What Are Intervals?

You know the names of the 12 notes in music. Now what?

Well, now you learn to use them. And understanding intervals is the first step.

In straight terms, intervals refer to the distance between two notes regardless of wheather they are above or below a given note.

It is crucial for any musician to know this concept as it is fundamental to musical creation and analysis.

Let's take a look at them.

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Meaning Of Intervals

In music an interval is defined as the distance (in pitch) between any two notes.

When the distance is more, the interval is said to be greater.

And when the distance less, the interval is said to be shorter.

There are three main paths we use to describe an interval:

• The number of 'steps' between them.

• The quality of the interval (major, minor, perfect, augmented or diminished).

• Harmonic or melodic intervals.

Let's look into each of these now.

Counting Steps

In western music, we use a mix of two types of musical steps:

• Half Step - One note above or below. For e.g, C to C#/Db is a half step above and C down to B is a half step below.

• Whole Step - Two notes above or below. For e.g, C to D is a whole step above and C down to Bb/A# is a whole step below.

Once you understand these two basic types of steps, you will realise that all kinds of melodies, chords or arpeggios are built using them, or some combination of them.

Once we start working with steps larger than a whole step, it becomes somewhat necessary to name each interval in order to simplify things a bit for ourselves.

Let's look at these names now.

Quality Of Intervals

Each step/interval has a specific name given to them.

We will refer to Half Steps as '0.5 Step', and Whole Steps as '1 Step'.

Please also note that, all these intervals are used for both ascending and descending pitches.

There are two types of such intervals:

• Simple Intervals - Intervals within an octave.

• Compound Intervals - Intervals beyond an octave.

Let's look at Simple Intervals first:

Number Of Steps	Quality Of Interval
0 Steps	Unison
0.5 Steps	Minor 2nd
1 Step	Major 2nd
1.5 Steps	Minor 3rd
2 Steps	Major 3rd
​2.5 Steps	Perfect 4th
3 Steps	Augmented 4th/Diminished 5th
3.5 Steps	Perfect 5th
4 Steps	Augmented 5th/Minor 6th
4.5 Steps	Major 6th
5 Steps	Minor 7th
5.5 Steps	Major 7th
6 Steps	Perfect Octave

Let's look at Compound Intervals:

Number Of Steps	Quality Of Interval
6.5 Steps	Minor 9th
7 Steps	Major 9th
7.5 Steps	Minor 10th
8 Steps	Major 10th
8.5 Steps	Perfect 11th
9 Steps	Augmented 11th/Diminished 12th
9.5 Steps	Perfect 12th
10 Steps	Augmented 12th/Minor 13th
10.5 Steps	Major 13th
11 Steps	Minor 14th
11.5 Steps	Major 14th
12 Steps	Perfect Octave

Harmonic And Melodic Intervals

Harmonic intervals refer to two or more notes being played at the same time, or simply being stacked together. For e.g, any chord is built of harmonic intervals.

Melodic intervals refer to two or more notes being played separately as a melody. For e.g, any arpeggio is built as single note sequence of chord tones.

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