1 The Great Staff and Piano Keyboard

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2 Accidentals

I. An accidental is a sign at the left of a musical note that indicates a change in the note’s pitch.

A. A sharp raises the pitch of a note one half step above its natural pitch.

 one half step higher than

B. A double sharp raises the pitch of a note two half steps above its natural pitch.

 two half steps higher than

C. A flat lowers the pitch of a note one half step below its natural pitch.

 one half step below

D. A double flat lowers the pitch of a note two half steps below its natural pitch.

 two half steps below

E. A natural cancels an accidental previously in effect.

*This pitch is G natural.

*This pitch is F natural.

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II. To restore a double sharped or a double flatted note to its original pitch, a single accidental is sufficient.

*This note is C sharp.

*This note is D flat.

III. Accidentals are often carelessly written, even in some printed music. The following observations on the
proper use of accidentals in tonal music should be carefully noted.

A. Accidentals do not carry into other octaves in the same measure; one should specify the
desired accidental.

B. Though a bar-line technically cancels an accidental from the preceding measure, one should
specify the desired accidental in the new measure, in parentheses.

C. If there is an accidental early in a measure, it is wise to restate it parenthetically later in the

same measure.

IV. Pitches that sound the same but are spelled differently are called enharmonic.

ACCIDENTALS 5
3 Intervals

I. An interval is the distance between two pitches.

A. This distance is measured by the number of whole and/or half steps it contains.

B. The names for intervals correspond to the number of different names of notes the interval contains.
1. The distance from C to E is a third (contains three note names: C, D, and E).
2. The distance from C to B is a seventh (contains seven note names: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B).
3. The size of an interval is indicated by an arabic numeral (for example, third = 3).

C. Intervals are classified as major (M), minor (m), perfect (P), diminished (d), and augmented (A).
1. 1, 4, 5, and 8 may be only P, d, or A.
2. 2, 3, 6, and 7 may be only M, m, d, or A.

II. The following intervals are contained within the span of an octave:
P1, or perfect unison (prime) = 2 notes on same pitch
m2, or minor second  1/2 step
M2, or major second  1 step
m3, or minor third  11/2 steps (M2  m2)
M3, or major third  2 steps (M2  M2)
P4, or perfect fourth  21/2 steps (M3  m2)
A4, or augmented fourth  3 steps (M3  M2)*
d5, or diminished fifth  3 steps (P4  m2)*
P5, or perfect fifth  31/2 steps (M3  m3; or P4  M2)
m6, or minor sixth  4 steps (P5  m2)
M6, or major sixth  41/2 steps (P5  M2)
m7, or minor seventh  5 steps (P5  m3)
M7, or major seventh  51/2 steps (P5  M3)
P8, or perfect octave  6 steps (P5  P4)

*See enharmonic intervals, IV, pg. 7

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III. Relationships of interval classifications.

A. Major intervals are one half step larger than minor intervals.

B. Augmented intervals are one half step larger than perfect or major intervals.

C. Diminished intervals are one half step smaller than perfect or minor intervals.

IV. Intervals that sound the same pitches but are spelled differently and thus function differently are called
enharmonic intervals.

A.

B.

V. The d5 and A4 are enharmonic intervals (see IV-B for an example). Both these intervals contain three whole
steps (tones), and both are commonly referred to as the tritone (T) intervals.

VI. Intervals that are larger than an octave are referred to as compound intervals.

A. P8  M2  M9

B. P8  m3  m10

VII. Inversion of intervals.

A. An interval is inverted by transferring its lower note into the higher octave or by transferring its higher
note into the lower octave.

B. Major intervals invert to minor intervals, and minor intervals invert to major intervals.
1. m2 inverts to M7, and M7 inverts to m2.

INTERVALS 7