Ear training: recognising intervals

Playing what you hear and hearing what you play are two halves of the same skill. Interval recognition is the best place to start: with a handful of reference tunes you can identify any interval and find it on the guitar.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 3rd, minor 3rd and octave by ear.
• Use a reference tune to check an interval.
• Find the first notes of a simple tune on the guitar.

Learning to hear intervals is the foundation of playing by ear. If you can tell a perfect fifth from a major third, you can work out melodies, spot chord changes and write down music you hear.

The most practical method uses reference tunes: well-known songs that begin with a clear ascending interval. When you hear an unknown interval, ask which tune it matches.

For this lesson, learn these five:

• Minor 3rd (3 semitones): the start of "Greensleeves".
• Major 3rd (4): "When the Saints Go Marching In".
• Perfect 4th (5): "Here Comes the Bride".
• Perfect 5th (7): "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
• Octave (12): "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Add the others later from the reference library: the minor 2nd (the Jaws theme), major 2nd ("Frère Jacques"), tritone (the Simpsons theme), major 6th ("My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean") and minor 7th ("Somewhere" from West Side Story).

The loop for learning an interval. Hear it, sing it, find it on the guitar. Singing is the part that sticks.

Hear it, sing it, find it.

1. Play a note on the guitar and hum it. Hold the pitch in your voice.
2. Sing the first two notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", starting from your hummed note. The second note is a perfect fifth higher.
3. Play the second note on the guitar to check. On the same string it is 7 frets higher.
4. Do the same for the other four intervals.

Daily practice. Five minutes: pick a random root, pick one of the five intervals, sing it, check on the guitar. After a week, add a second interval. After a month, you will be recognising them without singing.

Try it here. Press play, name the interval, and the answer comes with the tune that goes with it. Use "One at a time" first, since that is how a tune sounds, then try "Together".

Do these in order. Each one is small. Tick the ones you have practised.

• 1.Sing then play

  4 min

  1. Play a note on the guitar and sing it.
  2. Sing the first two notes of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star': that is a perfect fifth.
  3. Find the second note on the guitar. It is 7 frets higher on the same string.
  4. Repeat for a major third ('When the Saints') and a perfect fourth ('Here Comes the Bride').

  You have it when

  • You can sing each interval from a root and find the second note on the guitar.
  I practised this one

• 2.Interval quiz

  5 min

  1. Ask a friend, or use a piano app, to play a root and a second note.
  2. Name the interval, using your reference tunes.
  3. Check the answer.
  4. Do ten intervals from this set: minor 3rd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, octave.

  You have it when

  • You get at least 8 out of 10 correct.
  I practised this one

• 3.Find a tune

  4 min

  1. Pick a simple tune you know well, such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
  2. Find the first note by ear, then the next, using the intervals you know.
  3. Play the first phrase on one string.

  You have it when

  • You find at least the first phrase of the tune without looking it up.
  I practised this one

No tempo. Do ear training in short bursts of a few minutes. It works better when done every day than once for an hour.

• Trying to learn all intervals at once. Start with five. Add more when those are reliable.
• Using songs that only partly match. Choose reference tunes where the interval is clear and ascending, such as the ones in the reference library.
• Practising for a long session once a week. Five minutes a day builds the skill more reliably.

Ear training pays off when you learn songs by ear, which is the topic of Module 8. Being able to name an interval is what turns 'that note' into 'a perfect fifth above the root'.

Short version (10 minutes)

Do 'Sing then play' with three intervals, five minutes.

Standard version (about 30 minutes)

Do all three exercises, then add the minor 3rd and octave to your set.

• Link each interval to a tune you know.
• Sing it, then find it on the guitar.
• Start with five intervals.
• Short daily practice beats long occasional practice.

You are ready to move on when you can honestly say:

• I can identify the five intervals by ear at least 8 times out of 10.
• I can sing an interval from a given note.
• I can find the notes of a simple tune by ear.