Major seventh interval

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I'm joking, of course. It's weird that it's so hard to find any decent examples of this.

― darin (darin), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Are they hard to find because it's hard to sing or vice-versa?

*(I Can't Sing It, Can You?)

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't think the interval is necessarily difficult to sing, but since all sevenths are dissonant intervals, they probably sound strange in most pop songs, especially at the beginning of a phrase. Major sevenths probably occur more often in jazz. Or maybe someone like Bjork does it a lot. I dunno.

― darin (darin), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:45 (eighteen years ago) link

That's what I was thinking earlier. It's a bitch to sing, it's very hard not to hit the octave or the minor seventh instead. Course, I'm a shit singer and lots of proper classically trained singers can presumably do it without thinking. But still, if it's so hard for us laymen to hear, it's probably pretty hard to listen to as well, which might be why it's usually avoided.

I wouldn't be surprised if Schoenberg has one of these somewhere in his twelve tone stuff (or if one of his serialist apprentices does). I'm not familliar enough with any of it to know though.

(oh, xpost)

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Hmm, ok...just picked up a guitar instead of trying to do this all in my head, and now I've changed my mind about most of what I said in that last post. Cos once I could hear it properly and get it fixed in my mind, I found it really easy to sing. And by noodling around a bit I even managed to come up with a little melody that starts with a major seventh and doesn't even sound particularly dissonant, it could easily be a poppy little tune.

So there you go, I just wrote a song that starts with one! And I have to admit, it reminds me of something else too, buggered if I can remember what though.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Damn it! I was going to try that when I got home tonight!

― darin (darin), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Put it out. Could be a million-seller.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Heh, so far it's only 5 seconds long. I'll work on it.

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:04 (eighteen years ago) link

OK this is bothering me: The Simpsons theme definitely starts out with a major 3rd then a major 2nd, doesn't it? Those add up to a tritone but it's not a single note change!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought the Simpsons theme started with a diminished 5th that then resolved into a perfect 5th. I don't know what key it is off-hand, but if we pretend it starts on C, the next two notes are F#-G.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh! Curtis! It's the very beginning of the theme, with the choir of heavenly voices that sings "THE SIMP-SONS!" Before the woodwinds come in.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:27 (eighteen years ago) link

THE SIMP-SONS! I just saw a show named the simpsons! And suddenly that show will never...etc etc.

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Ha. My friend was doing that the other day with Dragnet

Bum buh-dum-bump
Bum buh-dum-Ma-RI-a

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Aha! Wikipedia's got the scoop!

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 02:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Take On Me! OMG, that's so obvious now they've mentioned it (and is the thing my little tune was reminding me of!).

Although it's the first two notes of the chorus rather than of the whole song, so it's still not quite the right answer.

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Seems to me that Geir's been asleep at the wheel on this one.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:09 (eighteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

the triste canto/"terra addio" aria from Aida does this. (Gb to F) six months, that's all i got.

― le hague (le hague), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 05:30 (seventeen years ago) link

― Nigel (Nigel), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

also related, from the Marina Records website:

richard carpenter once said:
"I love major sevenths", and so do we!

― hank (hank s), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link

For as long as I can remember, I've had a bias against this interval. Rather, the interval, divorced of a chord, is pretty cool, but a chord of 1-3-5-maj7 to me has *always* been something to dread, unless it was inserted in so completely an out-of-the-blue moment that I couldn't process it as a "lame melodramatic chord". I don't know why I have a problem with the major-maj7 chord, but I do. (I suspect the physics of this chord resolve into more consonances than the more-agreeable-to-me major-minor7, or major-9 w/minor7)

That said, a melody jumping from 1 to maj7 is pretty bold. I've tried this myself, and it's hard to fuck up; the interval is so large, and since you don't actually end up jumping an octave, it's also very dramatic. I wish I could make amends w/the chord.

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link

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