Chords rather than intervals, are the harmonic units by which the ear player works. But if the principal chords of the major and minor keys have been learned, the player will do well to notice the intervals which make up these chords. If we were following a logical order, these intervals would have been presented before the chords; but instead, we have been following the order in which an ear player develops and makes extensive use of chords before he knows anything of intervals. Now we may well take time to notice the subtle tendencies of the intervals themselves.

In the Scale

First, let us locate the intervals on the major scale, just as we did the chords. All intervals are measured from the tonic, thus:

If the upper tone is raised or the lower tone is lowered one half step in any interval, the result is an augmented interval. If a major second or major third or major sixth or major seventh lowers its upper tone or raises its lower tone one half step, a minor interval results. There are no minor fourths, fifths, or octaves. If any of these perfect intervals or any of the minor intervals have their upper tone lowered a half step or the lower tone raised a half step, the result is a diminished interval. These are all the intervals there are.

Now listen to the various intervals and note their charac­teristic sound; they tend to progress to something else. In order to hear them fairly you will need to play them on various tones and go from one place to another on the key­board. Otherwise you will get the feeling of scale relationship rather than the tendency of the intervals by themselves.

Major

As an example we take a major 6th. It is a consonant interval, pleasant sounding. Play firstone tone and then the other; you will find that neither one makes a very good resting point. Actually the tone of resolution is the D in the center, as you will hear immediately you sound this D. Obviously this makes the chord of D major; the interval merely suggests it but with sufficient strength so that it seems to wish to resolve to the root of that chord as a final resting place.

Minor
If you lower the F# to F, you will have the minor 6th,  Play these tones back and forth and you will note a slight tendency for the interval to come to rest on the upper tone. This is because the interval suggests the F
                      F
major chord, C, and you seek its root for a satisfactory final tone.
                      A

Augmented
If again you take the original major 6th,, and raise the upper tone, you will get the augmented 6thwhich is identical in sound to the minor 7th  Augmented intervals are rare and are easily heard when they do occur. Practice in listening may well be restricted to differentiating between the major, minor, perfect, and diminished intervals.

Try this same process with other intervals, or strike two tones on the keyboard in haphazard manner and tell what interval it is by the sound. The name of the interval is not important to you but is necessary to check and improve your ear. This will improve your ability to catch a piece at first hearing.

Identification

If you find this practice difficult, you can build up your power of discrimination by following this procedure: Ask first whether the interval is consonant or dissonant. If it is consonant is it a hollow consonance or a resonant one? If it is a dissonance, is it a strong dissonance or a mild one? Then, is the tone of resolution—that is, the tone on which it wants to come to rest—the upper tone or the lower tone? Or does it lie in the middle or completely outside the interval? Or is there no satisfactory resolution suggested? The following table show how each interval is classified by this series of judgments.

Classification of Intervals

Final or Resolution Tone	Consonant		Dissonant
	HOLLOW	RESONANT	STRONG	MILD
Top	Perfect 4th	Minor 6th	Minor 2nd	Minor 7th
Bottom	Perfect 5th	Major 3rd	Major 7th	Major 2nd
Middle		Major 6th
Outside		Minor 3rd
None or either	Octave		Augmented 4th Diminished 5th

Some find this analysis of the intervals more difficult than the immediate judgment of the interval itself; others are greatly helped by it. The object is to hear the power and tendency of the interval. Gain this discrimination in whatever way comes easiest to you.

Wide Intervals
It should be noted that the effect of an interval does not change when an octave is added between its tones. That is E sounds like a major 3rd, regardless of whether the E is immediately above the C or an octave and a 3rd above the C or two octaves and a 3rd above the C.

In Chords

Notice, on the other hand, that as intervals are combined into chords, they lose their identity. We hear the chord as a chord and not as a group of intervals. That is the reason the chords were learned first. Consequently we shall now analyze a familiar chord and note the various interval tendencies contained within it. The V7 in the key of C will be an easy one:  is a major 3rd;  is a minor 3rd;  is another minor 3rd;  is a perfect 5th;  is a diminished 5th; and  is a minor 7th. If we were to invert the chord we should also get a variety of 2nds and 4ths. The varying color and resolu­tion tendency of these many intervals give the chord a different effect as it is inverted, though it maintains its characteristic quality as a dominant seventh chord.

We listen to music in many different ways at the same time. We hear individual notes. To the person with absolute pitch, this quality may be very important; it affects us all to some degree. We hear intervals as we relate two notes together, regardless of whether they are struck together or one after the other as in a melody. Each interval has its characteristic feel. We hear the chords resulting from several intervals together, and the effect of their implicit tendencies is strong indeed. In turn, the chords fit into familiar progressions and resolutions, which have definite significance for us. The com­poser uses all of these powers, just as the author carefully places the letters, the words, the idioms and more complex phrases into complicated sentences. Music is indeed a complex art! The more sensitive our listening, the more we enjoy music.

Pieces Which Depend Largely Upon the Effect of Intervals

Berceuse (GODARD) (Godard)
Prelude to Lohengrin (WAGNER)

WHAT TO DO Play some simple melodies in 6ths or in irds and notice the effect. Practice naming intervals as you strike them at random on the keyboard or as they occur in the music you are playing or hearing. Take the intervals out of the chords which you invert and notice their individual effect. Make the intervals progress from one to another, just as you have made complete chords progress

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