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Interval · 0 semitones · do to do

Unison zero semitones


Sampled piano. Sound on.

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No mnemonic, on purpose

Every other interval page here opens with songs. This one can't: a unison is any note repeated, so every melody with a repeated note "contains" one. There's nothing to memorize. What's worth practicing instead is the discipline of hearing that nothing moved, because in a training round the temptation is to assume there must have been a leap and start hunting for one.

On the staff

C, then the same C again

The most consonant interval there is

Two voices on the same pitch fuse completely; in counterpoint the unison is so stable that the old rules confine it to beginnings and endings, since anywhere else the two parts just sound like one. It heads the perfect family (unison, 4th, 5th, octave), and its frequency ratio is 1:1, purity with nothing left to remove.

The interesting part is what happens just outside it. Two instruments almost on the same pitch produce beats: a slow pulsing that quickens as the pitches separate and dies away as they merge. Musicians tune by those beats. When an orchestra gathers on the oboe's A, every player is steering toward a unison by listening for the wobble to stop. Aubel's intonation game trains the same sensitivity from the other direction, asking whether a note sits sharp or flat of a reference.

How Aubel handles it

The unison is in the starting pool for every player, alongside the perfect 4th, 5th, and octave. It works as the control answer: when a round plays the same note twice, the right response is to trust your ear and take the zero. Players who internalize that early stop second-guessing the quiet rounds, and the habit pays off across the whole pool.

Common questions

Is the unison really an interval?
Yes, by the letter of the definition: an interval measures the distance between two pitches, and zero is a distance. Theory books label it PU or P1, size one, zero semitones. It is the most consonant interval there is, the baseline every other interval is measured against.
What's the difference between a unison and an octave?
A unison is the same pitch twice; an octave is the same pitch class twelve semitones apart. They blend in a similar way, which is why a mixed choir singing "in unison" is usually singing in octaves without anyone noticing. The octave keeps a trace of height, two places at once. The unison has none.
What are beats, and what do they have to do with the unison?
When two instruments play almost the same pitch, the sound pulses: a slow wah-wah-wah that speeds up as the pitches drift apart and slows as they approach each other. Those pulses are beats. Tuning to a unison means listening for the beats to slow down and vanish, which is what an orchestra is doing when it tunes to the oboe.

References

Train this on the alarm.

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