Knowing your intervals is essential to getting to the next level of understanding music. The theory necessary to understand that is covered in the Smart Interval Trainer as well as on our tutorial page.

The 60 second version goes like this:

• The musical notes are organized into Major Scales.
• The Major Scale is the foundation for a lot of other music theory.
• If you’ve memorized the steps of each scale in each key it helps you to do things such as:
  • Building chords
  • Building other scales
  • Harmonize the major scale
  • Transposing progressions
  • Much much more
• The intervals are the steps between the Tonic (first note in the scale) and the other tones. Each step has a name.
• If you know all the intervals you know all the notes in the scales.

This version is designed to help you learn the intervals by name independently of any instrument.   ( Smart Piano Keyboard Interval Trainer is a variation of this app that lets you learn using a piano keyboard. )

What’s included in Smart Interval Trainer

The following sections describe what’s included Smart Interval Trainer in detail. You can jump directly to the section you’re most interested in:

• Tutorials
• Training
• Why “Smart” Interval Trainer
• Training Options
• Interval Explorer
• Major Scale Explorer
• Reminders

Tutorials

If you don’t know what an interval is no worries. Included in the app are a number of tutorials. Topics include everything you need to get going and more:

• What’s a note?: The fundamental building block.
• The Major Scale: Notes are organized into the Major scale which is the base of a lot of music theory.
• What’s an Interval?
• Bonus: What are the uses of intervals.

Training

Training is simple. In the screen capture below on the left is the challenge. In this case it’s asking for the Major Third (M3) of G. Simply tap the correct button below. The answer will be shown in green or red on the right indicating a right or wrong choice. If you made a mistake the correct choice will be shown.

Below the correct answer was chosen and it’s highlighted in green.

Note that the button pad is arranged in a way to prevent guessing by the position. Our goal is to be able to remember all the intervals by name, independent of any instrument. We don’t want to use the keyboard to help us guess. This ensures that we’re actually learning the note names and not just positions on the screen.

You can start and stop training whenever you want. Got some time waiting in line? A few minutes here or there? Do some training. The trainer will remember what you achieved each time no matter how short and continue where you left of. In reality it’s probably better to train many times for a short amount of time. When you get tired and start making mistakes stop and come back to it later.

 Why “Smart” Interval Trainer

Smart Interval Trainer is designed to teach you at your own pace. Too much information and once and the training is overwhelming… too little and it’s boring. So the trainer pays very close attention to your progress. All you need to do is answer the current challenge that it presents…note the corrections it makes and as you learn more of the intervals will be presented to you. It will start slow and add intervals at your own pace. Before you know it you’ll be an interval master.

Training Options

There are three different training options:

• Full Auto Mode
• Single Intervals
• Multiple Intervals

Full Auto Mode is the mode that most people will want to use. Smart Interval Trainer will guide you through all intervals and sets of intervals until you know them all. Sit back…answer the challenges as they are presented and master the intervals.

Single and Multiple Interval Modes allow you go your own way…to choose your own intervals to practice. Pick one interval or multiple intervals. The “smart” is still there in the training but the choices of intervals are yours as opposed to Full Auto Mode.

Interval Explorer

The Interval Explorer is a handy feature that allows you to see all the intervals by key. The button on the bottom left allows you to switch between sharp and flat keys. The other buttons let you choose the key you’d like to see. The keys are organized by number of sharps/flats for convenience. “A” Major is displayed in the image below.

Major Scale Explorer

The Major Scale Explorer is a handy feature that allows you to see all the major scales displayed on a keyboard. As in the Interval Explorer the button on the bottom left allows you to switch between sharp and flat keys. The other buttons let you choose the key you’d like to see. The keys are organized by number of sharps/flats for convenience. “A” Major is displayed in the image below.

Reminders

Reminders are a handy feature to help you remember to practice. You can set a reminder one time, weekdays, every day or any combinations of days you’d like. An alert will pop up at the time you’ve specified reminding you that it’s time to practice your intervals.