Perfect Unison Interval

1Composition: what it contains

Semitones

0

Abbreviation

P1

Inversion

perfect octave

Consonance

perfect consonance

2Appearance: diagrams and sound

3Indications: what it is used for

Unison is everywhere you double a part: choirs singing the same line, two guitars playing the same riff, a vocal doubled by an instrument, a bass and a piano left hand locking together. Tuning is based on it: matching a string to a reference pitch is matching a unison. It is also the starting point for measuring every other interval, which is why it counts as interval number one and not zero.

4Dosage: how to practise it

Sing a pitch from a piano or tuner and hold it until the beating (wobbling) between your voice and the reference disappears. On guitar, tune adjacent strings by matching the same pitch on two strings (the fifth-fret method) and listen for the beats to slow down and vanish. Practise for two to three minutes daily: play a note, sing it, and check with a tuner. Record yourself to detect consistent sharpness or flatness.

Train it in the ear trainer

5Warnings and common mistakes

A unison slightly out of tune produces audible beating, which is how you detect tuning errors; do not ignore it. Do not confuse the unison with the octave: two notes with the same letter name an octave apart are not a unison. An augmented unison (a note and its sharpened version) is a chromatic half step, not a unison. Counting intervals starts at one, so the same note is 1, not 0.

6Other presentations available

• Minor Second Interval
• Major Second Interval
• Minor Third Interval
• Major Third Interval
• Perfect Fourth Interval
• Tritone Interval
• Perfect Fifth Interval
• Minor Sixth Interval
• Major Sixth Interval
• Minor Seventh Interval
• Major Seventh Interval
• Perfect Octave Interval