1234T—Real-time interval identification
This exercise categorizes intervals into five groups: 1, 2, 3, 4 and T.
The materials for working with the “1-2-3-4-T” exercise are below (including audio files and an answer sheet).
You can also check out the Unison Exercise, for acquiring quick recognition (real-time identification) of unisons and octaves in progressively challenging contexts.
The graphic image (above):
This shows the five categories of intervals as they are used in this exercise. It is not intended as a theoretical model of consonance and dissonance, although the interval categories are in general agreement with most theorists who have written about the subject since the 14th century.
“1” Unisons and their ‘compounds’ (octaves)
“2” Seconds, their inversions (sevenths) and their compounds (ninths)
“3” Thirds, their inversions (sixths) and their compounds (tenths and thirteenths)
“4” Perfect fourths, their inversions (perfect fifths) and their compounds (P11ths and P12ths)
“T” Tritones (augmented 4ths and diminished 5ths) and their compounds (Aug.11ths & dim.12ths)
The Purpose of this exercise: “1-2-3-4-T”
This is an exercise for helping you to develop “real-time” recognition of basic interval qualities. Musicians need to be able to identify musical qualities without stopping the flow of the music, that is without taking time to think, count or analyze—to know them with the same organic immediacy with which we recognize familiar colours. This includes the identification of intervals. If we don’t have perfect pitch (I don’t), then we need a strong sense of relative pitch. The graphic above shows how the intervals will be called for the first stage of this exercise.
The main point of the exercise is that it suggests a format for real-time listening, so if it works for you then you can assemble your own materials in order to substitute different values and turn it into something more relevant for your needs.
The Rationale for this exercise:
It’s easy to find the only red pair of socks in your sock drawer otherwise filled with black socks, because most people can easily recognize the colour red. How do we do it so quickly and effortlessly? Probably the most important thing is that we do not have to think about it; we know it by the direct sensation of the colour red. And how do we do that?
We don’t ascertain ‘redness’ by actually counting the vibrations; we cannot measure the angstrom units that would confirm which ones are the red ones. And I don’t imagine that we do it by comparison, unless there are many red socks of varying hues. I don’t think we have time to reason, such as for example, that the red is ‘warmer’ than blue but somehow ‘deeper’ than yellow or orange. We have, over time, essentially learned or internalized the general sensation or quality of redness. Maybe we do this by association with something we know is red, such as a red traffic light or a fire engine, but it is still a direct sensation requiring no analysis. This exercise addresses the question: Can we do this with intervals and other rudimentary musical values?
The “Unison Exercise” is one model for training your quick listening skills to which you can apply many variations to suit your specific needs. This “1-2-3-4-T” exercise has been of value to students over many years because it develops “real-time” listening skills over a wide spectrum of intervals. Once again, “real-time” simply means that you do not stop the music to think and analyze but you are developing the confidence to identify rudimentary values in the actual time of your playing and listening. Working with this exercise can give you a good head-start in this direction.
When I began teaching musicianship and improvisation courses I did the same as I had always observed and experienced in my student days. The prof plays either one of the notes of the interval followed by the other, or the two are played simultaneously (a dyad) and sustained long enough for the students to try to absorb them. The students typically sing them (aloud or inwardly) one at a time and then they often quietly sing the steps in between, frequently counting them on their fingers in order to name the interval. This “1-2-3-4-T” exercise may give you the confidence to forego reliance on such a mechanical method.
As its point of departure, this exercise uses the commonly accepted theoretical basis for intervals classification. So this exercise assumes the most commonly expressed descriptions of the three categories of intervals:
The category generally regarded as the most simple, pure and most consonant, includes perfect unisons and their compounds (perfect octaves), perfect fifths and perfect fourths (and their compounds—perfect 11ths and 12ths). These are called perfect consonances.
All seconds and their inversions (sevenths), compounds (ninths), and tritones (augmented 4ths and diminished 5ths) share a related quality of dissonance. They are often described as unsettled and needing ‘resolution,’ and sometimes they are even described as having a kind of buzzing quality. While minor seconds and minor ninths are usually considered the most dissonant, for this exercise we begin by regarding all 2nds, 7ths, 9ths, and tritones, as having a certain related quality, a ‘family’ of dissonances.
Perhaps because they are essential to the formation of basic triads, all thirds, sixths, tenths and thirteenths also produce related sensations, and they are usually called imperfect consonances.
Not all theorists agree on which are the most consonant or dissonant intervals. [A wonderfully informative and concise read for anyone interested is James Tenney’s short book, “A History of ‘Consonance and Dissonance’.”] For practical reasons, this exercise avoids considerations regarding the function of intervals (i.e., how they operate in musical contexts) nor does it include distinctions of the intervals’ quality, such as major or minor. In our equal tempered tuning system, augmented and diminished intervals sound identical to other diatonic intervals (their enharmonic equivalents), so those distinctions also do not enter into this exercise. Therefore, as described above, this exercise uses the five categories of intervals that can be seen in the chart at the top of the page.
Just below is a link to an audio file which only sounds intervals in categories 1 and 2. It begins with four tones which set the tempo for the exercise. The playback speed is the slowest, at 30 intervals per minute. It should be dead simple, but you may have to first get used to the format of the exercise. Following this link is a spreadsheet on which you can register your responses to those twenty-five intervals. It is not fillable online so you can simply print it. Put a mark in the first column if the interval sounds like a unison or an octave; put a mark in the second column if it does not (or if it sounds like a major or minor 2nd, 7th or 9th).
This page is an actual test from the course, Piano Improvisation and Contemporary Styles.
The first pair of columns on your answer sheet are for you to mark if the interval you hear was a category ‘1’ (unison or octave) or a ‘2’ (second, seventh, ninth), and you will make an answer for each of the 25 intervals. The next pair of columns, labelled 2s & 3s, has spaces to identify the 35 intervals you’ll hear. Each one will be either a ‘2’ (2nds, 7ths, 9ths) or a ‘3’ (3rds, 6ths, 10ths, 13ths). The files play back at different speeds so that you can find best speed for your ability.
The next pair of columns asks you to distinguish between category 3 and 4 and then finally between 3 and “T.” The last four pairs of columns include all five categories: 1, 2, 3, 4 and T. If it seems too difficult, you can use one of the slower tempos or go back to the previous columns where you are only distinguishing between two categories.
Even the slowest playback tempo on the files with audio examples is designed to go too fast to allow you time to think or calculate, so don’t become anxious if the intervals move along more quickly than you’d like. The intervals don’t sustain or stop long enough to allow you to think, and if you scroll backwards to repeat an interval, you will probably just lose your place. You may feel that you’re making too many mistakes; that you’re just guessing. But if you really don’t know immediately, then please go ahead and give it your best guess. It will be interesting to see how quickly your ‘guesses’ become increasingly accurate. This is an intentional aspect of the exercise. It is designed to discourage reliance on thought and for you to begin to trust a more organic response which will be no less accurate than if you think and analyze. The prompt to guess is intentional. Since I cannot adequately explain to myself how I am able to identify an interval, it still feels like I am just guessing, but I see that my guesses now produce almost flawless results. Just as with the example of picking out the correct colour from the sock drawer, I rarely make a mistake. We can educate the sensory brain and it works so much faster than the thinking brain. This is true and even necessary for most of us in many situations, as with an emergency stop for a red light. So it’s like any sensory dependent skill—bike riding, scrambling eggs with a fork, carrying a full bowl of hot soup to the table, or even dialing the phone number of someone you have called a thousand times. The body simply does it while the thinking mind only looks on or is distracted doing something else entirely.
The spreadsheet shown above is for recording your answers, and I encourage you to customize your own. (You should also consider making your own recording of intervals.) There are also two pages with notation of the actual intervals that were played as well as the category of the interval.
I recommend tallying your scores because each time you do the exercise your score will improve, and that is the desired process: perception of improvement.
If you’re interested in working with this exercise, you can access the other files that accompany this stage of the 1-2-3-4-T exercise: Real-time listening 1-2-3-4-T
Here’s what you’ll see there. (These are not active links, just file names.)
1-2-3-4-5 graphic.png
The chart displaying the interval categories
1 & 2 (from 1234T) @50.mp3
Four files of only 1s and 2s (i.e., audio examples of interval categories 1 and 2) at 50 beats per minute as well as 30 bpm, 40 bpm, 60 bpm
* 1 2 3 4 T (piano) @30.mp3
The last stage of this exercise, where intervals of all categories are mixed.
It is also played at 40 bpm, 50 bpm, and 20 bpm. Do all the other files first.
1-2-3-4-T Intro.docx
That’s the file you’re now reading.
2 & 3.mp3
A sequence of 25 intervals only from categories 2 and 3.
2 & 4.mp3
A sequence of 25 intervals only from categories 2 and 4.
3 & 4.mp3
A sequence of 25 intervals only from categories 3 & 4.
3 & T.mp3
A sequence of 25 intervals: either a ‘T’ (tritone) or from category 3.
1234T (LAST SECTION) @20.mp3
This file has all interval categories mixed together
1234T (LAST SECTION) @40.mp3
This file has all interval categories mixed together
1234T (LAST SECTION) @50.mp3
This file has all interval categories mixed together
1234T (LAST SECTION).mp3
This file has all interval categories mixed together
Record your answers here: [1234T]
And here are the correct answers along with the score:
Additional thoughts:
When we listen to music for enjoyment we don’t bother analyzing what we hear. It doesn’t necessarily enhance our enjoyment. But sometimes we hear an amazing chord or a provocative rhythm and we want to know what it is. We might want to use it for our own work or we might simply be curious.
Much of the time, we let it go because we’d rather keep listening than trying to go back for repeated hearings. That is one good reason to sharpen and speed up our listening and analyzing skills but there’s another important reason. When we play with others it’s good to know, with some precision, what they’re playing. Then we can collaborate more intelligently and more sensitively with them.
So this exercise presents one format that can help to ‘speed up’ our perception of music while it’s in flow. It’s only a template Mostly how to be able to quickly identify such rudimentary values as simple intervals and chords – especially if we do not have perfect pitch?
If you found this exercise useful, try the “Unison Exercise.” It is linked under Listening, Rudiments, and also (most importantly) under Ensemble Work.