Press Up to hear a minor sixth, then try the quiz!
Intervals · m6 ·
Minor sixth
A minor sixth is eight semitones, the distance from C up to A♭. It is the leap at the start of Scott Joplin’s "The Entertainer," from E up to the high C.
Listen: C4 and A♭4
Quiz
Wormy plays one of these, up or down, from a different note each time. Can you tell which: perfect fifth, minor sixth, major sixth?
What it sounds like
Eight keys apart, a wide and yearning leap with a bittersweet tint, like a sigh turned upward.
In music theory
Mi up to do is a minor sixth. Upside down it becomes a major third, so it shares that bright interval’s notes but sounds darker. In a minor key, the sixth note sits a minor sixth above home.
Where you've heard it
- The Entertainer: after the opening run, E up to the high C, going up.Published 1902. Scott Joplin, "The Entertainer" (St. Louis: John Stark & Son, 1902).
Every tune named here is public domain in the US or traditional. Wormy names the spot; it never plays the song.