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May Students Write Inverted Intervals as Harmonic Intervals?

I am marking my student's work on the Level 8 Theory Additional Practice Paper in the 2018 booklet, and have a little question. In the first question on intervals, the student is to name the melodic intervals and then invert them in the bass clef. May students write the inverted intervals as harmonic intervals, or are they to write them melodically? If melodically, should the notes be in the same order as the original passage (eg. A to F# for the first interval)?

Answer

RCM Staff

Monday, June 15, 2020

at 4:14 PM

The inverted intervals may be simply written as harmonic intervals - this is the simplest way to complete the question. If a student chooses to write the inversion as a melodic interval, the order of the notes doesn’t matter. However, the notes do need to be inverted - in the first example, the F# and A could appear in either order, but the F# would have to be the lower note and the A would have to be the higher note.

Monday, June 15, 2020

at 4:14 PM

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