star trek minor 7th

Rebekah Maxner

Intervals: Sure-fire songs for memorizing by ear [ascending and descending]

When it comes to learning intervals by ear, you want unforgettable tunes that will get stuck in your head! Let’s call them Ear Training Ear Worms!

I’ve attempted to curate the most memorable tunes for each interval, as well as the best music videos. Sometimes it’s tempting to jump on current songs because they’re popular with our students right now. This is okay, but in two years those tunes will be the least desirable to the next generation of students because of pop music’s rapid turnover. You’ll be searching endlessly for new songs. Instead, I’ve here opted to include standards that have stood the test of time. Perhaps students haven’t heard them all before. Regardless, these tunes are quick to learn as Ear Training Ear Worms (mnemonic devices) and are valuable to know because they belong to our vast shared musical culture and canon. It’s simply edifying to know this cross-section of music!

You’re reading the companion post to Ear training Interval Dash, off-the-bench teaching strategy [Printables] ! This off-the-bench resource teaches intervals by ear and visualizes them spatially without using notation. When all laid out, the interval cards look like a hop-scotch! It’s highly effective in helping students to gain a sound perspective and to learn to identify intervals by ear with accuracy. Plus, it’s fun! …

All of the intervals are indexed below in order from smallest to biggest. This is for ease of finding them, rather than a suggested order of learning them. Some examples have the main interval alternate up and down and could be used for both!

Perfect Unison — Happy Birthday

Minor 2nd Ascending — Jaws Theme

Minor 2nd Descending — Für Elise

Major 2nd Ascending — Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Major 2nd Descending — Mary Had a Little Lamb

Minor 3rd Ascending — Oh Where, Oh Where has My Little Dog Gone?

Minor 3rd Descending — This Old Man

Major 3rd Ascending — Oh When the Saints go Marching In

Major 3rd Descending — Shoo! Fly, Don’t Bother Me!

Perfect 4th Ascending — Here Comes the Bride

Perfect 4th Descending — I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

Tritone Ascending — The Simpsons Theme

Tritone Descending — Danse Macabre

Perfect 5th Ascending — Star Wars Theme

Perfect 5th Descending — The Flintstones Theme

Minor 6th Ascending — The Entertainer

Minor 6th Descending — Love Story Theme

Major 6th Ascending — My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Major 6th Descending — Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

Minor 7th Ascending — Star Trek Original Theme

Minor 7th Descending — Watermelon Man

Major 7th Ascending — Take On Me

Major 7th Descending — I Love You

Perfect Octave Ascending — Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Perfect Octave Descending — Mozart Symphony No. 29

Looking for a hands-on approach to intervals?

For ideas on how to teach intervals, remember to check out the companion post, Ear training Interval Dash, off-the-bench teaching strategy [Printables] !

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Video of the Week

The Hanging Tree (Late Intermediate, Level 6), has a haunting quality of a lost father’s voice and bird echoes in a forest. From the print and eBook Madge’s Notebook, A Piano Tribute to The Hunger Games , Early Intermediate to Early Advanced piano, music that is a bright light in a dark world. Or, check out The Hanging Tree eSheet !

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Great list of video links! Thanks!

You’re welcome! My pleasure!

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Minor 7th intervals: A Music Theory and Ear Training Guides

As a fundamental building block of music theory, minor 7th intervals can play a significant role in shaping melodies, harmonies, and musical progressions. Whether you’re a budding musician, a music student, or simply curious about the inner workings of music, understanding major 6th intervals is essential for expanding your musical vocabulary.

In this article, we’ll explore the characteristics of the Minor 7th interval, give you examples to listen to and help you recognise it by ear.

Table of Contents

Minor 7th Interval Songs

Here are some famous examples of minor 7th intervals in popular songs. There really are too many to choose from as any two notes that are 10 half-steps (semitones) or 5 whole-steps apart are classified as a Minor 7th interval. I have selected pieces where the Minor 7th contributes to a memorable part of the song so hopefully this will help with recognising this interval.

‘Somewhere’ – West Side Story

“Somewhere” from West Side Story is like this beautiful and dreamy ballad that just takes you to another world. It’s all about finding that place of hope and peace amidst the chaos.

The first two notes are a B natural and A natural which make a minor 7th. B – A# would be a major 7th, so by lowering the A a half step we get a Minor 7th.

Star Trek Original Theme

The original Star Trek theme is like the ultimate space adventure anthem that instantly transports you to the cosmos. It’s got that futuristic sound, a sense of epicness, and you can’t help but feel a rush of excitement as it boldly takes you on a journey through the final frontier.

Again is it the first two notes of this piece that give us the minor 7th. C to B natural is a major 7th, so C to b flat is a minor 7th.

‘Can’t Stop’ – Red hot Chill Peppers

“Can’t Stop” by Red Hot Chili Peppers is like an explosive burst of energy that just pumps you up and makes you want to move. It’s got that funky rock sound, catchy riffs, and great vocals too.

The first two notes of the the bass riff give us a minor 7th (E to D). As the can see from the image this resolves to the octave (e natural).

What is a Minor 7th Interval?

Firstly, the definition of an interval is the distance between two notes. We could play the notes at the same time, a harmonic interval, or one of the other, a melodic interval. So how can we describe the distance between two notes.

Using whole steps and half-steps (tones and semitones)

We could describe an interval in terms of the number of half-steps for the lower note to the upper note. For a minor 7th we have to go up 10 half-steps or 5 whole-steps to create the interval.

Using scales to name intervals

Simply put, scales are patterns of half-steps and whole-steps. In the major scale, the 7th degree will be a Major 7th. If we flatten this note by a half-step we will turn it into a Minor 7th. 

If we use the Natural minor scale, such as A Minor, we can see that the 3rd, 6th and 7th have been flattened when comparing it to the A Major scale. So if you take the A Natural minor scale, the root to the 7th note will give you a Minor 7th interval.

Ear Training and Intervals

To develop as a musician you’ll want to be able to recognise intervals by ear. This is where ear training comes in, as the more you practice, the better your’ll get.

My recommendation for this is Tonegym as they have a comprehensive and fun program for training your ears. It’s what has gotten the best results with for my own students.

In the ‘tools’ section of their site, Tonegym even have an interval memorizer that allows you to learn every type of interval.

For an in-depth look at ear training, here’s my full review of Tonegym.

Examples of Minor 7th Intervals

Here is a table which shows Minor 7ths across a whole octave. Remember that to name an interval ask yourself, ‘Which degree of the lower note’s scale is the higher note?’

Minor 7th Interval Qualities

We can describe the sound of intervals using a numbers of adjectives. An interval can sound ‘stable’ or ‘grounded’ like a perfect 5th, or it could sound ‘dissident’, ‘neutral’ or even ‘sinister’.

The interval of a minor 7th is a harmonically unstable interval that evokes a sense of tension and mystery. It can be described as a dissonant interval due to its relatively large distance on the musical staff.

The minor 7th interval is often utilized in various musical genres to convey a range of emotions, from introspection and yearning to moments of bittersweetness or introspective contemplation.

How to Identify Minor 7th Intervals by Ear

The best way to start identifying Minor 7th intervals is by listening to reference songs like the ones  above . This will give you a reference point to look back at when listening to new pieces.

For a challenge, see if you can spot the Minor 7th intervals in the following pieces.

• ‘Josie’ – Steely Dan
• ‘Chameleon’ Herbie Hancock
• ‘Lady Jane’ Rolling Stones (descending)
• ‘The Shadow of your Smile’ Ella Fitzgerald

ToneGym- The Ultimate Ear Training App

ToneGym allows you to improve your ear with a range of games, interactive and competitions.

Or check out our complete review of ToneGym.

How to Play Minor 7th Intervals on Your Instrument

If you are a pianist then playing a Minor 7th couldn’t be easier. Moving up four and a half whole-steps (9 half-steps) or playing the 7th note of the natural minor scale. Check out the example below.

Minor 7th intervals on guitar are also simply to play. The shape below can be slide up a down the neck to play minor 7th intervals starting and ending in any note.

What’s next….?

• Learn about the Major 7th intervals.
• Expand your interval knowledge with out complete guide to intervals.

© Jade Bultitude

How to Memorize Musical Intervals

Learning how to identify musical intervals is an important part of music theory, and it’s a skill that can be picked up over the span of a couple weeks with a little bit of practice each day. A musical interval is merely the difference between two pitches.

Some people can hear a pitch (out of context) and identify the frequency of the note by specifying it’s note name; this is referred to as absolute pitch or perfect pitch. Roughly 1 out of 10,000 people have perfect pitch, so it’s quite a rare ability. On top of this, many people never realize they have perfect pitch unless they’ve put in the time to learn some music theory fundamentals.

One of my friends has perfect pitch. It seems almost like a superpower because we’ll be sitting around, and then something like an alarm will go off, someone will laugh, or a dog will bark and they’ll call out the note the sound source is playing. They don’t have to think about which note is playing, they just know. People with perfect pitch describe this phenomenon “like seeing in color.” Unfortunately, you either have perfect pitch, or you don’t.

If you don’t have perfect pitch, don’t worry. Most amazing musicians don’t have perfect pitch either, but they’ve developed their relative pitch. Relative pitch is the ability of a person to identify a musical note by comparing it to a reference note and determining the interval between those two notes. This is a skill that can be learned, meaning you don’t have to be born with it. It allows you to re-create melodies, identify the notes that are apart of chords, and much more.

Everything in music is relative, meaning the notes played before and after a note are just as important as the note itself. For example, the Jaws theme song is only a handful of notes that play a minor 2nd interval repeatedly. A minor 2nd interval is created by playing a note on your keyboard, and then moving up your keyboard one semi-tone and playing that note (for example, playing a C and then a D flat). Regardless of which note you start on, playing the note that’s one semi-tone up from it will create a minor 2nd interval.  

The minor 2nd interval in the Jaws theme song creates tension, suspense, and fear because it’s eerie, and many people associate it with a movie about a killer shark. My main point here is that the specific notes used in the Jaws theme song don’t matter. Regardless of what key the Jaws theme song is played in, you’re going to be able to recognize it as the Jaws theme song. If you hear two notes played either back-to-back, or simultaneously, and they remind you of the Jaws theme song, the interval being played is likely a minor 2nd.

Perfect pitch is a neat party trick, but it's not necessary to write great music. Relative pitch is what you should work on developing. The way you develop relative pitch is by memorizing different intervals. When the notes that make up intervals are played simultaneously, they create a diatonic chord; a chord made up of two notes. You already know one of these intervals (the minor 2nd), but there are 12 other basic intervals you should memorize as well. From there, you can move onto memorizing other types of chords, such as triads, 7th chords, 9th chords, 11th chords, etc.

The 13 Basic Intervals

There are 13 intervals that you should memorize:

• Perfect Fourth

Perfect 5th

These intervals can span beyond a single octave, but recognizing them doesn’t become much more difficult. A C1 to an E2 (Major 3rd + 1 Octave) isn’t too hard to recognize if you can recognize a C1 to an E1 (Major 3rd). It's important to be able to recognize intervals when they're ascending, descending, and when both notes of the interval are played at the same time. I've included what the interval looks like on a keyboard, and a YouTube video containing a memorable song that will help you to remember what each interval sounds like below.

If two notes are in unison, it means that they sound the same pitch. I don’t have a video example for this one because there’s not much to remember; if the notes you’re listening to are the same, they’re in unison.

‍ Minor 2nd

A minor 2nd is created when there’s a one semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. This interval is played repeatedly in the Jaws theme song. It creates a tense, gut-wrenching feeling that wants to resolve to the root note of the key you’re in. A minor 2nd is being played by the low string section in the following YouTube video and is repeated multiple times.

A major 2nd is created when there’s a two semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. The song “Happy Birthday” plays a major 2nd interval when it changes notes for the first time.

A minor 3rd is created when there’s a three semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. Canada’s national anthem “O Canada” plays a minor 3rd interval when it changes notes for the first time.

A major 3rd is created when there’s a four semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. The song “Kumbaya” plays a major 3rd interval when it changes from it’s second to third note.

• Perfect 4th

A perfect 4th is created when there’s a five semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. The song “Here Comes The Bride” plays a perfect 4th interval when it changes notes for the first time.

A tritone is created when there’s a six semi-tone difference in pitch between two notes. The Simpsons theme song contains a tritone, and it’s played when the voices sing “The Simp…” at 5 seconds. This dissonant interval resolves upwards to the perfect 5th when the voices sing “…sons.”

A perfect 5th is created when there’s a seven semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The Star Wars theme song plays a perfect 5th interval when it changes notes for the first time at 9 seconds. This interval is one of the most powerful sounding intervals and is used to construct power chords.

A minor 6th is created when there’s an eight semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The song “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin contains three minor 6th intervals in a row at 12 seconds.

A major 6th is created when there’s a nine semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” plays a major 6th interval when it changes notes for the first time.

A minor 7th is created when there’s a ten semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The original Star Trek theme song plays a minor 7th interval at 30 seconds.

A major 7th is created when there’s an eleven semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The song “Take on Me” plays a major 7th inteval at 54 seconds.

An octave is created when there’s a twelve semi-tone difference in pitch between notes. The song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” from Wizard of Oz plays contains an octave jump, and it’s demonstrated when Dorthy sings “Somewhere.”

Methods to Memorize Intervals

Memorizing intervals is a pretty straightforward process, you just need to keep listening to intervals until you remember what they sound like. However, there are a couple of techniques that will reduce the time it takes you to learn these intervals, and that will turn an otherwise dull process into a fun game!

Repetition is the name of the game, and if you practice for about 15-20 minutes per day for a couple weeks, you should be able to identify all of the intervals listed above with no issues at all. You’ll see better results if you spread out your practice time throughout the week. It's more effective to practice a little bit each day than it is to practice a lot in one day, even if the total time you've practiced is the same. ‍

I recommend learning intervals in the following order:

• Perfect 5th ‍

EarMaster ($59.95) ‍ ‍

There are apps for music producers that allow you to develop your ability to recognize intervals and chords, as well as work on many other music theory skills; my favorite of these apps has to be EarMaster. It’s a comprehensive ear training software that covers intervals, chords, rhythms, and melodies. If you’re looking for software that will streamline your voyage through the world of music theory, EarMaster is what you’re looking for.

Want to produce radio-quality songs? Check out Black Ghost Audio's Music Production for Beginners video course. Produce three songs from start to finish and learn the skills you need to write, record, mix, and master music at home. No experience required. Click here to learn more and produce your first song in under an hour.

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Interval song chart

A common way to identify intervals by ear is to associate them with songs. For example, a descending minor third is equal to the beginning of the song "Hey Jude". Use the charts below to make a list of reference songs you know well. Pick one song for each interval. Keep in mind, some intervals are easier to identify because of their unique sound.

• Ascending intervals
• Descending intervals

1. Ascending intervals

2. descending intervals.

Music Theory/Scales and Intervals

A musical scale is a set of notes, usually not arbitrary, of which most notes in a piece of music might be chosen. There exist many scales with highly distinctive sounds, though some are much more common than others. the term "scale" comes from the latin word 'scala' meaning 'ladder'. Thus a scale is a ladder of notes.

• 1.1 Simple intervals
• 1.2 Compound intervals
• 1.3 Mnemonic memorization examples
• 2.1 The major scale
• 2.2 The minor scale
• 3.1 The pentatonic scales
• 3.2 The blues scale
• 4.1 The chromatic scale
• 4.2 The whole-tone scale
• 4.3 The octatonic (diminished) scale
• 4.4 Other "theoretical" symmetric scales

Simple intervals

Before we progress, we must discuss music intervals . An interval in music is usually defined as the distance between two notes, pitches or tones that is, how many semitones lie between them. When the two pitches are the same, they are said to be in unison , and two notes played in unison can be impossible to distinguish from a single note when they are played by the same instrument and the instrument is properly tuned. When they are twelve semitones apart, they are an octave apart (we will learn why it is called an octave shortly). Simple intervals are defined as those intervals that are one octave or less apart.

Intervals are usually named according to the relationship of the higher note to the lower note in the major scale, though they also have alternative names depending upon the spelling of the particular notes on the page of music.

This table gives the most common nomenclature for each interval according to its relation to the major scale. For example, the interval of four semitones occurs as the third note of the major scale, and thus it is called a major third . The interval of seven semitones occurs as the fifth note of the major scale, and so it is called a perfect fifth . Whether an interval is "perfect" or "major" depends on mathematical ratios of frequencies as determined by the Greeks. Other possible names are given under "alternate names," and the most common of these are emboldened. One may draw several inferences from this table:

• If any perfect interval is raised by one semitone, the interval becomes augmented
• If any perfect interval is lowered by one semitone, the interval becomes diminished
• If any major interval is raised by one semitone, the interval becomes augmented
• If any major interval is lowered by one semitone, the interval becomes minor
• If any major interval is lowered by two semitones, the interval becomes diminished

Compound intervals

Compound intervals are defined as those intervals greater than one octave apart. These intervals may be considered by exactly the same rules as their simple counterparts.

The compound intervals work by following the same five rules as the simple intervals above (so the augmented eleventh might also be called a diminished twelfth!). Why even bother giving them separate names? The answer lies in their normal function within music. Complex jazz chords are built around stacks of thirds, and so the terms "ninth," "eleventh," and "thirteenth" are needed to designate intervals larger than a seventh.

Mnemonic memorization examples

The following chart intends to give some mnemonic support in recognising musical interval. For each interval, ascending or descending, a popular song is given that contains it prominently. Capitalized syllables or a ">" mark the stated interval: Trainear is an online ear trainer that's specifically for associating intervals to songs. Here are some examples for each interval:

Here is a graphic interpretation of intervals. Major count down from the top. Minor count up from the bottom. Naming starts top to bottom.

Traditional Scales

The major scale.

The major scale is a diatonic scale. Originally a Church mode named by Heinrich Glarean in 1547 as the Ionian scale/mode. There is some confusion with beginners as to why the Church modes are named after Greek tribes. A common belief is that the Ionian scale was invented by the Greeks. The Ancient Greeks did not have an Ionian scale but they did lay the foundation for its existence. The Ancient Greeks did have a system of music and we know quite a lot about their music theories from the Ancient Greeks themselves. The real origin of the Ionian mode is the period known as the Renaissance which started in Italy with the 13th century writer Petrach. Renaissance is the French word for "rebirth". The "rebirth" in this case was the rediscovery of lost Ancient Greek texts that had been brought back from the East (including Jerusalem) by Crusaders and other parties. A lot of these books had been unavailable in Western Europe for centuries. These books sparked a desire to rediscover the roots of European civilization. The Renaissance scholars took the music practices of their time which already had been in use for hundreds of years and codified them in reference to the Greeks. You can read about the Ancient Greek system of tetrachords and scales if you're interested. It must be pointed out that we have no idea about the sounds of the instruments of the Ancient Greeks and only a few fragments of music exists. It is now believed that the Church modes are derived from early Christian mass chants which themselves were adapted from Jewish chants. It may be that modern Western Music has for its origins Eastern Jewish liturgical chants and Ancient Greek theories codified from the view of a Renaissance mindset a thousand years later.

The major scale (Ionian mode) is most simply described as the eight note progression consisting of the perfect and major semitiones, i.e., perfect unison, major 2nd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, major 7th, and perfect octave in that order. You have already seen the major scale: C D E F G A B; do re mi fa sol la ti; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Scales may be constructed according to their intervals . You can see that the C major scale consists of two whole tones, then a semitone (moving from E to F), then three more whole tones, then again a semitone (moving from B back to C). If we add the implied C at the end of the scale, we would have eight notes: C D E F G A B C.

The minor scale

The intervals of the natural minor scale follow the following pattern: tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone. The following chart demonstrates this natural minor scale construction.

Pentatonic and Blues Scales

The pentatonic scales.

A pentatonic scale has five notes. Each note in the major pentatonic scale is a fifth (seven semitones) relative to another note. For example, the C major pentatonic scale starts with C, then from there we can get G, then D, then A, then E. Rearranging the scale to ascending order from C, we get: C D E G A. This is the C major scale with F and B removed! So, why use it? Sometimes less is more, and pentatonic scales are certainly easier to use when improvising.

Pentatonic scales are abundant in rock and blues music, though these are certainly not their only uses. Traditional Chinese and Japanese music has defined and named many more pentatonic scales, some of which do not use the western twelve-note basis.

The blues scale

The most common blues scale has six notes, and may be considered a minor Pentatonic scale with the diminished fifth added as a blue note . In a major blues tune, the minor third is also considered a blue note.

The Symmetric Scales

Symmetric scales include scales such as the whole-tone scale, octatonic scale (also called the diminished scale), and chromatic scale, and their defining characteristic is that they are composed of repeating subunits within an octave. This property allows these scales to be transposed to another pitch (or "key"), yet retain exactly the same notes as the original scale.

The chromatic scale

As noted above, composers will often choose certain notes from this scale to use more frequently than others, thereby providing the listener with a sense of a "home" note, referred to as the tonic. However, many composers in the twentieth century have demonstrated that using all twelve chromatic notes equally can defeat any sense of tonal center. This technique is called atonality or, less commonly, pantonality, and can have a very unsettling effect upon those unaccustomed to this music. An everyday occurrence of atonal music would be in the soundtracks to many horror films, documentaries, or other movies where there is a need for extreme dissonance and tension to match the onscreen action.

The whole-tone scale

Any whole-tone scale within the western musical system will fall enharmonically into one of these two categories.

The whole-tone scale was used widely by impressionists to create a floating, ethereal sound. The scale also finds a place in jazz improvisation, as it is among the most colorful scales to use where a raised-fifth scale degree is indicated. Incidentally, the scale contains all of the notes of two augmented chords placed side-by-side, a whole step apart.

The octatonic (diminished) scale

Any other octatonic scales within the western system will fall enharmonically into one of these three groups.

Other "theoretical" symmetric scales

Other collections of pitches may be considered "symmetric scales," even though they are not often used as such. The fully-diminished-seventh chord is made up of repeating subunits of minor thirds (three semitones), and there are three distinct pitch collections:

Any other fully-diminished seventh chords are enharmonically equivalent to one of these three collections.

The augmented chord is made of repeating subunits of major thirds (four semitones), and there are four distinct collections:

Any other augmented chords are enharmonically equivalent to one of these four collections.

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