Music Video Lesson: Explaining Music Intervals - Whole and Half Steps

Welcome to VirtualSheetMusic.com and LivingPianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin with the first in a series of music theory lessons. Today's subject, intervals. The very smallest intervals. We're gonna discuss today the half step and the whole step. Why is it so important? Well, you're gonna learn a bunch about that and I'm gonna break it down for you, because it really is very simple. In fact, all music theory is built upon very simple principles, one on top of the next. Just like mathematics. If you understand the fundamentals, it's very easy to understand larger concepts. So, I'm gonna really cover half steps and whole steps today, thoroughly. So, you'll understand them completely.

All right. Intervals, simply put, are the distance between notes or the distance between tones, more accurately. The piano is a wonderful instrument, because it's very visual. So, I'm gonna use the piano keyboard to show you. What is a half step? Simply put, a half step is two keys together with no keys between. Ah ha. So, if you go to the keyboard, any two keys that are together with no keys between. So, you notice, sometimes half steps can be white keys. Now, one of the mistakes that sometimes people make when they're new to this, is thinking that all the white keys are next to each other. Which is why, when you're looking at intervals, ignore the front of the keys completely.

And if you just look here, these are all half steps. Not all of these are half steps, because there are black keys between some of them. But all of these are a half step apart. That's very simple, isn't it? So, what's a whole step? Well, some people might say it's two half steps. But I'm gonna break it down even simpler. A whole step is two keys together with one key between. So, it can be two black keys, like this. The one white key is between. Or it can be two white keys with a black key between. Or it can be a black and a white. As long as there's one key between, you always have a whole step.

Now, why is this so important? Well, all major scales are a series of half steps and whole steps, which we'll cover in a future video. But for today, now you know, half steps and whole steps. The smallest intervals, the foundation of all music. All western music, that is. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at VirtualSheetMusic.com and LivingPianos.com.

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