Intervals

Minor 2nd

Asc Examples

  • Jaws
  • White Christmas
  • A Hard Day's Night

Desc examples

Major 2nd

Example

  • Frere Jacques

Minor 3rd

Asc Examples

  • Mad World
  • O Canada

Desc Examples

  • Hey Jude
  • Frosty the snowman

Major 3rd

Examples

  • Let's Dance (David Bowie)
  • Chimera (at "you never know")

Perfect Fourth

Asc examples

  • All you need is love brass intro
    • this is not exactly true. you have to imagine that the first 2 notes are unison, rather than ascending
  • Amazing Grace

Desc examples

  • How Far I'll Go (Moana)

Tritone

Examples

  • Simpsons choral intro + bass line ("THE SIMP-sons)
  • YYZ

Perfect 5th

Examples

  • Star Wars
  • Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Minor 6th

The minor 6th is the 5th of the tonic's tritone, making it a dissonant interval

Examples

  • Baker street saxophone
  • In My Life (intro piano)

The James bond theme (chordal intro, not the riff) is good for recognizing both the minor sixth and major sixth intervals. It starts at a fifth, then ascends to minor 6th then major, then back down.

Major 6th

Examples:

  • Two of us (guitar intro) - Beatles
  • Goron Lullaby (1st and 3rd note; skip out the intervening note)
    • Goron Lullaby is 1-5-6
  • Star Wars Leia's Theme
  • For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

Descending:

  • Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson
    • "I'm starting with the man in the mirror"

Minor 7th

Can't stop - Red hot chilli peppers

  • Josie - Steely Dan (first line "WE'RE gonna BREAK...")

Major 7th

Examples

  • Take on me (during the part where he sings "take on me")

Octave

Examples

  • Starman (David Bowie; Chorus)

Connections between intervals

  • The 7 of the I is the same note as the 3 of the V
    • The mental model here is that if we're playing the I chord and we know the V chord is coming up, then we can simply move back a fret from the root of the I when that V chord hits, because when it does hit, that note will be the 3 in its new context.

Resources