Melodic Dictation Questions

Melodic dictation questions

Each exam will only contain one notation/dictation question. This type of question is worth 12-16 marks, occasionally more.

The notation/dictation question involves students studying a printed score (notated extract of music using traditional staff notation) and answering questions related to the score. This question involves students filling in missing notes in one or two bars of music, which itself is a sub-question worth 6 to 8 marks. The other sub-questions are general knowledge questions.

Introduction

How to answer these types of question

Watch the video to the left first before attempting any practice tasks below (coming soon Apr 2021...)

Practice Resources

Each video below is an individual practice task. The first one gives you instructions on how each video task works, so make sure to watch that first.

Each task increases in difficulty

Using the Resources Below

Watch this video first to understand how the practice tasks below work

You will likely need blank stave paper - you can find this here: https://www.blanksheetmusic.net/

Reading Music - Note Values (rhythm) & Notes of the Stave (pitch)

Start here if you do not know the names of the notes of the stave (the five lines on which music is written)

Rhythm Performance

This site will test your ability to read note values (rhythm) and tap them on your keyboard or mouse. We often clap these in lesson - this is the same thing

Make sure the option 'Require Holding for Entire Note Duration' option is NOT on - choose 'No'

Melodic Dictation Using Scale Degrees (do re mi...)

Before you begin dictation with notes it's a good idea to learn how to recognise melodies using scale degrees, or using solfege syllables like do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti

You may need to refer to this first to understand what solfege is: http://www.howtosingsmarter.com/solfege/

Start with the 'simple' exercise, and then 'diatonic' if you think 'simple' is too easy

Melodic Dictation Practice

Now having used the three linked resources before you should be able to practice melodic dictation using this website

Click HERE to try a basic online game that can give you some practice with this type of task - filling in missing notes

(this game uses the now outdated Flash plugin. However, some browsers might still support Flash such as Firefox, Edge, or Safari)

Melodic Dictation Exam Practice Questions

Melodic Dictation Questions