music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w.

rush

Perfect Intervals the distance of an interval is one part of its

name, but there’s more: every interval has another
quality to it, which we’ll call inflection.
inflection is a bit harder to understand, partly because some theorists use
it depends on the type of interval. so let’s start by the term quality for

œ œ
looking at unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves.

œ
this... that’s cool too.

& œœ œœ œœ œ
œ œ œ œ œ

unisons and octaves

are the easiest to label: if the
two notes are the same (for
fourths and fifths
example, b flat and b flat), require a little more explaining.
then the inflection is perfect:
if you look at all the fourths and fifths you
such an interval is called a
can create using only the white notes on the
perfect unison or a
piano keyboard (in other words, using only notes
perfect octave.
without accidentals):

œœ œœ œœ œœ
& œ œœ œœ
œ each one is

œœ
perfect except

œœ œœ œœ œ
for those which

& œ œœ œ
use f and b!

œ
well, if you were to count the half-steps that make up
wait...
each interval, you’d notice that all the other ones are
why are the
equal in size, but the b to f intervals are not: f to b is
b to f intervals
a half-step larger than a perfect fourth, and b to f
different?
is a half-step smaller than a perfect fifth.
which raises the question: if the interval is not perfect, then what is it?

an interval that is a half-step

larger than perfect is called
an augmented interval.

œ
& bœ &
# œœ
A
augmented & # œœ
d5
& ∫ œœ
d4
bœ
& œ
d8

P
and there’s
no such thing as a
A5 diminished unison...

& # œœ
A4
perfect
& œ bœ just like two things
can’t be negative two feet
A1

d
A8 away from each other!

you can go further,

to doubly augmented and an interval that is a half-step
doubly diminished intervals, diminished smaller than perfect is called
but... do you really want to? a diminished interval.

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