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MusicCount the Semitones
Every interval is measured in semitones, and the piano keyboard is the ruler. Below: how to read a distance off the keyboard in one step.
Choose your difficulty
Pick a level to start playing. You can switch at any time.
How to play
Read the two notes, then tap the distance in semitones.
Tip: your progress and best score are saved in this browser only.
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MusicWhat you are actually practising
Intervals are measured in semitones, and the piano keyboard is the ruler you already know. From any note, the black and white keys alternate in a fixed pattern, so the distance between two notes can be read off directly rather than guessed from how the melody sounds.
The skill is worth building because interval size determines the character of a melody. A semitone feels like a nudge, a fourth feels like an opening, a seventh feels tense, an octave feels like an arrival.
How the game works
You are shown two note names and four possible distances. Tap the number of semitones between them. A wrong pick shows the answer immediately.
Easy stays inside the first few semitones. Medium reaches further. Hard goes as far as a seventh.
How the semitone count works
Count the white keys and the black keys separately, because they are two different sizes. The note C sits on a white key. Moving up one step to C sharp is one semitone, and every semitone is either a white-to-black step or a black-to-white step.
Here are the sizes you meet most often:
- C to D sharp is 3 semitones, a minor third.
- C to E is 4 semitones, a major third.
- C to G is 7 semitones, a perfect fifth.
- C to C an octave up is 12 semitones.
The shortcut
Each semitone is one step on the keyboard, and there are twelve steps in an octave. So an interval is simply the number of key positions you move. Because the question gives both note names, you can always place them on a keyboard in your head and count.
How to get faster
Fix the lower note in your mind as the starting point of a twelve-step ruler, then mark off the upper note. Learning one twelve-step pattern from C upward removes the need to think about accidentals at all, and it is the same pattern in every key.
A note on note names
Note names here use the standard spellings: C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp and B. The count between two names is the same regardless of whether you start on a black key or a white one, so you can always count in whole steps.