Since I was a kid, I associated intervals with different sounds surrounding me (unconsciously of course, because I had no idea on what an interval was, back when I was 10 years old, for instance). Later when I grew up and studied intervals, I realized that some of them sounded very familiar to me and others didn't.
The most familiar was the perfect fifth, which I instantaneously associated with the sound of a medieval trumpet announcing something like the arrival of guests at a castle. Another one was the minor third which always reminded me of a sad Russian singer
So the question is:
Have you guys ever thought about intervals in this way and how did you manage to memorize their sound?
I think the major third was the one that I recognized the most.. probably from the typical 'barber shop quartet' sound, where 4 guys do harmonies together, starting from the root, 3rd, 5th then 7th (I think) all going 'Ahhhh.'
That's a very good observation about the medieval trumpet thing.. I can hear it in my head now !
That's an interesting topic When I was a kid, I had a habit of counting my steps, and singing some simple phrases in my head. After years later I found that those were actually intervals within the pentatonic scale. Not sure how I started to do this, I still do this, but more complicated, but still short phrases, with various combinations of rhythm, matching the rhythm with environment sounds, breaking it down, it sounds a bit crazy, but I can't help it
of course I use interval association to help me recognise them:
for minor 7th I use the first two notes of this:
It's actually a major second but if hear the last low note of the phrase you see the context
I used a combination of Earmaster, a program that Daniel mentioned (I think?), and the same technique you guys are talking about. Going back to more intense ear training in the next few days, cheers for the reminder!
I usually asociate the interval with some known tune. The drawback is that you memorize that interval with the harmony of that tune and may fail to recognize it later in other context.
The perfect fifth sounds medieval cause ones of the earlies form of polyphony was playijng gregorian chants in parallels fifths.
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