The Interval Song of Glory

January 14 2015
Music Education

When students begin serious study of music and notation they must learn to recognize intervals by sight and by sound.  Many teachers have used mnemonic devices to assist in learning, like singing "Here comes the bride" to signal the sound of a perfect 4th, or "My bonnie lies over the ocean" to recall a major 6th, "Somewhere over the rainbow" for an octave rise, and so on.  The problem with these tools is that the memorization of the device is a non-musical relationship and therefore uses none of the powerful human music instinct.  In other words, when you hear or see a musical interval you must first recall what tune goes with that interval, then sing it, then know the interval.

Let us unlock the human music brain to learn music intervals!  To do this I composed a song of music theory intervals and set the names of the intervals as the lyric.  The intervals are sequential and build the expectation of rising and falling distances. The tune will not become a popular hit but unlike the musical ditties presently used this Interval Song helps students learn falling intervals as well as rising ones.  The Song is also sectionalized in a major and minor key in order to connect the difficult nuances of major and minor intervals within a context, and you will notice that the song shows how direction within a key inverts the quality of the intervals (e.g. tonic up to degree 6 is a major 6th but tonic down to degree 6 is a minor 3rd).

Try singing The Interval Song of Glory and you’ll experience the interval names in a new way. 

I include the Interval Song of Glory for you to use and freely share with friends or students.

No matter if you use Music Prodigy or just this sheet music - the point is to sing the song and memorize it.  Repetition of the song, just like my grandson repeats his ABC song, will build a deep understanding of the intervals so you can hear melodic motion and "feel" the interval.  Transposing the sheet music to other keys will build visual recognition if you practice by singing the text but looking only at the pitches (not at the words).

The Interval Song of Glory

-Richard Gard, DMA

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