Press Up to hear a perfect fifth, then try the quiz!
Intervals · P5 ·
Perfect fifth
A perfect fifth is seven semitones, the distance from C up to G. It is the first leap in "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," from the first "twin-" to the second.
Listen: C4 and G4
Quiz
Wormy plays one of these, up or down, from a different note each time. Can you tell which: tritone, perfect fifth, minor sixth?
What it sounds like
Seven keys apart, hollow and steady, like an open field. Two notes a fifth apart blend so well they almost sound like one.
In music theory
Do up to sol is the strongest pull in tonal music. A power chord is just a root and its fifth, violins tune their strings in fifths, and each step around the circle of fifths is one.
Where you've heard it
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: "twin-kle, twin-," do up to sol, going up.Traditional. The French tune "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" (printed 1761), with Jane Taylor's English words (1806).
Every tune named here is public domain in the US or traditional. Wormy names the spot; it never plays the song.