Welcome to Aural Training Stage 2.

In this lesson we're going to be looking at the Major 2nd and Major 3rd intervals.

We'll talk about the song references, we'll do a little test on them.

And then we're going to mix them in with the intervals that we've looked at before,

which is the intervals of the 4th and the 5th.

We'll do a little test to see how you're getting on.

So, let's get started.

The interval of a Major 2nd is the second note of the scale.

Of course. (plays) Sounds like that.

And it is the beginning of either Happy Birthday

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or Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

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It's also the beginning of the scale.

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Major Scale. A scale. The Major Scale specifically.

So what we're listening for now, (plays) practicing singing along is a really good idea.

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Especially if you're bed-rooming, and no one else is listening.

No one'll really mind, you might not be able to do it on the train.

It's because you'll probably feel a little bit stupid.

OK, thats a Major 2nd.

Next we're looking at Major 3rd.

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The one I always think of for this, I don't know why,

there's other songs as well, on the website, but the one I think of is,

Oh When the Saints Go Marching In.

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Major 3rd.

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OK so, what we're going to be doing now.

is trying to listen out to those intervals really closely.

First of all, before I do a little test with those,

I'm going to show them to you in case you want to play you know,

testing your jam buddy, or you want to be able to play the intervals yourself.

So let's go to a quick close up.

OK, the interval of a Major 2nd, (plays) just two frets higher on the same string.

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Works on any string this one.

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Doesn't matter, it's just two frets higher.

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And the interval of a Major 3rd Is either (plays) I always think of it like this,

there's another way of doing it, but let's just do this one for now.

So you're going to start of with your 2nd finger on the Root note,

and it's one fret back on the next string.

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Again you could move it around.

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Doesn't matter where you move it to, that's the shape.

Remember that all of the shapes I'm giving you are also found on the website.

So if you want, like a little reference page or whatever,

when you're testing your mate, then that would be a really good thing to print out for yourself.

It's available as a PDF, go and download that now.

OK, we're ready for a test.

So in this test we're just going to be looking at Major 2nd's and Major 3rds.

So you could write just a 2 or a 3.

So it's going to be 10 questions. So you might want to write down 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

In a little column, and let's get going.

This time I'm only going to play each interval for you twice.

Last time it was three times. We're going to be just doing it two now.

So listen closely. If you need to, pause.

But try not to. Try and just keep up with what I'm doing at And write down what you think.

A little hint that's quite useful. Often the first thing that you think it is, is correct.

I used to do aural training as a teacher at the Guitar Institute.

And the amount of times when we did tests and stuff

that somebody would write down the correct answer,

and then scribble it out and write the wrong answer next to it, was really often.

I'd say probably half of the time somebody had scribbled one out,

and then written something else,

the one that they scribbled out was the right one.

A little bit of the process of learning this is to believe in your instinct a little bit.

To try and really feel the rhythm.

Have played them, you know just playing them as I'm showing you,

is a really good way of kind of internalising that interval.

It's really good practice this stuff, so stick at it.

Here we go, here's your first test.

This is Major 2nd and Major 3rd intervals.

Here we go, here's the first interval.

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Here's the second interval.

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Here's the third interval.

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Here's the fourth interval.

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Here's the fifth interval.

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And here's the sixth.

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Question number seven.

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Question number eight.

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Question number nine.

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And question number ten.

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OK That was Quiz 2A where we just had Major 2nd and Major 3rd.

Now we're going to do a proper one, which is going to include

Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th and Perfect 5th.

In any order, 10 questions, write down your little column now.

Get ready to go, I'm going to be playing each interval twice.

Let's get going, here we go. Question 1.

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Question 2.

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Question 3.

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Question 4.

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Question 5.

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Question 6.

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Question 7.

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Question 8.

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Question 9.

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And question 10.

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Well there you have it, time to go and check your answers now on the website.

Hope you're getting a good percentage wrong. (laughs)

Well, there you have it, that's the end of the quizz for today.

Time to go and check your answers on the website.

Hope you're getting most of them right.

If there are any intervals that you find you're getting wrong particularly more than others,

then it might be worth playing those ones a few extra times,

you know, play them on the guitar, sing along with it if you can,

that's a really good way, make sure you think of the song interval that relates

to the interval as well. That's a really good idea.

Shouldn't be causing you too many problems yet.

It's gonna get a little bit fun later on.

So make sure you get these basic ones nice and solid.

Plenty of practice. That's the way to go.

Have fun with those. See you for some more training very soon. Bye bye.