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> An “interval” is a combination of two notes.

Minor nitpick: it's a "dyad" that is a combination of two notes.

An "interval" is the difference between two (or more) pitches. And just as you'd measure the space between your eyebrows using a ruler, you'd measure the interval between middle C and concert A using your ears.

The bonus, however, is that our listening apparatus is already quantized to octaves-- if you hear a pitch against a second pitch that's double/quadruple/etc. the frequency of the first, your ear marks this interval as special. It's likely most of you've already used this fact to your advantage; perhaps unwittingly, when someone begins singing "Happy Birthday" outside your normal singing range. (Though most renditions of "Happy Birthday" lend credence to Morpheus' lesson from The Matrix that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking it.) :)

▲ thaumasiotes 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Minor nitpick: it's a "dyad" that is a combination of two notes.

> An "interval" is the difference between two (or more) pitches. And just as you'd measure the space between your eyebrows using a ruler, you'd measure the interval between middle C and concert A using your ears.

How are you imagining that works? If you had three eyebrows, how much space would there be between them? Intervals are, by definition, the space between two points.

▲ TheOtherHobbes 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's not unusual to see dyads described as intervals. Technically they're different. But where "triad" is used all the time, "dyad" just isn't used much.

Intervals are basically the number of semitones between two pitches. Life would be easy if you could just say "seven semitones", but in the context of scales and keys the intervals have names - second, third, etc - with modifiers that are somewhat context dependent.

Example: an augmented fourth and a diminished fifth are both six semitones wide, but you'd use one name or the other depending on the key/scale and other details.

Intervals that span more than an octave are usually called [number of octaves] + [usual name].

▲ dehrmann 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> dyad

Correct, though you'll much more commonly hear about triads, as in major and minor triads, and you'll hear "power chord" more often than "dyad," even though it's one specific dyad.

> if you hear a pitch against a second pitch that's double/quadruple/etc. the frequency of the first, your ear marks this interval as special.

Some of that is that the higher octaves reinforce existing overtones, so the higher note is already there in a sense.

▲ jerf 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"(Though most renditions of "Happy Birthday" lend credence to Morpheus' lesson from The Matrix that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking it.)"

I have to resist the temptation to deliberately sing my renditions of Happy Birthday on the diminished fourth/augmented fifth of whoever the loudest person is, as a passive protest of the fact that even if I do, it hardly affects the result.

It has somehow become a very impressionistic song, when sung by The People. There's definitely the sense of the relevant intervals as the song progresses but the sheer randomness of the intervals of each singer relative to each other has, I think, attained some sort of actual cultural status that is actually special to that song. Get a few people to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" and they are generally much more on tune for some reason, barring those who can't carry a tune at all under any circumstances. It's like some sort of cultural signaling about how they don't take birthdays too seriously or something like that.

▲ gchamonlive 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

That's new for me. What's an interval between three pitches called?

▲ droidist2 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Could call them "stacked intervals" like "stacking thirds" to make a triad

▲ dehrmann 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's like asking what's the distance between A, B, and C.

▲ crdrost 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So when you've got an interval you usually mean two sounds that are separated in time. So like the iconic Jaws Melody dun-dan-dun-dan-dun-dan, those notes are separated by an interval that could be called one semitone, 100 cents, or a minor second, depending on who is talking.

Or in “Oh when the Saints Go Marching In,” the ‘Oh-when’ interval is two tones (four semitones), 400¢, or a major third, the ‘when-the’ interval is another minor second, and the ‘the-Saints’ interval is one tone or a major second. Adding those up we find out that “oh-Saints,” if you just omit the other words, is 700¢ or a “perfect fifth”, so “saints-Go” is a descending perfect fifth, -700¢.

Now you can play all four notes at the same time and you would still refer to these distances between the notes as intervals, but nobody is likely to describe this sound as a bunch of intervals. It is a “I(add 4) chord” in that context and the +100¢ interval between the major third and the perfect fourth is what gives it its spiciness.

So then you have to clarify whether you mean that we are playing one note first and then two notes together second, or are we playing all three notes at the same time, or are we playing all three notes separately.

If it's one and then two, or two then one, the higher note of the dyad will sound like the melody usually, and you'll reckon the interval between those two. People who have really well trained musical ears, instead hear the shift on the lowest note, but it requires training.

If you mean that all three are separated by time, then it's a melody. In this case these first four notes of “Oh When the Saints Go Marching In” would perhaps be described maybe as an arpeggiated major chord with a passing tone, same as I said earlier as “I(add 4).” I'm not actually 100% sure if that's the right use of the term passing tone or whether passing tones have to lie outside your scale or something.

If the three notes are played at the same time, that's a chord, specifically it's a triad chord. You might talk about the stacked intervals in that chord, a major chord stacks a minor third on a major third, a minor chord stacks a major third on a minor third, stacking major on major is augmented, stacking minor on minor is diminished, and there are suspended chords where you don't play either third, so sus2 stacks a fourth atop a second and sus4 stacks a second atop a fourth. So a lot of those have their own names, and some of those names get weird (like to stack a fourth on a fourth you might say “Csus4/G,” which treats the lowest note G as if it were the highest note but someone decided to drop it down an octave).

	▲	thaumasiotes 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		> So like the iconic Jaws Melody dun-dan-dun-dan-dun-dan, those notes are separated by an interval that could be called one semitone, 100 cents, or a minor second, depending on who is talking. For what it's worth, I would call that a "half step".

▲ seba_dos1 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Two intervals?

▲ gchamonlive 5 days ago | parent [-]

A third, fourth, fifth, sixth... Triton... Those are intervals. I ask again, what's an interval between three pitches? Is it a triad? If it's so, than it's not a minor nitpick, OP is just being plain pedantic for the sake of it.

▲ seba_dos1 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

"Interval between three pitches" is not a well-defined concept, just like "distance between three points" isn't. You need additional qualifiers to describe what you mean by that. Maybe you want the shortest path between them, or maybe you want a triangle. In any case, using a term like that makes it seem like you're confused with the terminology.

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mkl 5 days ago | parent [-]

They are questioning jancsika's assertion at the top of the thread that an interval can somehow contain more than two pitches:

> An "interval" is the difference between two (or more) pitches.

	▲	4 days ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

▲ wannadingo 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Two pitches played together is a dyad, three together is a triad. There may be words for four or more pitches together but I just call them chords. The term interval only makes sense to describe distance between two elements, whether pitches or two marks on a ruler.

	▲	keymasta 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Monad Diad Triad Tetrad Pentad Sextad Septad Octad Nontad Dectad Monodectad Didectad/Bidectad (?) Or, 1 Note/Unison 2 Interval/Diad >3 Chord And, I agree an interval is essentially a distance. Distance between three points makes no sense as they might very well lay outside of one straight line. Even they are on the same line.. are we measuring the distance between each distance? It's ambiguous what that might even mean, but the original poster might think of a collection of intervals which is 0 or more notes with intervals relative to a given root. For example if you think in integers (pitch set notation): `m6 { 0 3 7 9 } Minor 6 5 { 0 7 } Power Chord ma13 { 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 } Ionian N.C { } No Chord/Rest °7 { 0 3 6 9 11 } Diminished Seventh/Dim Seven .. etc` They might have different numbers of notes but I see them as the same type of identities. I just call them all changes. Also note that 13 means two different things, either the septad above or a pentad of the form 1 3 5 7 13 aka 7(6) "dominant add six" So in set notation it's: `ma13 { 0 4 7 9 11 } 13 { 0 4 7 9 10 } Etc..`