Intervals – the building blocks of harmony

Intervals are the distance between two notes. Intervals can be melodic or harmonic.

Melodic Intervals – from one note to another.

Unison 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Octave

Harmonic Intervals – two notes sounded together.

2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Octave

Understanding how intervals work helps in knowing how to sing melodies as well as harmonies.

When you can look at an interval of a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or even 7th, you know just how far one tone is from the other.

Singers can use two way to hear or sing melodic intervals. 1. solfege – know where DO is and go to another note by singing it’s solfege syllable. 2. use familiar songs with these intervals to identify them and sing them correctly.

2nd – Happy Birthday3rd – Kum Ba Ya4th – Here Comes the Bride5th – Twinkle, Twinkle or ABCs6th – NBC

Harmonic intervalsThe easiest form of 2-part harmony

Singing in 3rd

Singing in 4th

Singing in 5th

Chords – are a combination of 2 different intervals.Chords are also called triads because there are typically 3 pitches involved.

Chords are built beginning with a root note. Then an interval of a 3rd is added and the final note of the triad is the 5th.

Chords can be written in any order, they just must have the 3 pitches involved.

G C E E G C C E G

Chords can have more than 3 pitches and many typically have 4 pitches.

Most common 4 pitch chord is a chord with one note from the original chord doubled.

C E G G C E E G C C E G

Next most popular is the 7th chord in which an interval of a 7th is added to create a new sound.

B C E G B C E G B C E G

7TH chord tend to create excitement and suspend to a harmony part.