Lesson 13 - Intervals and Chords

Intervals

Intervals are the distance between two notes on the keyboard. They are important to know because they help you recognize notes easier by the spacing on the staff. They also help you find the notes on the keyboard quicker. This is also one of the basic concepts of music theory, which will be included as the lessons progress.
There are eight basic intervals. Listen to the audio clip to hear how they sound and play each interval on the keyboard to see how they look on the keys.

So how is this helpful in learning a piece? Take a look at the tunes below that you have played thus far. Fill in the interval blanks, then play through the tunes while noticing the intervals.

Yankee Doodle

Answers: 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd

Mary Ann

Chords

mm. 1-5: 3rd, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 7th, 3rd, 3rd
mm. 7-11: 6th, 4th, 3rd, 3rd, 5th, 3rd
mm. 13-14: 3rd, 3rd

Answers:

Chords are two or more notes played simultaneously in one hand. See the example below showing the intervals written as chords:

As pieces advance, you will encounter more and more chords ranging from three to even five notes! When practicing chords, follow the steps below to establish good note-reading and fingering habits:

1) Figure out the notes one by one. If you need to write the notes in, make sure to stack them in the order of the notes. Notes at the bottom are played lower and go in ascending order.
2) Play each note separately to make sure you are playing the correct note and the correct fingering.
• Fingering considerations:
1) If the outer notes of the chord is within a span of a fifth, use the fingering of a fivefinger pattern.
2) If the outer notes are larger than a fifth, use fingers 1 and 5 on the outer notes.
3) Roll the notes from bottom to top. This means to play the notes in the chord quickly one after the other, and hold both notes so that you hear how they sound at together.
4) Play all the notes at the same time and repeat multiple times to memorize the fingering and hand shape.