Learning to identify melodic intervals by ear

As we observed in the first part of this series on playing by ear, how two notes sound when played one after another changes with the distance, or 'interval', between them.

In fact, every melody can be considered a series of ascending or descending intervals. A good place to observe this is a piano or keyboard, as all of the notes are laid out sequentially.

If you were to play a simple melody on a piano, such as the first part of 'frere jacques', counting the distance between the notes in semitones (the number of white and black keys between two notes), you'd notice the following pattern:

Thus it stands to reason that if we learn to hear these intervals by ear, and associate them to our instrument, we will be able to effortlessly play any melody by ear.

I believe that it is best to learn to hear intervals by first singing them.

The voice is tangible in a way that other instruments are not, being built into the human system. We can feel the difference between singing small vs large intervals, and if we can sing an interval reliably, we already know it, and can begin to relate that to what we are hearing.

Don't worry if your voice isn't very good. It does not matter how well you can sing. The point is to use the voice as a learning tool, not to become an expert singer.

Singing semitones

Being the smallest interval commonly encountered in western music, the semitone is a great place to start. All other intervals can be expressed as multiple semitones, and thus it gives you a means of navigating your vocal range.

And the first step is learning to control the pitch of your voice:

• First, Find your vocal range, the lowest and highest note you can sing. Sing a long vowel sound—A, E, I, O, or U. Vary your pitch up and down, and find the names of the lowest and highest note you can comfortably sing using a chromatic tuner.
• Pick a note around the bottom of your range and sing it as a long note, aiming to keep the pitch in tune using your tuner, or relative to a reference pitch (online or app pianos are useful).
• Raise or lower your pitch as needed until you're able to keep it stable without thinking. It may take a few days to a few weeks.

It does not matter if your pitch wobbles up and down a lot at first, that's normal, and it quickly reduces with regular practice.

Also, you may not be able to match the pitch of your voice to a sound you are hearing at first. Its easy to test by playing a note in your vocal range on an app piano over headphones, attempting to sing the same note, and seeing if the pitch you're singing is what you expect using a chromatic tuner.

Should this not come naturally for you it's not a problem:

• Start by raising or lowering your sung pitch with a chromatic tuner, until the name and octave of the note you are singing matches the note you are hearing.
• Pay attention to what it sounds like when they are the same. Next vary your pitch sharp and flat, and notice how that sounds as well.
• Use those sounds to raise or lower the pitch by ear, and it will start to become automatic after a few days.

With some control over your voice, you can begin learning to sing semitones:

• Sing a note around the bottom of your vocal range as a long tone, either to reference by ear, or using a tuner.
• Now move up by one semitone (e.g. C to C sharp). Learn how it feels to sing this note in tune.
• Hold the pitch of the two notes in your mind, and sing the interval. You may find that it helps to simultaneously play the same two notes on a piano for reference.

Continue from the bottom of your vocal range to the top, until you can reliably sing a chromatic scale from your lowest note to your highest and back down again. If you're new to singing it could take a few days to several weeks to get the hang of. That's perfectly OK.

Singing other intervals

Once you can sing a semitone, its easy to use them to learn all of the other intervals. For instance, the whole tone, which is an interval of two semitones:

• Start on a note around the bottom of your vocal range.
• Sing upwards by two semitones.
• Hold the pitches of the two notes in your mind, and practice singing the whole tone.
• Then repeat the same thing going downwards.

As you do this, notice how the interval sounds, and try reproducing that sound in different parts of your range. If you wish, you can learn to sing a whole tone scale from your lowest to highest note.

The first intervals to learn to recognise are the 12 intervals within an octave, shown below. These are discussed in more detail in Harmony for ocarina players.

• 1 - Minor second (Semitone)
• 2 - Major second (Whole tone)
• 3 - Minor third
• 4 - Major third
• 5 - Perfect fourth
• 6 - Tritone
• 7 - Perfect fifth
• 8 - Minor sixth
• 9 - Major sixth
• 10 - Minor seventh
• 11 - Major seventh
• 12 - Perfect octave

As these have both ascending and descending forms, there are 24 in total to learn. This could seem like a lot, and so the old method of breaking things down comes into play. Learn one interval and practice it for a few days until it becomes automatic.

Slowly introduce intervals, perhaps one every few days, and practice it until you can reliably sing it ascending and descending from every note in your range. Song associations (see below) can be a great memory air at first.

There's also no need to have learned all of the intervals to move on to the later parts of this article. Learn to sing two or three intervals reliably, move on, and gradually add more intervals as your experience grows.

Song associations, a memory aid

As you learn more intervals it can be helpful to connect each one with a melody as a memory aid. For instance, the first two notes of the song 'Greensleeves' forms an ascending minor third. To sing the interval you need only remember the song.

This technique works most effectively when you make use of your favourite music as you'll already know it very well. So, which melody to use for each interval is not something I can tell you. But I can give a few suggestions:

• Study the music you enjoy listening to or play regularly and identify the prominent intervals, such as the interval the song begins on.
• To fill in any remaining intervals, a web search for 'interval melody association' will find many lists of common songs and the interval that they start on. Don't use something just because it shows up on such a list. Rather, use multiple lists and pick out music that you already know well.

Compile your own list of the melodies and intervals, and gradually learn to sing them as previously discussed.

Starting to hear intervals by ear

Once you're able to sing a few intervals confidently without reference, we can start learning to hear them. Obviously if you play the intervals on an instrument you will know what you just played. Thus, you need someone or something else to play intervals for you.

Choose two or three intervals, and:

• If you have access to a teacher, or a friend who plays an instrument, ask them to play you intervals, and tell you if you are correct. If both of you are learning the intervals, you could turn this into a game. See who gets the most correct.
• Another option is to use a practice tool. Tools like Gnu Solfege and various mobile apps exist that play intervals randomly. They present an interface so you can select what you think it was and tell you if you were correct.

If you use software, prefer apps that allow you to choose the intervals that you want to practice. In Solfege, this can be done by selecting 'configure yourself' then 'melodic intervals'.

With a means of hearing them:

• Listen to the interval.
• If you know what it was, that's awesome!
• If you aren't sure, imagine your associated tunes, or sing the semitones between the two notes.

Should you find yourself struggling at all, ensure that you can sing the intervals reliably, and you may find it easier using two intervals that are obviously distinct, such as:

• Ascending minor second and perfect fifth.
• Descending tritone and octave.

Practising these two note intervals can also become fatiguing if done for too long. It can be easier to start out with very short sessions of a few minutes several times a day.

Playing some short melodies

Once you get the hang of hearing a few intervals, it's a great point to expand out to playing some simple melodies by ear.

There is a little extra complexity here as scales are generally based on irregular patterns. The intervals you get when ascending or descending in a scale vary depending on both the kind of scale, and which note you start from.

For major scales including C major, you have:

First, learn to sing a major scale by deliberately assembling the correct intervals, both ascending and descending.

We can then apply this to melodies:

• Start out by asking someone to play you some simple melodies in C major (or the equivalent for an ocarina in a different key). Alternately, use the tool below to generate them.
• Initially use simple melodies 3 or 4 notes long, moving up and down the scale sequentially, starting from different notes.
• Pay attention to where the semitones and whole tones are in what you're hearing. Once you think you know what you heard, sing the intervals and play it on your ocarina.

Should you struggle to hear where the first note is within the scale:

• Ask someone to play the whole scale octave to octave, sing along, and remember the pitches.
• Then ask them to play single scale notes and try to name them.
• It may be easiest to start with a small part of the scale, such as C to G.

The next step is to gradually introduce larger intervals, and learn how these relate to the common scales. If we consider the thirds in C major for example, moving from C to E is 4 semitones, a major third. However A to the C above is 3 semitones, a minor third, because B to C is one semitone.

Practice hearing these two intervals using the same methodology discussed previously, starting with some very short melodies in a limited range, and expand from there.

You may find yourself initially confusing similar patterns that start on the same note, and if so, it's worth practising identifying them, to ensure you are able to hear the difference. Learning to sing them can also help.

From here it's just a matter of gradually introducing larger intervals, and learning the characteristic sound of other scales like the natural, melodic and harmonic minor scales.

I'd recommend making some diagrams like the following for yourself. This shows where the intervals up to the perfect fourth are within an octave of the C scale. Take this idea, and expand it out to include the intervals crossing the octave, as well as larger intervals, and other scales once you get to that stage.

And yes, do take the time to work it out for yourself, as it will help you remember it.

Closing

Unfortunately, listening to sounds in this way is not common outside of music, so developing this skill can take time. With persistence it does get easier.

Any other experience that you can give yourself with listening can only help. For example, if you have a guitar, ukulele, or similar instrument, try learning how to tune it by ear.

As you get more experience, it will become important to practise hearing intervals in a wide range of keys and octaves. Doing this on the ocarina can be a bit challenging due to the instrument's limited range. It can be done if you make use of ocarinas in different keys, and using an app keyboard is another option.