Intervals are one of the core ear training topics that most musicians tackle as they hone their aural skills. Often the small intervals (seconds and thirds) and octaves are easy to get a handle on, but the larger ones are trickier. One request we hear again and again from RelativePitch users and site visitors is how best to recognise intervals of a sixth or seventh.

It’s easy to understand this. With the small intervals it’s relatively easy to relate one note to the other by using a scale or arpeggio (whether consciously, or just relying on your ear). Anybody who’s played endless major scales on their instrument will be very familiar with major and minor seconds already, as the steps of the scale. Likewise, major and minor thirds feature in arpeggios. Perfect fourths and fifths start getting a bit tougher, and once you extend the leap to sixths and sevenths, a lot of students feel it’s too big a jump for them to accurately judge. Sure, it’s bigger than a fifth and smaller than an octave, but that still leaves four possibilities!

Tips for recognising sixths and sevenths

We’ll look at three techniques which can be helpful if you’re struggling with these intervals. They all provide a “stepping stone” to recognising the interval. Use the technique described to get started and help your ear start to appreciate the character of the interval. Then in time you’ll find you can recognise them straight off!

1. Use the interval’s inversion
2. Use small intervals to reach a known interval
3. Use reference tunes which feature the interval

1. Use the interval’s inversion

If you’re approaching sixths and sevenths, the chances are good you’ve already mastered seconds, thirds and octaves (if not, it’s probably worth going back to get solid on those easier intervals). Here’s a trick you can use to start identifying sixths and sevenths, just using your ability with thirds and octaves.

You can use major and minor thirds to distinguish minor from major sixths. Likewise, you can use major/minor seconds for minor/major sevenths.

The trick is to ‘jump’ the lower note of the interval up an octave in your mind’s ear. This inverts the sixth or seventh into a second or third instead, and by recognising this smaller interval you can figure out the original interval!

For example: When trying to identify a large interval, you jump the lower note up an octave and you can tell it creates a Major Third. You then know the original interval was a Minor Sixth:

You can use this trick for all sixths and sevenths:
Click to read the rest…

Learning to hear different triad types and their inversions is not really that difficult, it just takes a little time and understanding. There are no shortage of different approaches to developing this important skill, including various solfege systems and other mnemonic devices. When we learn these different methodologies, we should keep in mind that the end goal is to be able to recognize a chord’s quality and inversion not unlike you would any other musical sound like a major or minor scale. This skill is analogous to the way we recognize colors or words.

Consider the word dog. We do not have to necessarily read every letter, and think about its phonetic make-up to understand this word in the context of a sentence. But what about a word like: perspicuous? We may have to take a second to sound out the word, and maybe even consult a dictionary before its meaning and context becomes clear – at least I did!

Learning to recognize musical sounds like chords is similar. We may hear a piece of music and simply recognize, for example, that it is in a major key not a minor one. But perhaps a particular chord in the music takes a few moments to work out its quality and inversion.

We can figure out a chord quality and its inversion using our understanding of basic chord types and intervals.

This article focuses on using our knowledge of the sound of major and minor triads in root position and its interval make-up to tease out the sound of different inversions of these basic chords. As with any approach, consider this one as a tool to use while you learn the different sound qualities of these sonorities.

Root Position Major and Minor Triads

You may recall that basic triads are made up of three pitches stacked in thirds from a root note. For example, a C chord is made up of the pitches C-E-G.

A C major triad

A C Major Triad Example

The above root position triad has a quality to it. We call it a “major” triad by definition: the interval from the root note to its third is a major third, and from the root note to the fifth is a perfect fifth. Musicians sometimes describe the sound of a major triad as being clear and bright, owing to the quality of its third.

The sound of a major triad also has a sense of stability to it. Click to read the rest…

Any mainstream American pop tune, Beethoven symphony, or British children’s song shares a common thread: Western harmonies. Why does Western culture center on specific chords? What is the link between memory, harmony, and ear training? Does music improve memory?

Growing up in Western culture, your ear and brain absorbed a specific “musical hierarchy” where the tonic of a scale had more importance than other pitches.[1] For example, in D Major, your ear automatically gravitates towards the pitches D, A, and G, and finds notes like C# dissonant. Even as an infant, you demonstrated a clear preference for specific Western harmonies. [2] Why is this?

Since childhood, the music you listened to impressed upon your long term memory a distinct preference for the tonic (D) and the dominant (A). Musical training affected your perception of music and your ability to recognize pitch. [1] The more musical exposure you experienced, the greater the impact on your brain and memory.

To recognize a pitch during ear training, your brain performs mental gymnastics. Click to read the rest…