Description
Mastering Intervals is a revolutionary interval theory book for intermediate to advanced keyboardists.
- Three workshops systematically develop mastery in reading, writing, and hearing any interval, enhancing composition and improvisation skills.
- Fifteen analyzed musical excerpts provide additional music theory insight.
- An integral part of our Intermediate Piano Curriculum.
- Glossary and Interval Ear Training Resource guide provided.
- Answer Manual now included – written work can be readily checked!
- 8.25 x 10.5 soft cover, 158 pages.
- This product qualifies for the 20% Lifetime Teacher Discount.
“It is Wehrli’s contention that knowing intervals ‘cold’ increases skill in music theory, sight-reading, composition and improvisation. My teaching experience certainly confirms this notion. Mastering Intervals… [provides] a solid foundation of interval knowledge and a leg up for all musical endeavors… a welcome addition to any musician’s library. Congratulations on a well-thought-out book!”
Andy LaVerne – Professor of Jazz Piano at The University of Hartford, recording artist and author of Chord Substitutions and Countdown To Giant Steps.
“Mastering Intervals helps fill a significant void in instructional material for pianists. It is an ideal aid for pianists, improvisers, and composers who need to sharpen their comprehension of intervals. Wehrli’s focus on this critically important area of music through both written exercises and ear training makes this workbook a welcome resource in music pedagogy.”
James Ramos – Teacher, clinician & lecturer; Board of Directors, Music Teachers’ Association of California.
“I’ve been teaching piano for over 25 years and it’s been a long, long search to find a wonderful workbook like “Mastering Intervals”. What I like most about this book is how thorough it is and how it emphasizes what intervals look like and sound like (melodically and harmonically) in many different ways to help a student remember. It slowly takes you through each interval step by step and gives plenty of exercises to practice and understand how intervals function independently and interdependently.”
Elaina Farnsworth – Pianist and teacher.
See what other professionals have to say on the back cover!
Daniel –
Super useful. Really helped me work on my music theory and ear training.
Robert McKay –
Comprehending musical intervals is one of the most fundamental skills there is in learning to perform music-as important as melody and rhythm. Mastering Intervals is what its title suggests-a textbook that makes it easy to learn what intervals are, the theory behind them, and the skills one must possess to apply this knowledge. The book is well-written, logically organized, and easy to follow. It progresses seamlessly from basic to advanced topics. It provides an abundance of well-thought-out written exercises to test the student’s basic knowledge. Equally important are ear-training exercises that teach the student how to recognize intervals. This book was a part of my musical training, and I found it invaluable. I recommend it highly.
Donnell Cameron –
Very comprehensive instruction with quizzes along the way allow the student to be an active participant in the learning process. I learned about notation, ear training, harmonic and melodic intervals and how to define them as major, minor, diminished or augmented. A wealth of knowledge that makes learning fun.
Aeriel S –
I really enjoyed studying with this book. It does a good job of building fundamentals by combining interval theory with different exercises that help you practically apply the knowledge. It includes excepts from different styles of music which was especially fulfilling to analyze and play as an intermediate student.
L. Hong –
I started the Mastering Intervals book with only basic understanding of what intervals were and no idea how to name or read them — after completing every activity in the book I can now confidently say I know everything there is to know about intervals… how to construct and identify intervals (on keyboard, sheet music, and by ear) and understanding the quality and function of intervals. I appreciate the thorough and systematic way the information is presented — the book breaks down complicated and confusing topic very clearly and concisely using straightforward written, listening, and playing exercises. Highly recommend for anybody wanting to gain the ability to see and hear intervals.
Danny W. –
Mastering Intervals is a great book to hone your skills in understanding how intervals are constructed both melodically and harmonically. It teaches you from both a visual perspective as well as an audio (listening) perspective. Visually you start off learning distances between notes and their names (i.e. major, minor, augmented, diminished) both melodically (one note at a time) and harmonically (stacked notes). There are plenty of exercises to help solidify your understanding using staff and keyboard diagrams in the book. Along with the visual aspect, the audio exercises build on the visual by playing and listening to the written exercises that you are completing and listening for how a major, minor, augmented, or diminished melodic or harmonic tone sounds. Also, there are additional listening exercises throughout the book where you listen to a sequence of notes both melodically and harmonically and determine their distance (i.e. Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Major 2nd, Augmented 4th….and so on). Toward the end of the book, you are also introduced to music analysis through different musical time periods and you learn how some note distances and sequences of notes are known musical concepts. A plus for this book is that as you start mastering the intervals, you start to understand how songs and compositions are put together and why a particular melody sounds good in a particular key. I also think once you start to understand it, you realize that this book is also a gateway into improvisation.
Matteo –
After many years of studying and practicing piano playing, I came to the conclusion that I needed to improve my understanding of intervals – both theoretically and musically. I am very happy to have found this book, as it allowed me to make progress and analyse intervals from a number of different points of view.
I really like the way the book is structured, as you progress it is very easy to see in a glance what you have already achieved and what you still have to learn. This is important because it allows you to then focus on the current lesson without worrying about what will come next.
Last but not least, I have the impression that this book is based on the principle of learning one simple idea at a time – which I think is a very effective way of dealing with a complex subject like the one if intervals. I would definitely recommend this book to any pianist who wishes to develop a deeper understanding of the music s/he plays.
A. Alexander –
“Mastering Intervals” is a truly unique resource. It covers reading, writing, hearing, singing and playing intervals on the keyboard in a thorough and systematic way. As a teacher, I have seen students gain confidence in sight reading and ear training through this excellent book. We are always telling students that scales and chords are the building blocks of music, but Wehrli points out that intervals are the building blocks of scales and chords. There are some real “light bulb” moments in this book for me even after many years of teaching. In the first chapter, there is the most complete lesson on stemming that I have ever come across. The keyboard exercises really increase confidence. Double sharps and double flats finally make sense to my most skeptical students. I would recommend this book to piano teachers and to teens and adults who are trying to improve their reading and theory skills.
Amazon Customer –
This workbook is great! It is very detailed and shows great examples of how intervals are used melodically and harmonically. I finished this book feeling like I have a much better understanding and it definitely enhanced my interval skills. It has great ear training and written portion.
I HIGHLY recommend this book to students and teachers who are looking to gain more knowledge in mastering the intervals.
Sageous –
I got this book for my piano classes and it has been a big help in understanding the fundamentals of intervals. I gained a much better understanding of the various intervals, such as the basic Melodic and Harmonic intervals and interval qualities through the visual and auditory lessons that the book provides. The book has pictorial activities that have allowed me to easily visualize the keyboard when learning new concepts. It also has allowed me to utilize my music writing during some exercises to confirm that I understand the techniques taught in the book. The ear training sections also helped me to practice hearing the intervals and build up my auditory library for recognizing these intervals. The best part for me was towards the end of the book, where I was able to learn more theory through the analysis of small excerpts of music and then have some fun playing them.
I would recommend this book if you have had at least some basic piano training and can read and play basic piano music with both hands. It’s great for those looking to gain an in-depth understanding of intervalic fundamentals. The book is good for individuals who are self-taught or working with an instructor, although I would recommend the latter.
Ashley Rosario Castro –
Super it’s like a workbook! Nice!
Amazon Customer –
This book starts from the very basic (a big plus for beginners). I love it. And having the exercises answers is very very useful. I am enjoying this book.
Jan M Sway –
As an adult learning to enhance my piano skills, I found this workbook helpful and engaging. For each topic, there is a detailed explanation with easy-to follow examples. Practice activities follow. For example when learning about perfect intervals, the student writes the interval name in one exercise, and draws the interval on a staff in the next exercise. Then, the student shades in the keys on a keyboard. These step-by-step activities make the concept concrete and allow for mastery. There is an accompanying answer book for the teacher or adult student to check the work completed.
Nikolaos Makaris –
Mastering Intervals is concise and effective at helping you understand intervals. It will demystify any questions or ambiguities you have ever had about them. Most importantly, it helps you understand intervals in four different ways: visually (by reading notes on paper), physically (by playing them on the keyboard), aurally (through hearing intervals), and conceptually (by thinking of the keyboard and staff in your mind with your eyes closed). By addressing intervals from so many different angles you come to understand them much quicker, more easily, and more thoroughly than by studying them from only one perspective.
Try this book, even if you can only put 15 minutes a day of practice into it–it is well worth it. Slowly but surely you will start to see patterns emerge, and everything musical will become clearer and clearer. I went from being completely musically illiterate to understanding the fundamentals of how notes and intervals are woven together thanks to this book. I no longer see sheet music as a collection of random dots but rather as music in written form. This book will serve you well!
Elaina Farnsworth –
I’ve been teaching piano for over 25 years and it’s been a long, long search to find a wonderful workbook like “Mastering Intervals”.
Having students who can recognize, analyze and hear correctly all intervals in their music is key to successful music reading. This book, if followed diligently, will definitely help your students achieve such goals.
What I like most about this book is how thorough it is and how it emphasizes what intervals look like and sound like (melodically and harmonically) in many different ways to help a student remember. It slowly takes you through each interval step by step and gives plenty of exercises to practice and understand how intervals function independently and interdependently.
Two other features I really love are the ear training activity guides and the keyboard activity guides. Using these guides, my students make a clear connection between how intervals sound and look on the piano versus how they sound and look on a staff. Once you manage to accomplish getting through all of these exercises, recognizing an interval by number and quality, reading music begins to become second nature.
I have a student who before “Mastering Intervals” was having the worst time reading music. He would go into a panic when learning any new piece because he would have to read new notes. I tried other workbooks with him but none of them really gave a thorough study of just what intervals are. Mostly they glossed over their importance too quickly making it so my student did not absorb the lesson. This past summer, I gave him “Mastering Intervals” and he has completed 2/3rds of the book. In a lesson just last week, this same student pointed out his own mistake in his music, stating he accidentally played a perfect fourth instead of an augmented fourth, I could have jumped for joy. I can thank “Mastering Intervals” for my student having this knowledge. 🙂
Darling Clementine –
This is really a good workbook. It’s not overly exhaustive, hence you can keep at it. Definitely a companion to independent study.
Scott –
Although I haven’t completed the entire book, I have worked through a majority of it. I had absolutely no concept of what an interval was before getting into this book, but now I can pick out intervals with my eyes closed (literally). It took me through the theory step by step followed by appropriate exercises that reinforced the lessons. It has a very inviting layout that is easy to read – simple and thorough. I will keep on using this book for years to come. I have actually recommended this to my friends and I recommend it to you too.
Lanote –
This is a great book if you really want to understand how intervals work and how recognizing them can improve your sight-reading and your eartraining. The book is well organized and the excercises reinforce the concepts presented. You can use this to teach beginners or intermediate students. I love it!
Marlene –
Having just finished Mastering Intervals, I have gained a strong foundation on interval theory. This book is unique because it addresses the subject from all angles – writing, hearing and playing – in order to gain a full understanding of intervals. My favorite section of the book is the Music Analysis Workshop, which uses small sections from real pieces of music to help gain an understanding of how intervals can be used and shaped to create a wonderful piece of music. I know the knowledge I’ve gained from Mastering Intervals will benefit my own musical compositions and arrangements.