Music Theory Interval Chart
Unison to the 13th · simple and compound intervals · semitones, quality, inversion & sound · tap a row to hear it
How to play
- An interval is the distance between two notes. It has a number (how many letter names it spans, counting both ends) and a quality — perfect, major, minor, augmented or diminished.
- Tap any row to hear that interval, both together (harmonic) and one after the other (melodic). Change the starting note to build every interval from a different root.
- Unison, 4th, 5th and octave are called perfect; 2nds, 3rds, 6ths and 7ths come in major and minor. Lower a major interval a semitone and it becomes minor; lower a perfect interval and it becomes diminished.
- Anything wider than an octave is a compound interval — a 9th is just a 2nd an octave up, an 11th a 4th, a 13th a 6th. Jazz chords are named with these bigger numbers.
- The inversion column shows what you get when you flip the two notes (put the lower one on top). Interval numbers always add up to 9, and major↔minor, augmented↔diminished, perfect↔perfect.
- Colours group intervals by sound: perfect, consonant (sweet 3rds and 6ths) and dissonant (tense 2nds, 7ths and the tritone). Play all walks up the whole chart. Vol sets volume.
This handy little app allow you to hear and explore music theory intervals ranging from unisons through to thirteenths.
Using your computer keyboard (or alternatively tapping the rows of the chart with your mouse), you can sound an interval by tapping on the row it is listed under. This way, you can link the name of the interval to what it actualy sounds like. It’s a combination of visual information and audio playback.
How to Use the Music Interval App
At the top is a row of buttons with which to select your starting note (which changes the root pitch). By default, the chart has been set to play C but you could choose another root such as A or G and listen to how intervals sound across different keys. What this will help you see is that qualities of the intervals don’t change depending on the starting note.
As you can see from the main table, it contain all of the intervals in order along with their notes, abbreviation, and semitone distance. This will highlight the actual notes being performed based off which root note you’ve selected. So if you select C for your root then the major third would be highlighted as C, E.
What is also shown by the inversion column is how flipping these notes creates another interval: a major third becomes a minor sixth; a minor sixth becomes a major third. The interval numbers always adds up to nine, which is useful to know. That’s why this is a fast way of determining the math behind the inversion relationships.
The colour tags categorize the ‘sound’ of each interval into perfect, consonant or dissonant. Octaves, fifths, fourths and unisons are perfect intervals. Sixths and thirds sounds sweet (consonant). Seconds, sevenths and tritone create tension (dissonance).
Simply tap on any of the rows of the table, and you’ll hear the interval you’ve chosen. It will update the hero panel that sits above chart to display the interval name and an image of a bar showing how far apart the semitones are. You get instant audio feedback for whatever it is you’re livig.
At the bottom of this, there is two buttons: Melodic and Harmonic. With these, you can alter the sound of the interval. In harmonic mode it will play both notes together to show how they blend in harmony. Melodic mode plays one then the next to show the melody shape.
The Play All button takes you through the intervals in the chart one at a time. This is helpful when listening to how an interval move up from a unison toward the thirteenth in a single hit. You’ll begin to have an ear for what each interval sounds like and its place within the progression.
The slider lets you adjust the playback volume so it’s comfortabley in your listening space. There’s also a fullscreen button that makes the widget bigger, which is useful on smaller screens. There is also a help panel where you can quickly review some interval theory basics if needed.
Play the intervals playing one note at a time or notes together and listen to whether they blend, clash or not. Change them into leaps and work on identifying distance and direction of these. Alter the root note and discover what effect this has on the interval over the whole chromatic scale.