Recognising intervals, and the skill every ear rests on
Identifying the distance between two notes by ear, the method that actually works for learning it, and why to train the descending and harmonic forms too.
Knowing that a major third has four semitones is knowledge. Hearing two notes and knowing they are a major third is a skill, and it is the skill underneath all musical perception: picking a melody off a recording, singing a note you read, recognising a chord — all of it goes through recognising intervals. This page is about how that is learned.
What you hear
An interval has a colour, and the colour does not depend on the notes: a perfect fifth from C and one from F♯ sound like "the same thing" in a way the ear recognises before the name exists. That colour is what you learn to name.
Two different notes, the same fifth. Play them both several times; what stays is the interval.
The method that works
Attach each interval to the opening of a song you already know by heart. The first two notes of a familiar melody are an interval, and the melody is a reminder the ear does not lose. The list is personal, and the melodies that work are the ones you sing without thinking: a lullaby, an anthem, a film theme.
The pair that fools most people, and the one most worth fixing first:
Major third and minor third, four semitones and three. The difference is one semitone, and it is at the same time the difference between a major chord and a minor one: whoever tells the two thirds apart already tells the two chords apart.
Ascending, descending, harmonic
Recognising only the ascending, melodic interval — the lower note then the upper one — is half the skill. The same interval has three presentations, and all three need practice:
- Ascending: the low note, then the high one.
- Descending: the high one, then the low. It sounds different, and the reference songs for going down are other songs.
- Harmonic: both together. It is how the interval appears inside a chord, and it is the presentation harmony uses.
This site's practice plays all three in sequence — up, down, and both together — so that the colour attaches to all three.
From easy to hard
The order most people follow, and that works: the octave and the fifth first, because they sound "hollow" and are confused with nothing; then the fourth, which is the fifth inverted; then the thirds, major and minor; then the sixths, which are the thirds inverted; and last the seconds and sevenths, and the tritone, which is what is left. Each pair of inversions is learned together, because one follows from the other.
A little every day
Interval recognition is long-term memory, and long-term memory is built by spaced repetition: ten minutes a day is worth more than two hours on Sunday. This site's practice schedules each interval to return at the moment you are about to forget it, which is when repetition pays most.
What to take from here
Recognising intervals is naming the colour of a distance, and the colour does not depend on the notes. It is learned by attaching each interval to a melody you know, training all three presentations — up, down, together — from easy to hard, a little every day. Everything people call "having an ear" starts here.