Unison
The unison spans 0 semitones and 1 step. Inversion: octave. To remember it: the same note twice.
- Semitones
- 0
- Steps
- 1
- Quality
- perfect
- Inversion
- octave
- Sound
- perfect consonance
In notation
First one after the other, then together — the distance as a step and as a sound.
On the keyboard
On the guitar: the same fret — or the same pitch on the neighbouring string.
How to count it
The unison is a note's distance to itself: zero semitones, one step. It still counts as an interval — the inversion of the octave.
Move the lower note up an octave and what remains is the octave: semitones add up to twelve, steps to nine.
Perfect consonance — the sound is at rest.
To remember it
the same note twice.
Where it occurs
In chords the unison appears as doubling: the same note in two voices.
Related
In the glossary: unison · Ear training: hear intervals and guess them · All intervals
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.