In this chapter, we will test your ears and eyes to see if you can correctly identify melodic steps, skips, and repeats.
Steps, skips, and repeats are types of intervals that make up a melody. (Check out the “Intervals" chapter to learn about intervals in greater detail.) Songwriters use a combination of steps, skips, and repeats to make their melodies interesting.
Repeats
Repeats are easy to identify – when you see or hear the same note multiple times, that’s a repeated note!
Steps
A step occurs when the melody moves between notes that are right next to each other in the scale. Here is an example:
Notice that each step alternates between the lines and spaces of the staff. The notes sit close together on the staff. There are whole steps and half steps in this melody. Here they are, labeled:
Skips
Skips occur when the melody moves between notes that are farther apart, like this:
