Marvel at Music Intervals

Music intervals are cool!! Wait until you feel the excitement invoked by the oncoming definition of a music interval. A music interval is the pitch difference or distance between two notes!!

Are you still standing? Well, maybe this topic is not quite as exciting as I’ve built it up to be, but music intervals are rather crucial in honing and developing composing and improvising skills. If we take C as an example, here are the interval distances between it and various notes placed directly overtop of it (note that the perfect unison does not have a note placed directly overtop of its bass C note. Both Cs in the interval are actually the same pitch):

• C to C (perfect unison),
• C to D (major second),
• C to E (major third),
• C to F (perfect fourth),
• C to G (perfect fifth),
• C to A (major sixth),
• C to B (major seventh),
• C to C (perfect octave).

• C to Db (minor second),
• C to Eb (minor third),
• C to Fb (diminished fourth),
• C to Gb (diminished fifth),
• C to Ab (minor sixth),
• C to Bb (minor seventh),
• C to Cb (diminished octave).

• C to C# (augmented unison),
• C to D# (augmented second),
• C to E# (augmented third),
• C to F# (augmented fourth),
• C to G# (augmented fifth),
• C to A# (augmented sixth),
• C to B# (augmented seventh),
• C to C# (augmented octave).

This covers intervals that have C as a bass note. Do you want a book that explores intervals in all keys? Remember that intervals are an important factor in transposition (raising or lowering the pitch of a piece or passage). Transposition is a ‘must have’ in terms of improvising skills. For a book that gives you all of this information and more, click here.

Some Music Intervals with C as a Bass Note

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