Learning Objectives
- Examine the definition of consonance and dissonance.
- Learn how to identify intervals by ear.
Intervals VIII: Hearing Intervals
Consonance and Dissonance
When listening to musical intervals, you will notice that some sound harmonious and pure, while others sound harsh and unstable. The terms used to distinguish between these types of sounds are consonance and dissonance. Consonant intervals are pure, relaxed, and stable; they do not sound like they need to resolve. Dissonant intervals, on the other hand, sound harsh, unrelaxed, and unstable; they sound like they need to resolve to a more consonant, stable interval. Composers use dissonant intervals to propel the music forward to a more consonant resolution.
Changes in musical taste over the years have led to some different views about which intervals should be considered consonant and which should be considered dissonant. However, the following categorization of intervals into consonances and dissonances is broadly accepted today:
Consonant intervals: These include most of the perfect intervals (unisons, fifths, and octaves) and all major and minor thirds and sixths. Listen to each of these consonant interval types below. You can click on the speaker to hear a harmonic interval or on the individual notes to hear the interval played melodically.
Perfect Unisons
Perfect Fifth
Perfect Octave
Major Third
Minor Third
Major Sixth
Minor Sixth
| Consonant intervals: thirds and sixths |
Dissonant intervals: These include the major and minor seconds and sevenths as well as all augmented and diminished intervals. Listen to each of these dissonant interval types below. Hopefully, your ear will be able to tell you that these intervals are less harmonious and stable. Again, you can click on the speaker to hear a harmonic interval or on the individual notes to hear melodic intervals.
Major Second
Minor Second
Major Seventh
Minor Seventh
| Dissonant intervals: seconds and sevenths |
Augmented Fourth
Diminished Fifth
Augmented Octave
Note that the perfect fourth is not included in the two categories above. The perfect fourth can be either consonant or dissonant, depending on the context. Since it is a perfect interval, its sound is not particularly dissonant. But in some contexts, it sounds like it should resolve to a third, making it less consonant than the third it resolves to (as illustrated below).
Perfect Fourth
might resolve to a...
Major Third
| The perfect fourth |
Hearing Intervals
The ability to distinguish between consonant and dissonant intervals is one of the important steps in learning to recognize and identify intervals "by ear." This is an essential aspect of musical training. Practice and repetition are the keys to internalizing the sound of intervals. You can practice by playing intervals on the keyboard (or on another instrument) or by singing them to yourself. A few minutes of practice each day will help you to solidify this skill.
One of the ways that many students have learned to recognize intervals is to form associations with the intervals found in songs that are already familiar to them. Although this is not a good long-term approach to hearing and recognizing intervals, it can be helpful in the beginning. For example, if you want to be able to auralize the sound of an ascending perfect fifth, you can think of the first two notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." This PDF document lists some popular songs that might help you to learn and recognize intervals (if you do not know these songs, substitute some of your own). Remember that practice and repetition are the best way to gain complete fluency with intervals.
The activities that follow later on in the course will give you an opportunity to practice identifying intervals by ear. You can repeat them as many times as you like (they are not a graded assessment). Try to improve your results each time.