Embedded below is a YouTube video I’ve made to help memorize the ascending melodic intervals. The reason I made this is because I was looking for something like it and couldn’t find it anywhere. The idea is that there’s a piano (a grand piano VSTi from Komplete) playing the intervals with a voice singing the name of the intervals at the same time so that the listener associates the name of the interval with the sound with repetition.

I would think that this would be most effective if you actually sing the intervals along with the recording. This will help you to really internalize the intervals.

By the way, I edited the vocals with Melodyne to make sure they are in tune. It’s such an amazing program, I really think I’m just scratching the surface of what you can do with it. And it’s so intuitive. So easy to use.

Song Associations

I also included a song association for each interval. It seems to really help the ability to memorize the intervals if you can associate them with a well known songs. For some intervals (the more commonly used ones such as major 3rd and perfect 4th) that’s quite easy but with some of the lesser used intervals (such as minor 6th and minor 7th) it’s difficult to find well known melodies that feature them.

Minor 2nd: “Jaws Theme” – John Williams

Major 2nd: “Happy Birthday” – Patty & Mildred Hill

Minor 3rd: “Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple

Major 3rd: “Kumbaya” – Traditional

Perfect 4th: “Bridal Chorus” – Richard Wagner

Tritone: “The Simpsons Theme” – Danny Elfman

Perfect 5th: “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” – Mozart

Minor 6th: “The Entertainer” – Scott Joplin

Major 6th: “My Bonnie” – Traditional

Minor 7th: “Star Trek Theme” – Alexander Courage

Major 7th: “Take On Me” – a-ha

Octave: “Over The Rainbow” – Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg

Ear Training Software

EarMaster Ear Training is the best ear training tool I’ve found thus far. It really lets you improve at your own pace and it’s constantly testing you so you can really see your improvement in a concrete sort of way.