What Are Intervals

An interval is the distance between two notes. Below is an interval chart designed to teach you all of the 23 musical intervals.

To read the Interval Chart start at the root note located in the left side column, then work your way across. The bottom row intervals are for the second octave.

What Are Chords

Chords are 3 or more notes played simultaneously. In this course you will learn how to identify chords by ear. Not only their type (i.e. major, minor, etc), but also their name (i.e. C major, D minor, etc.).

Chords are covered in section 2 of the course. Each chord will be accompanied by a piano diagram outlining how the chord is played.

Pitch vs. Tone (Key Points From Audio Lesson)

In order to master pitch recognition it is vital that you start listening to notes differently.

When listening to the notes notice how each instrument has a unique tone, but the pitch remains the same. The trick to pitch recognition is to look past the instrument’s tone, and listen directly to the frequency of the note.

A sine wave is very clean and is a great way to hear a note without the added tone.

Your goal should be to strip away the added tone of a note when you hear it and pick out the wave frequency instead. By doing this your brain will be able to visualize and recall pitches easily.   

Note Awareness (Key Points From Audio Lesson)

The first real step in pitch recognition is to train your ear to hear a series of notes and determine which one is higher or lower.

Audiation is the ability to hear notes in your mind. Now if you’re like most people you’ve experienced this sensation before. Have you ever listened to a song then for the rest of the day you couldn’t get the melody out of your head? Well, that’s audiation. 

Now, if you could imagine that note whenever you wanted and you knew it was a middle C then imagine what you could do by memorizing all the notes. You would have perfect pitch, and be able to name any note. This is why audiation is so important.

Each of the following lessons will outline various exercises which will allow you to start memorizing notes and naming them. So let’s get started.