Teaching Intervals

Teacher, author and composer Margaret Brandman has been teaching students to read by interval for over 50 years. Below are a set of teaching videos she has created that you will find immensely helpful. Her website also links to her many educational books.

Her materials begin with a simplified interval method, using terminology connected to physical actions, which helps to connect the aural, visual and tactile aspects of music. Students are encouraged to sing the pitches while they play, using this easy language, which in turn helps the development of inner hearing.

1: Teaching the interval of STEP

2: Teaching the interval of SKIP

3: Teaching the interval of SKIP + ONE

4: Teaching the interval of JUMP

5: Interval Drill Game

Interview of Margaret Branderman

Her aim is to offer the student professional music making skills in an easy fashion and beginning early, so they can be incorporated in a very gradual way, rather than being thought of as tertiary study material. Then in time, students can choose the musical direction that suits them best. That is: performing, composing, arranging, recording, teaching , classical, jazz, pop etc.