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Intervals?

 
 
power vacuums & pure moments
17:07 / 01.12.05
So im at music college and ive got exams coming up, but im a 'natural' sort of guitarist, i transcribe and write by ear rather than by recognizing/choosing scales, modes and key signatures. Which is a bit of a pain in the arse because im going to be tested on that. Im almost there with everything other than interval recognition....so i was wondering if any hot musicians here know a good [and fast?] way of getting to grips with it?
 
 
Jack Fear
17:58 / 01.12.05
I got pretty good with intervals by associating particular intervals with a particular memorable two-note passage of music—e.g. the perfect fifth is the first two notes of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the major third is the opening of "Don't Stand So Close To Me," the minor third is the guitar hook from Big Audio Dynamite's "The Bottom Line"... I had a whole system of them.
 
 
Chiropteran
18:58 / 01.12.05
I second Jack Fear's suggestion - start with Jaws (m2) and work your way up. Got me through school, it did.
 
 
Crux Is This City's Protector.
03:55 / 02.12.05
The opening of Rikki Don't Lose That Number is a fifth, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a 4th. So is The Wedding Song, I believe, whatever that's called.
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
05:31 / 02.12.05
See, there's the problem with the internet.

If Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is fourth, then I'm Mary Magdalene.

Unless you men the interval between the second 'Twinkle' and 'Little', which is. But you didn't, did you?

My advice: Sit at a keyboard / with guitar, play each interval ascending a scale from tonic in various keys, and commit to memory the sound of the interval. This is fundamental listening training, and great musicians are ones who listen at least as well, if not better, than they play and compose. The two go together like cheese'n'onion, like drum'n'bass, like 'cannon'n'ball. Listening is the foundation. Having a musical memory, an audio memory, is pretty fundamental to the whole system, really.

All the ablve suggestions (apart from the obvious clanger) are a good way to start committing those shapes and colours to memory. Once that's licked, start going through chord shapes and inversions, major, minor, dominant, perfect, diminished, major-minor, minor-major, and all that guff. Listen out for those shapes in music you like (or hear whatever your opinion)...

Here endeth the lesson.(sorry)
 
 
power vacuums & pure moments
10:01 / 03.12.05
Cheers all, exactly the kind of thing i was looking for.
 
  
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