Songwriter Theory

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Does a Songwriter Need to Know Music History? May 06, 2019

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If you’re a songwriter, you’ve probably had someone just assume you know a specific song by a specific artist because, well, “you’re a musician!”

For me: #Triggered.

As much as I love faulty gatekeeping, this ticks me off.

Spoiler alert: I would say the answer to whether or not a songwriter needs to know music history is a resounding no.

Here’s why.

You are Your Own Artist

The simplest of reasons, but still important.

You are your own artist. If you sound nothing like the Beatles, knowing some random song they wrote 50 years ago doesn’t have anything to do with your writing ability.

There is even a danger here. Which is that the world needs more first-rate new artists, not second-rate copies of past artists.

If you spend time diving so deep into Metallica or Nirvana and end up sounding like Nirvana 2.0, no one will care. Or, perhaps worse, they will care and hate you for being a second-rate copy of an artist they love.

Go be you. The sound you craft from all your different influences combined with your style and value judgements is what makes you special.

Not knowing some random Beatles song.

You Don’t Need to Know Your Entire Influence Tree

Let me explain what I mean by an influence tree.

For coaching in sports, there is something called a “coaching tree”.

If a head coach has 2 assistant coaches, the 2 assistants are likely influenced by how the head coach did things, and likely have very similar strategic values as they were part of the same team.

So when they become head coaches, they are a part of the head coach’s coaching tree. When their assistants eventually become head coaches themselves, they are also part of the original head coach’s coaching tree, as he influenced those who influenced these new head coaches.

So an influence tree, like the coaching tree, is basically like a “family tree” of influences.

Let me share with you a piece of what my “influence tree” looks like.

My favorite band, and one of my biggest influences, is Vertical Horizon. So I am a part of their influence tree. They are influenced by the band Rush, so I also am in their influence tree.

I don’t listen to rush, and am personally not a huge fan. But I’m still a part of their influence tree, because they influenced who influenced me.

I’m also in Breaking Benjamin’s influence tree. They claim Nirvana and Tool as their main influences, so I’m also in their influence tree. Neither influence me directly, as I don’t know much about Tool and, while I enjoy some Nirvana, they aren’t an artist I listen to enough to really be influenced.

Now, I’ve been told multiple times how I need to know bands like Metallica, Nirvana, and the Beatles, because they were important to the history of different styles that I fit into.

Here’s the thing.

Sometimes even a direct influence is hard to hear in a musician. I’m sure you can hear the Vertical Horizon, Five for Fighting, and Goo Goo Dolls influence in most of my stuff. But I was also heavily influenced by John Denver. I know and understand how he influenced me melodically and lyrically, but no one would pick up on that. I don’t sound anything like John Denver.

Going back 2 generations? Some of my rock stuff has clear influences from the likes of Vertical Horizon and Breaking Benjamin, but I don’t think anyone would say my music sounds like Rush or even Nirvana.

Imagine going back the 5+ generations to the Beatles? They are so far from me in the influence tree, that studying them as an influence would be like worrying that you’re great great grandfather allegedly murdered someone. You’re so far away in the gene pool that you probably aren’t a murderer waiting to happen.

Conclusion

I’m not saying you should write in a vacuum. What I am saying is that you don’t need to know all about past popular music to write great songs. You don’t even need that to write popular songs.

I do think influences are important, but I don’t think we all should be forced to be influenced by the same artists. Chances are, you are influenced by other popular artists, so you clearly have successful influences. So why do you need to be influenced by the most popular artists of all time? It’s not like they are necessarily better than any other artist.

Embrace your influences, don’t let anyone force new influences upon you (or force you to spend time studying artists you don’t like or care about), and be unapologetically you with your music..

The Process From Songwriting To Released Song Apr 29, 2019

Show notes

FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/

Episode outline:

Songwriting

Inception: The idea or inspiration
Gestation: Time where you’re thinking through where the idea could go
Development: Time you’re actually writing out where you want to go with the idea and what type of song you’re probably going for
Writing: The actual writing of the lyric and music
Refining: Making adjustments such as adding a pre-chorus, removing part of an overly-long second verse, adjusting lyrics or melodies you weren’t in love with, etc

Recording

Find Tempo
Record Main Instrument
Record Body Instruments
Record Filler Instruments
Record Atmospheres Instruments

Editing

Mixing

EQ
Compression
Delay/Reverb
Other

Vocals

Record 8 good takes: You can do more or less. The common industry standard I’ve heard is 5 takes, but I like to overdo it a bit and to have an even number that can divide by 2 all the way down to 1. You’re about to see why.
Comp 8 takes down into 4 comps (composite takes): I do this tournament style. I’ll put two takes “against” one another, taking the lines of each that I like better. Sometimes I’ll even split by words if it makes sense.
Comp 4 composite takes down into 2 even better composite takes: Basically the semi-finals of the tournament- again doing this line be line or even word by word, taking the best between 2 takes.
Pitch correct final 2 takes: Before doing the final comp, this is where I like to pitch correct. I do this here for a couple reasons. One is sometimes the pitch correction will help me notice an imperfection I otherwise wouldn’t. This also gives me more to work with in the final comp with already-pitch-corrected vocals. Sometimes I’ll use the second pitch corrected vocal (the one that didn’t win) for a vocal double.
Comp down into 1 elite take: Take those 2 pitch-corrected takes, and create that final vocal take.

Sweetening

Mastering

EQ
Compression/Limiting

Release

5 Important Questions When Arranging Apr 22, 2019

Show notes

FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/

Episode Writeup:

Arranging can be overwhelming. You wrote a song with your guitar and your voice, and now you need to make a full arrangement out of it? Where do you start? What is important to think about?

Why is this Instrument the Right Choice?

A harmonica and flute playing the same part will have a very different feel.

A piano ballad and guitar ballad sound fundamentally different.

It’s important to be intentional about your instrumentation. Don’t just throw instruments in without thinking of WHY it is you are choosing the instrument for that part.

The feel of your song isn’t just determined by the lyrics, chords, and melody. The instruments you use to fill the song are imperative to the tone and feel.

When you write a new part, should it be acoustic guitar or electric? Or should it be a synth or violin? Do you want a full drum kit, or will a cajon part do?

What is the Job of this Part?

Every part has a job. Not every part can or should be the star.

Some parts may be very important, but aren’t flashy and most people won’t even notice them.

The star of your song is probably primarily the vocal. Some random filler synth to thicken up the chorus, that acoustic guitar that sits in the background of the 3rd verse, and (let’s be honest) the bass guitar are just not meant to be the stars.

This doesn’t make them unimportant. They just have a job to do, and it isn’t to be the star. That doesn’t make their job any less important.

Where does this Part Fit into the Arrangement?

Every part has its place.

And it needs to be in its own place, not another part’s place.

Think of it like a puzzle.

Well, 4 puzzles. The first puzzle is the distance puzzle. This is about whether it is a lead part (close up, in the foreground) or a filler in the background, as well as everything in between. As I said in the previous section, not every part can or should be trying to be the star.

The next puzzle is the pitch puzzle. You don’t want all the parts of your arrangement to be in the same couple octaves. The parts will clash, making it harder to sound good in a recording.

I generally like to map out what octaves different parts tend to reside in. I use this to be sure there is good representation from several different pitch ranges.

This helps to fill in the arrangement without getting overly muddy or clashing.

Next, we have the rhythm puzzle. Like the pitch puzzle concept, you don’t want every part occupying the same rhythmic space. If one part is a chord held over the entire measure, you don’t want every other part to do that too.

You probably want one that plays a syncopated rhythm and another that may be a pad synth that has no rhythm at all. A part that plays quarter notes on the down beat will be a change up from something playing a syncopated part and something else playing only every measure.

Lastly, we have the energy puzzle. This puzzle is related to, but not quite the same as the rhythm puzzle. While the rhythm puzzle is primarily concerned with where the transients (beginning and most loud part of notes) are, the energy puzzle is concerned with the level of “energy” of a part.

The “energy” of an electric guitar playing rapid 16th notes, growing louder and louder vs a piano playing a laid back melody is strikingly different. We generally don’t want all our parts being at 100% energy all the time, and we also don’t want all our parts being equally laid back all the time.

If all the electric guitar parts are driving the song forward with high-energy staccato parts, maybe the job of the violin is to give a legato melody to hold the song together.

When Should Each Part Come In?

The easy answer is usually you want something new to happen in the song every 4 measures or so. Obviously this is far from a hard and fast rule, but if the song just doesn’t quite hold the listener’s attention, thinking through how often you change something up to interest the listener can be helpful.

But something has to change to keep the interest of the listener. The song shouldn’t stay stagnant like a small pond. It should be a river, with new and exciting things coming with each passing second. Never quite the same, even if it is overall familiar.

When Do I Know When To Stop?

When the song feels right, can hold someone’s attention from beginning to end, and both delivers and dials back when it should, that is when it is time to stop.

That’s when you’ve successfully arranged your song.

A Great First Step Into Songwriting Apr 15, 2019

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What are Augmented and Diminished Chords? Apr 08, 2019

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Episode Writeup:

What exactly are augmented and diminished chords? What is the difference between them and major and minor chords?

The short answer:

A major chord has a Perfect 1st, Major 3rd, and Perfect 5th

A minor chord has a Perfect 1st, Minor 3rd, and Perfect 5th

An augmented chord has a Perfect 1st, Major 3rd, and Augmented 5th

A diminished chord has a Perfect 1st, Minor 3rd, and Diminished 5th

Put another way, an augmented chord is simply a major chord with the 5th sharpened (up 1 semitone). A diminished chord is a minor chord with the 5th flattened (down a semitone).

Don’t worry, we still have a slightly longer and more informative answer:

Like major and minor chords, these chords are what are called triads. A triad is a set of 3 notes that can be stacked in thirds. In other words:

The first note to the second note is a type of 3rd
The second note to the third note is a type of 3rd

Another way to look at a triad is this:

The distance between the first and second note is a type of 3rd
The distance between the first and third note is a type of 5th

So a triad is basically a 1st, 3rd and 5th.

How we get different types of chords are by changing the quality of the interval, as the numbers will stay the same.

For both major and minor chords (or triads), we have a 1st and a perfect 5th. It is simply the note in the middle, the 3rd, that is different.

For diminished and augmented chords, we take the minor and major chords (respectively) and change the quality of the 5th.

In both cases, we are doubling down for what the chord is doing. In a major chord, we have a Major 3rd (the higher between major and minor), so for an augmented chord we ALSO raise the 5th from perfect to augmented.

A diminished chord is doubling down on what a minor chord is doing, so we keep the minor’s Perfect 1st and Minor 3rd, but then also lower the 5th by a semitone from a Perfect 5th to a diminished 5th.

A diminished chord is a minor chord with a lowered (diminished) 5th.

An augmented chord is a major chord with a raised (augmented) 5th.

If you recall from our post on intervals, a major 3rd is 4 semitones from the root note. A minor 3rd is 3 semitones from the root.

Perfect 5ths are 7 semitones away from the root, so Diminished 5ths are 6 semitones away and Augmented 5ths are 8 semitones away.

So let’s figure out a C Diminished chord.

Since it’s diminished, we know the 3rd is a minor 3rd, or 3 semitones, from the root.

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3)

So the second note of a C diminished triad is an Eb.

For the 5th, it is a diminished 5th, so:

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3) -> E (4) -> F (5) -> Gb (6)

So a C diminished triad is a C, Eb and Gb. Put another way, a C minor triad with a flattened 5th.

Now, let’s do an augmented triad.

We start with a major 3rd, which is 4 semitones from the root.

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3) -> E (4)

Next, we raised the 5th to an augmented 5th

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3) -> E (4) -> F (5) -> Gb (6) -> G (7) -> Ab (8)

Now, it is an Ab, but we would call it by its other name, G#, because we know our triad is a 1st, 3rd, and 5th. Ab would be seen as a 6th, (C -> A), but a G# would be seen as it is intended here - a sharpened 5th.

What are Major and Minor Chords? Apr 01, 2019

Show notes

FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/

Episode Writeup:

I’ve heard of chords and harmony, but what exactly are major and minor chords? What makes them different?

The short answer:

A major chord has a Perfect 1st, Major 3rd and Perfect 5th

A minor chord has a Perfect 1st, Minor 3rd and Perfect 5th

Put another way, a minor chord is simply a major chord with the 3rd flattened (down 1 semitone).

Don’t worry, we still have a slightly longer and more informative answer:

First of all, both of these chords are what are called triads. A triad is a set of 3 notes that can be stacked in thirds. In other words:

The first note to the second note is a type of 3rd
The second note to the third note is a type of 3rd

Another way to look at a triad is this:

The distance between the first and second note is a type of 3rd
The distance between the first and third note is a type of 5th

So a triad is basically a 1st, 3rd and 5th.

How we get different types of chords are by changing the quality of the interval, as the numbers will stay the same.

For both major and minor chords (or triads), we have a 1st and a perfect 5th. It is simply the note in the middle, the 3rd, that is different.

For a major chord, it is a major 3rd.

For a minor chord, it is a minor 3rd.

If you recall from our post on intervals, a major 3rd is 4 semitones from the root note. A minor 3rd is 3 semitones from the root.

Perfect 5ths are 7 semitones away from the root.

So let’s figure out a C Major chord.

Since it’s major, we know the 3rd is a major 3rd, or 4 semitones, from the root.

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3) -> E (4)

So the second note of a C major triad is an E.

For the 5th, it is a perfect 5th, so:

C -> Db (1) -> D (2) -> Eb (3) -> E (4) -> F (5) -> Gb (6) -> G (7)

So a C major triad is a C, E and G.

For a C minor? Simply flatten the 3rd (or count to 3 semitones instead of 4).

So a C minor triad is a C, Eb and G.

10 Reasons Your Song Sucks Mar 25, 2019

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Website: https://songwritertheory.com/

Follow Me on Twitter: @josephNVadala

Episode Writeup:

1. You Used Cliches

If I hear one more song talk about “never getting older” I’m gonna punch my computer screen. For frame of reference, the screen cost me about $200. Worth it.

Guess what? Something can be cold without being compared to ice. Also, things besides knives cut. I don’t want to hear about being “cut like a knife”. Stop it.

If you’re on your knees, get up. Save the knees for your proposal. And not everything happens “tonight”. Just because you work all day during the week doesn’t mean the daytime doesn’t have some experiences to offer.

Stop it. Stop. The. Cliches.

2. You had Nothing New To Say

We don’t need another basic breakup song. We’ve been “blessed” with Taylor Swift for years and years and years of that crap. Heartbreak is a great subject but have something new to bring to the table.

It needs to be genuine to your experience, if you try to water it down so everyone can relate to every line, the magic is gone and you have reduced your song to “nothing new to say”.

Translation: You made your song suck. Stop it.

3. You Forced a Rhyme

Let me guess. The reason some lyrics make no sense whatsoever is that you felt you “need to rhyme”. Well, congratulations, you made your song suck. Stop forcing the rhyme. No one notices if it rhymes and no one cares.

You know what they do care about? How much your song sucks after forcing the rhyme. Stop it.

4. You Forced the Second Verse

Really? You took all those months to write your song. You spent hours dwelling on 2 different interval options for some random riff no one cares about.

And yet your second verse is a miserable hunk of junk that has enough metaphorical duct tape on it to surround the earth.

Stop it. Rewrite and revise that verse until it’s actually good. Not just “a bunch of words that vaguely fit the theme, syllables, and rhyme scheme of the first verse”.

5. You Wrote a Vanilla and Forgettable Melody

Do you even remember your own melody? If it’s never been a tune you desired to hum in the shower, why would anyone else want to? Do you have emotion? Good, then show it with your melodies.

Dang. Nothing wrong with a little passion. In fact, if you have no passion, get out of music and stop ruining it.

6. You Wrote a Chorus that Doesn’t Shine

You know the sun? What does that do? It shines. If your chorus doesn’t shine, no one wants any part of this song.

Your chorus being a let down is like killing the main character in the first combat sequence. Does Batman die the first fight he has with the Joker? Nope. So, be a bro, save Batman, and write a chorus that shines.

7. You Didn’t Bother To Make Sure the Lyrics Flowed

Are your lyrics more awkward than your first dance with someone you liked? Do the lyrics step on toes and not know whether to look at your partner or the wall? Do they even know if they should keep arm distance or come in tight?

Stop it. The lyrics should flow. Not only should syllables be more or less the same, but the emphasis the melody puts on words or parts of words should make sense.

8. Your Instrumentation Is Forgettable

You just had to just do block piano chords didn’t you? Not that there’s anything wrong with that per se. But having a riff once in a while wouldn’t kill you. In fact, it would make your songs suck less.

You know what’s better than a full band making your song better? Your song kicking metaphorical butt with just you and your instrument tearing it up.

9. You Tried Too Hard to Make the Song Something It Isn’t

Let the song be the song. Don’t force it to be a rock song because you’re a “rock guy” and think you’re too cool to write a song sans electric guitars turned up to 11. If you usually have a poppy and catchy chorus, but this song is about despair, DON’T FORCE IT TO BE A CONFUSING HAPPY SOUNDING CHORUS WITH DEPRESSING LYRICS.

Stop. It.

Let the song live. Let the song be what it needs to be.

10. You Stopped at “Good Enough”

You lazy bum. How dare you stop at “good enough”. Edit it AGAIN. Rework that guitar riff. Change up the chords a bit. Make the piano part shine.

Don’t settle.

3 Great Hacks to Regain Inspiration Mar 18, 2019

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FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/

Website: https://songwritertheory.com/

Follow Me on Twitter: @josephNVadala

Episode Writeup:

Sometimes life is going too well. There’s no drama, no heartbreak, no despair to write about. Maybe your teenage angst is gone or you just don’t love tractors the way you used to.

So sometimes it can be hard to maintain or regain inspiration.

We’re going to discover 3 great hacks to regain inspiration.

Go Back or Forward in Time

Just because your current situation is nothing like your past experiences doesn’t mean you can’t draw from them.

Even if you’re happily married with 3 kids, I bet you still remember what it felt like when you had your heart broken for the first time.

Even if you have found your way out of an abusive relationship, I bet you remember all the emotions you were dragged through.

Even if everything is going wrong now, I bet you remember that feeling of hope- even if you have to dig far to find it.

The good thing about experiences is they stay with us. Not only do they shape who we are, but they will forever remain a pool of emotions and experiences to dive back into. Only, this time, you can stay broken hearted for the hour you’re writing and then go back to your good life. Ah, much better.

We can go forward in time too. Having friends with children may help you imagine the feeling of holding your own child.

Imagining the pain caused by a spouse with cancer becomes something that feels more real and possible when you know someone close to your age who has gone through it.

And we can even let our imaginations get out of control and imagine a bright or dark future. Like a dream that feels so real when you wake up, it’s amazing how real a fake future can feel if you take the time to dive into it.

Lastly, you can use current experiences to bring more realism to your past experiences. Maybe you could never relate to your overprotective mother and how she worried about you. But your daughter just went on her first date. The shotgun is loaded and you’re ready to write a song from your mom’s perspective as she worried about you.

Look at the Real World Around You

There is a whole world around you. There are countless people you are friends with, work with, and simply see walk down the street. Surely there are experiences you can pull from outside of your own.

The easiest and most obvious group to pull from are those close to you. Your spouse, closest friends, relatives and co-workers.

It is amazing what kind of inspiration can come from a single bro talk. Just talking to someone about something other than small talk can go a long way.

I wrote a breakup song from my friend’s perspective years before I had ever experienced a breakup. And, you know what? When I did experience that, I realized just how accurate what I wrote was. Very accurate.

I also wrote a song on the hopelessness I saw from some of my co-workers from my first job.

I’ve utilized a combination of my own experiences with the emotions and experiences of my wife to write several songs.

You can really tap into the emotions of something affecting someone you care about.

We can even draw from people we observe but don’t know well. Maybe a single mother you see struggling to keep calm as she is in a restaurant with her 4 kids. Maybe that girl at your college you always notice sitting alone for dinner (note: also, go talk to this person, we all need a friend).

Even the homeless man you say good morning to as you walk from your parking garage to your work building can provide inspiration for your writing.

Lastly, you can write from the experiences of people you don’t know, but can empathize with. This could be people in another country who are facing persecution or people trying to survive a natural disaster. Maybe there was a heartwarming story about a police officer saving a little boy’s life.

Whatever is going on in the world, if you can empathise, you should be able to tap into that empathy to be inspired.

Look to Stories and Other Fiction

Sometimes a movie leaves us in tears. Sometimes, when we finish a book, we feel sad as it feels we’ve seen a friend for the last time.

How to Find Your Creative Identity Mar 11, 2019

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FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/

Website: https://songwritertheory.com/

Follow Me on Twitter: @josephNVadala

Episode Writeup:

One’s creative identity is foundational to who you are as a musical artist. Understanding what you value, what you like, and who you are is unendingly important.

So how do we find our creative identity?

Find What You Love

What music do you love? Take a moment to write down your top-10 favorite artists.

Usually, who we are as an artist is a healthy mix of our favorite artists and the core of who we are.

You will often find your own identity reflected by your favorite artists. If all your top-10 artists are male country singers who tend to have themes of love and cowboy boots, your creative identity probably isn’t going to be rapping about how loaded you are.

Maybe it will. But it probably won’t.

Next, it can be helpful to also write down your top-10 favorite songs. If you have too much repetition of the same artist in this top-10, maybe restrict yourself to 1 song per artist.

Once you have these top-10 lists, we can move on to step 2 of finding your creative identity.

Find Your Value Judgements

Now we’re going to utilize those top-10 lists.

First, find what binds these favorites together. Here are some things to look for that might bind these different artists and songs together:

Genre - Post Grunge, Adult Contemporary, Country, Pop, R&B, etc
Lyrical Themes - Life, Loss of Love, Party Life, etc
Melodic Style - Staccato, Legato, Utilize Large Vocal Range, Utilize Small Vocal Range
Instrumental Style - Piano driven, Synth Driven, Distorted Electric Guitar Driven, etc
Arrangement Style - Sparse arrangements (few instruments), Thick arrangements (more instruments)
Mood - Happy, Sad, Angry, Angsty, etc
Sound Character - Catchy, memorable, emotive, etc

You may be surprised by what binds together what you love. Maybe you only care about genre, but like all lyrical themes and moods. Or maybe you don’t care about genre, but only like music that is on the sad side of things. You may love catchy music in all its forms. Or you might prefer memorable, piano-driven songs with sparse arrangements.

It’s important to figure out what unites many of your top 10 artists and songs, but finding some outliers can be just as important.

For example, you may find that 8 of your top 10 artists are all rock bands. But then you also have a country artist in your top 10. That doesn’t seem to fit, so what characteristic does it share with those rock bands? This shared characteristic might be what you actually care about.

Maybe you really just like dense, thick, “epic” sounding arrangements with sad lyrical themes. Which usually goes along with rock music. This doesn’t necessarily mean you like rock music per se. It might be that dense and thick sad songs are your thing.

To take this a step further, it can be helpful to find artists that you would consider similar to artists on your top 10 that you don’t like. Because this gives you a way to separate what actually causes you to love your favorite artists and what just happens to be a characteristic of them.

Find Your Why

Why are you a songwriter? What is the greatest compliment someone can pay you as an artist?

You might want to provide something positive in a world of negativity.

You might want to be brutally honest about what you’re going through so others going through something similar feel less alone.

You might want to bring solace to those who were abused.

You might want to make people dance and feel ok despite the pain they’re going through.

You might want people to just smile when they hear your music.

Whatever your reason is, know it.

Find What You’re Good At and Not So Good At

Use your strengths. Reduce the impact of your weaknesses.

If you aren’t a great guitarist, write songs in a way that no one would know.

If you can’t sing lower notes consistently, don’t write a song in that range.

Set yourself up for success.

Music Theory Intervals Mar 04, 2019

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Episode Writeup:

Necessary Definitions

Interval: The distance between two notes

Semitone: The smallest interval we have in western music. Moving up a string by one fret on a guitar or going to the very next note on a piano are both examples of a semitone.

Semitone = Half Step

2 Semitones = 2 Half Steps = 1 Whole Tone = 1 Whole Step

The 2 Parts of an Interval

Quality

There are 5 different qualities of intervals:

Perfect
Major
Minor
Augmented
Diminished

Perfect

Perfect intervals are so-called as they have nearly-perfect consonance. In other words, they sound REALLY pleasant and agreeable.There are only 4 perfect intervals: Perfect Unison (or Perfect 1st - aka the same note as the original), Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, and Perfect Octave (perfect 8th).

This leaves the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th that do not have a perfect interval. These numbers have major and minor intervals instead.

Major

1st, 4th, 5th and 8th all have perfect intervals, so the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th are left to split between major and minor.

The major interval is always 1 semitone higher than the minor. The major is also the “happier” sounding of the major and minor intervals.

Minor

Any interval that can be major can be minor. Take away one semitone from a major interval, and you have that minor interval.

Minor intervals tend to sound darker and more sad than major intervals.

Augmented

Augmented intervals are one semitone higher than a Perfect or Major interval.

Perfect + 1 semitone = Augmented

Major + 1 semitone = Augmented

Diminished

Diminished intervals are one semitone lower than a Perfect or Minor interval.

Perfect - 1 semitone = Diminished

Minor - 1 semitone = Diminished

So, if we put all this information together, you’ll notice that intervals always follow a pattern. With “->” representing going up 1 semitone, this is what we have:

Diminished -> Minor -> Major -> Augmented

Diminished -> Perfect -> Augmented

Number

The quality of interval is combined with the number of the interval. Usually, the number is simply the distance between letter notes.

Do you understand the alphabet? Good, because that’s all you need here. For example, how far away is G from C? C, (D, E, F), G. Since we count both the start and end note, this would be a 5th.

B from C? C, (D, E, F, G, A), B => 7th

E from C? C, (D), E => 3rd

3 Rules of Intervals

Next I’m going to give you 3 rules to remember that will help you think through intervals.

Rule 1:

Incrementing up by one quality will always be going up 1 semitone

Examples:

Minor 2nd -> Major 2nd = Up 1 semitone

Diminished 7th -> Minor 7th = Up 1 semitone

Augmented 6th -> Major 6th = Down 1 Semitone

Rule 2:

Incrementing up by one number will always be going up 2 semitones