Intervals reference
Musical Intervals
A musical interval describes the relationship between two notes. Its name combines a number with a quality, giving musicians a precise language for pitch distance and function.
Developing reference
Overview
Intervals can be heard successively as melodic movement or simultaneously as harmony. The same interval relationship can occur from any starting note, although its written spelling must reflect the notes involved.
Naming Intervals
The interval number counts letter names inclusively from the lower note to the upper note. Quality then identifies the interval's more exact size and places it within the perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished families.
Melodic and Harmonic Character
Different intervals create recognisable degrees of openness, tension, stability, and directional pull. Those qualities are influenced by register, voicing, tuning, dynamics, and musical context rather than by distance alone.
Applications
Intervals provide the building blocks for scales, chords, melodies, voice leading, and fretboard patterns. Practising them by name, sound, and physical location connects written theory with musical hearing and movement.