From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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Figuring out intervals

Figuring out intervals

From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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Figuring out intervals

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- Let's take a quick look at how we discern the qualities of intervals we find in other keys. When I first introduced the concept of intervals, I said that the reference point for determining an interval's quality is the major scale. Thus far, we've only looked at intervals that use C as their reference point. Now that we know the accidentals needed to create the other 11 major scales, we should be able to figure out the quality of any interval we come across. This distinction might seem trivial, but when we begin our discussion of chords, our understanding of intervals, and therefore appropriate keys, is of extreme importance. The more complex the chord structure of a song, the more our sense of the tonic will be questioned. Let's jump straight in with some examples. We'll start with the interval of B flat to F. To figure out what this interval is, We'll treat B flat as the tonic and count up to discern the number…

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