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. The beat is now divided into four: groups of four sixteenth notes appear next to the pairs of eighths. The rhythms use dotted half notes (UK: dotted minims), half notes (UK: minims), quarter notes (UK: crotchets), groups of eighth notes (UK: quavers) and of sixteenth notes (UK: semiquavers) and their rests. The key is to count how many notes fall in each beat.
How to use the exercise: press Start and then Listen. You can already choose a rhythm (A, B, C or D) while it plays. When you answer, the right one turns green and, if you were wrong, you see on which beats your choice differs. The four rhythms look very much alike: the wrong ones change one or two beats, for example four sixteenths in place of two eighths. You can listen up to three times.
How to Pick the Right Rhythm with Dotted Half Notes and Sixteenth Notes
- Settle the pulse first. Sixteenth notes are fast, so take the count-in measure seriously: feel the beats ("1, 2, 3, 4") and keep tapping your foot. Everything you hear is placed against that steady beat.
- 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.
- Count the notes in each beat. One note is a quarter note, two are eighth notes and four are sixteenth notes. If a note keeps sounding into the following beats, it is a longer value, and if nothing sounds, it 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 mistakes are mixing up eighth notes and sixteenth notes and rushing through the sixteenths, so that the next beat seems to arrive early. Four sixteenth notes last as long as two eighth notes or one quarter note. Say "ti-ri-ti-ri" for sixteenths, "ti-ti" for eighths and "ta" for a quarter note while you tap the beat, and every syllable lands where it should.
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, groups of eighth notes and of sixteenth notes 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. Sixteenth notes always come in fours, joined by a double beam and filling one beat, and eighth notes in pairs: in this group there is never a loose one (a lone eighth note appears only in the groups with an eighth rest). Every dictation has at least one group of four sixteenth notes 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 four sixteenth notes are heard as four very short notes splitting the beat into four equal parts, twice as fast as eighth notes. 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 eighth notes.