Originally Posted by: hunter1801Well we started with the basics: What the staff means, all the notes, moved to scales and key signatures (major, minor, and some pentatonic), then rythm and meters.

The reason I asked is that intervals are the fundamental unit of note measurement in music. You can't think about, discuss or use scales, chords, key signatures or draw more than one different note on a staff without implying intervals. Since they are implied in every aspect of music theory it is best to start with them. As we did in the GT fundamental courses.

How did your teacher manage to introduce scales without talking about intervals?

Any system or approach to teaching music theory that doesn't start with intervals is bound to be disorganized and at least marginally unintegrated.

It's like saying you are going to learn to form and spell words in language arts without explicitly discussing, explaining or understanding the alphabet of letters that you will use to make those words.