MAZZA STUDIO OF MUSIC · THEORY LESSONS

Half Steps & Whole Steps

See the distance. Hear the difference. Prepare to build scales and chords.

Welcome to the building blocks of harmony

Every scale and chord begins with distances between notes. Explore half steps and whole steps first, then meet the chord types we will build in later lessons.

Welcome! In this lesson, we'll explore half steps and whole steps. You can play the highlighted examples, listen to the differences, and check your understanding. Next, we'll use these steps to build a scale, and discover how scales help us build chords.

Click a highlighted example key or a play button to hear it.

Only the highlighted example keys are playable. The entire keyboard is not playable. Click a yellow or orange example key to hear that note, or use the play buttons to hear the interval. A blue glow shows each note as it sounds.