement: if you want to know its definition and fast learning techniques to study chords, do not miss the article we have dedicated to it. Below you will find the Piston, one of those manuals that every musician should have in his library, we will see you in the next article!