You'll refer to the bottom note again as the tonic to determine the key of music to reference. Since we have a D as the bottom note, that's the tonic of the key of D Major.Īs you can see, A is a diatonic tone so D and A is perfect 5th interval.Ī perfect octave interval is even simpler to determine. As you can see there is an F in the key of C Major so this verifies the C and F as a perfect 4th interval. All we need to determine is whether the upper note is in the same key as the lower note. But how do we determine if it's a perfect fourth? Since the bottom note is a C, we'll reference the key of C Major.

Let's say we have the following 4th interval. So how do we determine a perfect interval? This is where knowing our Major keys of music comes in. Interval quality can be labeled in one of five different ways:Ī perfect interval is a fourth, fifth, octave or unison interval. Beyond this, we have to define the quality of the interval. Just count the letters) 7th intervalĪs you can see, it's pretty straightforward to determine the number of the interval. (remember, we're not considering interval quality yet.) A to C sharp is a 3rd interval.Ĭan you name the numeric value of these intervals? (Remember at this step, we're ignoring sharps and flats. If we have C and G flat and count up to five, we still have a 5th interval. If we inclusively count the notes from C to G, we have 5. You should also be aware that intervals are counted from the bottom note to the upper note. In other words, the same number can apply to two different notes even though they are not the same distances. Just be aware that sharps and flats do not apply when you're determining the numeric value of an interval. You can find the number of the interval by simply counting how many notes are between them.

We'll start with the number of the interval first because it actually defines the interval as a whole.Īs you may know, notes have lettered names.

G flat major seventh chord paino