Intervals by ear

Teddy1975

Teddy1975

Member
Hi guys

I was just thinking about how we "remember" intervals. You know, the method where you have a part/two notes from a well known song, or an alarm or siren (fx an ambulance) that you use to identify a certain interval.

If you can make a list (2nd, min 3rd, maj 3rd,.......5th....etc.) it would be awsome. Then we can compare lists. Should be fun to see what other people use. :)
I will try if I can make a full list.
 
The Bridal Chorus (Here comes the bride...) is how I remember/hear intervals for the major scale. 1-4-4-4, 1-5-3-4, 1-4-6-8(octave)-6-4-1-5-3-4.
Star Spangled Banner for major triad intervals.
 
My inner old man would advise you to not depend on this "sounds like" method.
It adds an extra layer you don't need in your thinking.

Strive to learn to recognize intervals "cold" by how they sound and feel.

"Round. Red skin. Crunchy. Harvested in the autumn. Must be an apple."

{CHOMP} "Apple!"
 
Admin M@ said:
My inner old man would advise you to not depend on this "sounds like" method.
It adds an extra layer you don't need in your thinking.

Strive to learn to recognize intervals "cold" by how they sound and feel.

"Round. Red skin. Crunchy. Harvested in the autumn. Must be an apple."

{CHOMP} "Apple!"
Click to expand...
Yup, just learn to recognize them.

I used a program years ago for ear training. I forget was it was called but it would play random intervals and you would click the interval you heard. As the training progressed the intervals became more random and shorter duration.
 
Admin M@ said:
My inner old man would advise you to not depend on this "sounds like" method.
It adds an extra layer you don't need in your thinking.

Strive to learn to recognize intervals "cold" by how they sound and feel.

"Round. Red skin. Crunchy. Harvested in the autumn. Must be an apple."

{CHOMP} "Apple!"
Click to expand...

FractalAudio said:
Yup, just learn to recognize them.

I used a program years ago for ear training. I forget was it was called but it would play random intervals and you would click the interval you heard. As the training progressed the intervals became more random and shorter duration.
Click to expand...
I 100% agree that they should become instinctive. I also believe that having a 'cipher' or context in which to use intervals helps some people with ear training.
 
In college, all music majors were required to attend Solfeggio/Ear Training classes. We used intervallic training to recognize intervals between two pitches using familiar melodies. For example the first two notes of the "Star Wars" theme is a perfect fifth. You practice them like guitar, singing two pitches over and over with random starting pitches to learn the intervallic distance. This also applied to singing scales, arpeggios and recognizing chord qualities, chord progressions etc. This class was the most practical and useful class in my experience as a professional.

I would recommend looking into courses online if you're serious about it or finding a teacher. Anyone with a BA in music will most likely have covered this topic and can teach it. It's super useful because I can recognize a chord progression by ear (I V VI IV for example) and just need to find the key on the guitar and I already know the chords. Also very useful for transcribing solos, melodies and also for plotting vocal harmonies if you sing.

Highly recommended.
 
After 3 years of Solfege at Berklee I got to the point where I could sight sing just about any melody.

Took 4th year class in fixed Do solfege. That’s where C is Do no matter what key you are in. It melted my brain.

I have half/perfect pitch. I can sing the first note and tonic of any song I’ve heard a few times but I can’t name the note.

I played by ear and didn’t learn to read music for 10 years so I didn’t learn to associate a note name with the pitch.

I hardly ever think of what key I’m in while playing.
 
I've never had any success with intervals related to well know melodies. I agree with the previous post that it adds another layer that just confuses things. The only thing that I've had luck with is singing. I've never had a great ear, and the singing practice has been the one real help. Playing and singing the scale degrees against a drone of the tonic is great practice as well. My guitar instruction emphasized that it's not really the interval that matters, per se, it's what does a particular scale degree sound/feel like in context of the key. I think maybe Bruce Arnold's course is about that? Anyway, if you don't sing yet, I'd say start now. It will help. In fact, try singing some scales against a drone for 5 minutes and then pick a jam track in the same key and play guitar. YMMV, but I solo a lot better when I do a singing warm up like that. Cheers!
 
To each their own. I learned moveable Do, where the root in Major is Do and the root in minor is La. Didn't start till junior year in high school. In 3 months I was sight-reading at level of seniors who'd been at it forever. In college I got placed immediately into the advanced ear training.

Here's the catch...a tenured professor who liked to flunk people put me in the advanced ear training and they used FIXED do. After hard-wiring association of intervals to do re me (DO to ME was always major third, TI to DO was always half step, etc) in fixed do there is no association between the two. That was insane to my brain. Everyone else in the class had moveable do background. I still kept pace with the best in the class, but unlike them I was doing 3x the mental gymnastics to do it.

I ended up moving to another college where they did fixed do. I literally sight-read all the tests. I didn't buy the text book. I was putting myself through college with very little financial help so that worked for me.

Two systems run parallel in my head, scale degree and solfeggio, but it's mostly instinct and visual nowadays, with scale degree and solfeggio running in the background.
 
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