Intervals

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En provenance du cours de The University of Edinburgh

Fundamentals of Music Theory

830 notes

The University of Edinburgh

Fundamentals of Music Theory

830 notes

This course will introduce students to the theory of music, providing them with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. It will cover material such as pitches and scales, intervals, clefs, rhythm, form, meter, phrases and cadences, and basic harmony. This course covers the fundamentals of Western music theory, from the absolute basics to some more advanced concepts and, as such, is the perfect course for beginners and more experienced musicians alike. Follow us on twitter @musictheorymooc #edmusictheory

À partir de la leçon

Keys, Minor Scales, Intervals and Clefs

Rencontrer les enseignants

Dr Michael Edwards

Reid School of Music, ECA
Dr Zack Moir
Teaching Fellow
Reid School of Music, Edinburgh College of Art
Richard Worth

Edinburgh College of Art
Dr Nikki Moran

Reid School of Music, ECA
Dr John Philip Kitchen, MA BMus PhD FRCO LRAM

Reid School of Music
Eli Appleby-Donald

Edinburgh College of Art

So last week we talked about intervals, and we said that this was the space

between notes, but really to fully describe

an interval, we need two pieces of information.

We firstly need the number of the interval, but we also need the quality.

So last week we looked to the distance between C and E.

[MUSIC]

Everyone will tell you that this was a third, C to D to E, one, two, three.

But, that's only half the picture

We say it is a third, but we need to know the

quality, we need to know what type of a 3rd is it?

Okay so [FOREIGN].

>> One, two, three.

That, that'd be a 3rd, Zack

>> Okay and this one?

[MUSIC]

>> One, two, three.

That, that's also a 3rd, Zack.

>> Okay, so these are-

[MUSIC]

two different intervals that we're describing as 3rds

and this is what we mean by quality.

>> Take a look at this example.

We're going to use our major scale again as the reference point.

We're going to be figuring out and naming

all our intervals with reference to the major scale.

And this will give you a set

of interval descriptions that match music theory convention.

So we're working from left to right.

If we've got two notes that are exactly the

same pitch, we say that they're in perfect unison.

The distance between the 1st and 2nd, the 1st and 3rd, the

1st and 6th, and the 1st and 7th are all described as major.

2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7ths, respectively.

The distance between the 1st and 4th, the 1st and 5th, and the 1st and the

8th are called perfect 4ths, and 5ths, and octaves, respectively.

These intervals would all be the same in a major or a minor key.

Hence, perfect.

>> So as you can see, in each case we've got a description of

the quality of the interval and in this case it was either major or

perfect and we also have the number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8,

but as we've also said, this is all based on the major scale.

So, what happens if we want to work at

intervals that don't belong to the major scale?

Well, firstly, we need to be aware that there are other qualities of intervals.

So, we've already talked about major and perfect.

We also have minor intervals, augmented intervals, and diminished intervals.

>> So let's use an example.

to take this forward.

On your screen you've got a treble clef and a D up to a C.

The lower note is D.

The upper note is C.

So let's count up from D.

D, E, F.

G, A, B, C.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Seven steps.

So we know we've got some sort of a 7th.

>> Okay, so that's only half of what we need to talk about.

We've got the number now, we know it's a 7th.

Now we need to think about the quality.

Well, a really good way to do this is to take

the lowest note and imagine that you are in the major key.

Imagine that's the tonic of the major key.

So in this case we're going to imagine we're in the

case of D Major, because the lowest note is a D.

Okay, so, we know that in the key of D Major we've got an F Sharp and a C Sharp.

Therefore the 7th degree of D Major, would be C Sharp.

This would be a Major 7th, we've already talked about this.

Actually this is a C Natural, which is a semitone lower than

the C Sharp that we would expect in this major key.

When a major interval is, it's smaller, or

lowered, we say that this is a minor interval.

>> So we've now seen examples of major intervals, perfect

intervals and, and now we've had our minor 7th as well.

But we've also mentioned there's such

things as augmented intervals and diminished intervals.

So, how would we get to any of those?

>> Well, we've seen that the unison the 4th, and

the 5th, and the octave, are described by the word perfect.

This is because of the constancy between different types of scales.

So they're called perfect.

But if we have a perfect interval and we raise it, we make that interval bigger.

We call that augmented.

And if we make that interval smaller, we call it diminished.

>> So, from a perfect interval, if you

step up one semitone, you've made that interval augmented.

From a perfect interval that you make smaller

by one semitone, you've made that interval diminished.

Now music theory convention given us, gives us even more

options if what we're starting with is, is a major interval.

So if you remember the 2nd, the 3rd, the 6th, and the 7th, intervals,

what all, originally started from our reference point as major.

Major 2nd, major 3rd, major 6th, major 7th.

For any of those, if you were to add one

semitone to the interval, so make the top note higher,

sharpen it by one semitone, you would immediately get to an

augmented interval so for major you'd setup one semitone to augmented.

From that same major if you were to step down one semitone.

So if you were to flatten the top note by

one semitone, you would get to minor as we'd already seen.

Now Zack, what would happen if you were to take

that minor interval and flatten it by one semitone again?

>> Well you're making it smaller, so again

we can see that, that interval has been diminished.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

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