Musical Intervals

"Musical Intervals" is another in a series of songs we've come up with to help kids with various musical concepts. For this song the topic is, of course, musical intervals. The lyrics of the song tell your singers that measuring distance between two notes gives you an interval. It also goes through all of the basic intervals found in music – 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and octave. The song does not, however, get into the specific types of intervals – major, minor, perfect, melodic, etc. But if you want to get into more details about intervals, this song would be a good place to start. Once you've taught the basics of intervals, you could have your students find examples of the various kinds in the other music you're singing, or in the current songs they like to listen to on the radio or at home.

You'll notice that when the lyrics mention an interval number, that is the interval that is actually being sung. This will be a great tool to help your singers remember how a specific interval should look and sound, which in turn should help them become better sight-readers.

"Musical Intervals" would work great in the classroom as a learning tool, but it would also be fun in just about any performance setting. Your singers could hold up large number signs that coincide with the number being sung. Also, you'll notice that the accompaniment always echoes the interval being sung (it's written in the right hand of the piano accompaniment). To add a bit of a challenge and to spice up your performance, you could have one group sing the interval number and then have another group sing it again as an echo.