The circle
Neighbours are a semitone apart.
C
tonic
Click any note to make it the tonal centre. Every other note is then labelled by its interval from that centre.
Intervals from the tonal centre
click an interval to light it on the circle
All twelve, spelled for this key
Sharp spelling
Written pitch on your horn for this tonal centre: A on alto/baritone, D on tenor/soprano.
Study notes
Why am I practising this?expand
- What it teaches
- Instant recognition of every interval measured from any of the twelve notes, in three different orderings.
- Problem it solves
- Most players know intervals from C and a handful of comfortable keys, and calculate slowly everywhere else.
- Physical skill
- Nothing yet — this is the map. The fingers follow once the relationship is instant.
- Theory reinforced
- Interval identity, enharmonic spelling, and why key signatures follow fifths.
- Improvisation
- On a bandstand you react to chord symbols by interval, not by recalculating a scale.
- Ear training
- Naming the interval before you hear it, then confirming with the audio, links the label to the sound.
- Common mistakes
- Always starting from C; reading flats as if they were sharps; treating the tritone as a special case rather than an interval like any other.
- Recommended tempo
- No tempo. Answer within two seconds, then reduce to one.
- Increasing difficulty
- Switch to the fifths circle, then fourths. Then name intervals downward instead of upward.
- Mastered when
- You can name any interval from any of the twelve notes, in both directions, without pausing.
How to practise it
- 01Pick a tonal centre away from C — say A♭.
- 02Say each interval name aloud and find the note before clicking it.
- 03Play the interval on the horn, then check it against the audio.
- 04Switch the circle to fifths and repeat; the physical distance on screen changes but the sound does not.
- 05Finish by naming intervals downward from the same centre.