- While a singular jump is a fifth or a fouth, by adding jumps together, a simultanous jump can represent any chromatic interval. An accidental jump refers to an modal operation which simultaneously involves a jump key change and an accidental operation; they can also be singular or simultanous.
Step = M2 or m2
Skip = M3 or m3
Jump = P5 or P4
When we speak of changing notes, the distance between the two notes is known as an interval. Thus the distance between C and D is a whole tone or two half-steps. There are 12 intervals each corresponding to a specific distance from the root:
P1:
m2
M2
…
m7
M7
P8:
It is customary to refer to the minor second and major second intervals as steps. This gives rise to the whole-step and half-step nomenclature. Similarly, it is customary to refer to a minor third and major third movement as a skip. Here, we extend the step and skip definition by referring to any perfect fourth or a perfect fifth movement as a jump. Furthermore, it will be customary to refer to a forward jump as a movement in fifth and a backward jump as a movement in fourth.
While the notion of a jump is universal and merely refers to a generic musical interval, when we combine the fact that any accidental movement also corresponds to a key change jump, then we arrive at the concept of the accidental jump.