Songwriter Tip:

Avoid difficult to sing intervals when writing your songs. Intervals such as an octave or a major 7th can be hard to ‘hit’ when sung by a non-professional singer. The one interval that was a serious ‘no-no’ was the tri-tone, an interval so jarring that it’s used as a police or ambulance siren in most European countries. The reason for the past tense (was) in the previous sentence is the great songwriter Leonard Bernstein broke the rules and used this same interval for the heart rending ballad ‘Maria’ in his epic musical ‘West Side Story.’ Th trouble is now, he did it, so you can’t with out the world crying out ‘Hey! You stole that from Bernstein!