Song References For Interval Ear Training

In this lesson, I give you loads of song reference options for each different interval - both ascending and descending.


View the full lesson at Song References For Interval Ear Training | JustinGuitar

Will there ever be a video for these?

Agreed, having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around this one.

This web page has a large list of songs for each interval.

From this page you can select one song for each interval and create a list of just your song choices that you can print out.

Note that grade 1 dealt with p4, p5 and p8 ascending (low note to high note). At some point you also have to learn the same intervals but played from high note to low note (descending).

Hello @megamantto and @JoelVazquez - welcome to the Community.

I donā€™t see that Justin will make a video here - it would just be talking and Justin would only be directing people to listen to the songs referenced in the written content.

Have you worked through the many Ear Training lessons on the website before arriving at this ā€˜catch allā€™ lesson?

then to here ā€¦

There is also this tool: Interval Ear Trainer | JustinGuitar.com

Hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide

Did not understand the lesson

Hello @Baqer and welcome to the Community.

The songs listed have either at their outset or as their very famous recurring theme (thinking Jaws theme here) the interval in question.
So ā€¦

Happy birthday :
Ha - ppy (root notes) Bir (major 2nd interval)

Oh When The Saints Go Marching In :
Oh (root note) when (major 3rd interval)

Hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator

Part of the confusion might be coming because when you finish the last lesson of the Introductory module (Learning To Sing (For Ear Training) | JustinGuitar.com) and click on ā€œCONTINUE TO NEXT MODULEā€ it takes you here rather than to Grade 1. Maybe the reference module should be at the end of all the modules?

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may I know what is short ? the U b2, 2,b3, 3ā€¦ whatā€™s that

Those are just the short hand descriptions of each interval the b is shorthand for flat. So b3 is a flat third or one semitone lower than the third interval.
U is shorthand for unison meaning same note as root.

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Part of the confusion might be coming because when you finish the last lesson of the Introductory module (Learning To Sing (For Ear Training) | JustinGuitar.com ) and click on ā€œCONTINUE TO NEXT MODULEā€ it takes you here rather than to Grade 1. Maybe the reference module should be at the end of all the modules?

Ah, yes. This explains my overwhelm.

Perfect 5th has ā€œSuperman Theme.ā€ Did he mean ā€œStar Warsā€ theme? He made that mistake in the video; wonder if it carried over.

Is this part after Introduction or after finishing the whole lesson?

From there on itā€™s pretty much up to you to figure out a list of song references that work for you.

What really helped me, is to try building ā€˜setlistsā€™ for a given artist, where each songs starts with a specific interval, or where the interval is part of the main riff.

Letā€™s take AC/DC as an example.

  1. Minor 2nd - Hell Aint a Bad Place to Be - the minor second interval is heard during the verse
  2. Major 2nd - TNT (E - G - A in the intro riff)
  3. Minor 3rd - Thunderstruck: the intro riff is based on minor third intervals if you ignore the open B-string drone (B - Eb - B - Gb)
  4. Perfect 4th - Rock N Roll Train - the intro riff bounces between A and D
  5. Perfect 5th - Hells Bells : the first two notes are a perfect 5th apart (A - E)
    ā€¦ and so on.

You can do this exercise for any artists you dig and of which you know the songs by heart. The likes of Metallica for instance have lots of minor 2nd and tritone (minor 5th) intervals, whereas I associate AC/DC more with the minor 3rd and perfect 4th interval. Everyone has these sounds that immediately ā€˜clickā€™ - itā€™s just a matter of identifying them.

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Is anyone old enough to remember Allan Shermanā€™s 1963 novelty song ā€œHello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)ā€? If you are, when he sings, ā€œTake meee home!ā€ what is the interval?

Any guitar players who are also bird watchers? What is the descending interval of the Black-Capped Chickadee (norther United States/state bird of Maine) call, ā€œfeee beeeā€?

Is it the call at the 0:16 mark in this video? Sounds like a descending 4th interval to me.

Thanks for your reply. I played a bunch of descending intervals on a keyboard, and the 4th seems to be the one. (Of course, having since done a little research into the chickadee vocalizations, there are a lot of subtlties and variations beyond my ken.) Maybe Iā€™ll stick with Born Free as my reference.