Listen to a rhythm of two measures (UK: bars) in 3/4 or 4/4, played on the note G, and choose which of the four written rhythms you heard. Now comes the off-beat: an eighth rest followed by an eighth note, a single note that enters in the middle of the beat. The rhythms use dotted half notes (UK: dotted minims), half notes (UK: minims), quarter notes (UK: crotchets), eighth notes (UK: quavers), sixteenth notes (UK: semiquavers), eighth rest and eighth note, and their rests. The key is to hear whether each note falls on the beat or between two beats.
How to use the exercise: press Start, then Listen, and pick rhythm A, B, C or D, even while the audio is still playing. The correct rhythm is marked in green; if you missed, the beats where your choice differs are shown. Expect near-identical options that differ by one or two beats, for example an eighth rest and eighth note in place of a quarter note. Up to three listens.
How to Pick the Right Rhythm with Dotted Half Notes and Eighth Rests
- Keep your foot moving. Off-beat notes only make sense against a steady pulse. Count the beats during the count-in measure, then keep tapping them: your foot goes down on the beat and up in the middle of it.
- Identify the meter and count its beats. The time signature, 3/4 or 4/4, is announced before you listen: count its beats from the count-in measure and start again at 1 in every measure, even if the first beat is silent.
- Listen for where each note falls in the beat. A note that starts on the beat and fills it is a quarter note; two notes make two eighths; four notes, four sixteenths; and a single note that arrives halfway through the beat, between two pulses, is an eighth rest followed by an eighth note. A note that keeps sounding into later beats is a longer value, and silence is a rest.
- Use your three listens. Both measures play each time. Take the pulse and measure 1 on the first listen, measure 2 on the second, and on the third compare the whole rhythm with the four written options. You can answer while it plays.
The usual mistake is hearing the off-beat eighth note as if it fell on the beat: without the pulse in your head, a single note in a beat sounds like a quarter note. Tap the beat and say "(sh)-ti" for an eighth rest and eighth note, "ti-ti" for two eighths and "ta" for a quarter note: if the note lands with your foot, it is a quarter note; if it lands as your foot comes up, it is the eighth note after its rest.
What the Dictations Are Like
Each dictation is generated on the spot: two measures in 3/4 or 4/4 with dotted half notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, eighth rest and eighth note, and their rests, all on the note G on the piano at a tempo between 60 and 72 quarter notes per minute, a little slower because of the sixteenth notes. The eighth rest and eighth note always fills one beat: the beat starts in silence and the note enters in its second half, off the beat. The other eighth notes come in pairs and the sixteenth notes in fours, each group filling a beat. Every dictation has at least one eighth rest followed by an eighth note and a dotted half note or its rest. A measure of metronome clicks plays first at the same tempo, with a stronger first beat, so you know the speed and where the measure starts. A dictation can begin with a rest. Up to three beats of rest can follow one another, the length of a dotted half rest. A dotted half note lasts three beats and does not fit in a measure of 2/4, so there are no dictations in 2/4.
Each note sounds for almost its full value, so an eighth note after its rest is heard as a short note arriving in the middle of the beat, between two pulses. Each test has 10 dictations: 5 in 3/4 and 5 in 4/4, with none repeated.
Frequently asked questions
When you get it right almost every time, try writing the dictation. If it is too much, go back to the group before it, dotted half notes and sixteenth notes.