Melodic Dictation - How to teach yourself?

[YellowTongue]

I'm doing Unit 1/2 music this year, and my school is absolutely TERRIBLE at teaching the subject. For the Unit 1 exam, we weren't actually taught how to do Melodic Dictation, and everyone in the class got that question wrong.

 I want to get a 50 in music, so I'm going to have to teach myself melodic dictation. How do you do it? What are some techniques that would help me?

[keltingmeith]

I didn't do 3/4, but when I did 1/2 performance, these were the steps I was asked to follow to do melodic dictation:

1) Figure out what key you're in - you should only be given a major or melodic minor.
2) If no rhythm is supplied, figure out the rhythm (although I think it might generally be supplied?)
3) Draw the contour of the melody above the staves
4) See if you can hear any intervals - remember your key, though.
5) Write the melody in above the stave, and then the next time it comes round, sing the melody in your head and see if it sounds write - THEN write the notes in.

Singing helps - if you can sing melodies, you can hear them. Learn sol-fa, and then sing along to scales and chords.

Also, don't feel too disadvantaged - I have heard quite frequently from a few sources (and my own experiences) that the level of theory teaching at a lot of schools is not really up to standard. With a bit of work, you can bring yourself up in your theoretical work.

[YellowTongue]

2) If no rhythm is supplied, figure out the rhythm (although I think it might generally be supplied?)
3) Draw the contour of the melody above the staves

Thanks

These days, they give you all of the rhythms. They've simplified the course so much...if you look at the exams from past year (like 2002) they expected students to be capable of so much more back then...

Anyway, what do you mean by contour? Do you mean draw lines for the direction that the melody moves in?

[keltingmeith]

Essentially, yes. Contour is terminology you should be familiar with - if you haven't ever heard it before, it might be worth picking up a book that explains musical language and reading through it.

Out of curiosity, what instrument do you play?

[YellowTongue]

Will have to do some reading then...

I play trombone, tuba and piano.

[keltingmeith]

I did refer to which instrument you were doing for VCE...

However, the fact that you're a brass player bodes well - your ears are probably better than most other people's. With a bit of extra effort, I reckon you'll be able to easily pick up all the aural work you need to do.

Something I'd suggest doing is each week, find a new term you can use to describe musical pieces, and then for that week try to apply it wherever possible - to songs you listen, to songs you play, to anything. This will help you expand your vocabulary appropriately for the unheard listening section.

Also, don't be scared to analyse songs you listen to regularly - it's really good practice for the unheard listening section as well, and helps train your ear to listen to detail. This will then help with your other aural work where attention to detail is key.

[rhapsody_]

Hey, I know this is a late reply but I'll leave some tips in case you're still interested.

This was a site I was given from my music teacher to help out with melodic dictation and other theory work - https://www.teoria.com/exercises/ the exercises are a little annoying and repetitive but they helped me out . Also hopefully your school also has similar computer programs that give you theory practice.

The tips EulerFan101 gave are good. One more tip really is to just practise it regularly. It's maybe not much of a concern right now since you're doing 1/2, but definitely do lots of exercises next year!

[Phenomenol]

Okay, here goes for me trying to teach melodic dictation...

You need time to build up your recognition of pitches. Regular practice is indeed important.

Start with REALLY easy cases. Like, for example, two notes, one after the other. In other words, learn to identify intervals well. Intervals are super important!

After a while, you can make up your own short string of notes, say, on your instrument or whatever, and try to identify more than one interval in quick succession. Note length/rhythm is not important for the most part - if you can keep track of which note corresponds to which pitch you're hearing that should suffice.

Here are some quick pointers to help you along the way though during your dictation:
- Listen to the last note if in complete doubt. It should be the tonic note in 99% of cases.
- Likewise, the first note is most likely the tonic too. If not, your next best bet is that it is the dominant. Is it the same pitch as the last note?
- Listen for scalewise motion. Does it sound like tone/semitone intervals? It's most likely one pitch up or down on the stave.
- This leaves the bane of melodic dictations which is the leap intervals. These usually will be 3rds, 4ths or 5ths. Again, there's no real shortcut here: just know where they are on the second listen through. You need that interval recognition practice!

That's all I can really give from off the top of my head - good luck.