Rhythm Dictation: Half Notes and Sixteenth Notes

Listen to a rhythm of two measures (UK: bars) on the note G4 and write it with the cards: half notes (UK: minims), quarter notes (UK: crotchets), groups of eighth notes (UK: quavers) and sixteenth notes (UK: semiquavers), and their rests, in 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4. The eighth-note and sixteenth-note cards are single notes: for a group, place them in a row and a beam joins them. Bar lines and the final double bar line are up to you.

How to use the exercise: press Start and then Listen. As soon as the sound begins the cards are active: each one is written right after the previous one. You place the bar lines: the bar line when you finish the first measure and the final double bar line at the end. Nothing stops you from putting more beats in a measure than fit, or fewer: you have to count them yourself, as in a classroom dictation. Undo removes the last card and Clear all starts over. When the double bar line is in place, press Check. You can listen up to three times and write while it plays.

How to take a rhythm dictation with half notes and sixteenth notes

Count with the metronome. Before the dictation, one measure of metronome clicks plays at the same tempo, with a stronger first beat. Count along ("1, 2…") and keep counting silently through the whole dictation, even when nothing sounds.
Find the time signature and count its beats. Count them from the metronome measure. Go back to 1 in every measure, even if the first beat is silent.
Count the notes in each beat. A note that lasts the whole beat is a quarter note; two notes, two eighth notes; four notes, four sixteenth notes. If the note is still sounding on later beats, it is a longer value, and if nothing sounds, a rest.
Split your listenings. Both measures play on every listen, but you do not need to catch everything at once: in the first, the pulse and the first measure; in the second, the second measure; in the third, check the whole dictation.

The classic slip is confusing eighth notes with sixteenth notes, or hurrying the sixteenths and arriving at the next beat early. Four sixteenth notes take the same time as two eighth notes or one quarter note. With your foot on the beat, say "ti-ri-ti-ri" for sixteenths, "ti-ti" for eighths and "ta" for the quarter, and every syllable falls into place.

What the dictations are like

Every dictation is generated on the spot: two measures of 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4 using half notes, quarter notes, groups of eighth notes and sixteenth notes, and their rests, all on G4 played by a piano at 60 to 72 quarter notes per minute, a little slower than without 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 single one (a lone eighth note appears only in the groups with an eighth rest). There is always at least one group of four sixteenth notes and a half note or a half rest. A measure of metronome clicks plays first at the same tempo, with a stronger first beat. A dictation can start with a rest, but never has more than two beats of rest in a row or a silent measure. Half notes and half rests go where they are normally written: in 4/4 they start on beat 1 or 3; in 3/4 the half note starts on beat 1 or 2 and the half rest on beat 1; in 2/4 the half note fills the measure (a half rest does not appear there, since it would be a silent measure).

Each note sounds for almost its full duration, so four sixteenth notes are heard as four very short notes that divide the beat into four equal parts, twice as fast as eighth notes. Each test has 10 dictations: 3 in 2/4, 4 in 3/4 and 3 in 4/4, none repeated.

Frequently asked questions

How is the dictation checked?

It counts as correct only if everything is right: the note values, the bar line and the beats in each measure. If you miss, you are told which measure has too many or too few beats and, when the total length is right, whatever sounds different appears in red in what you wrote. Below it you see the rhythm that played, so you can hear it again while you read it.

Why do I have to place the bar lines myself?

Because in a written dictation you add them yourself, and it is how you prove that you counted each measure correctly. If a measure has too many or too few beats, the check tells you how many it has and how many fit, and it also tells you if a bar line is missing. Without the final double bar line nothing is checked: it is the sign that you are done.

Why is the card a single sixteenth note?

So that you build the group yourself. Four sixteenth notes in a row starting on a beat are joined by a double beam and fill that beat (and two eighth notes by a single beam). With fewer, they are left loose, and when checking, the beat will differ from the dictation, because sixteenth notes here always come in fours.

How is the metronome measure at the start used?

It tells you the speed and where the measure begins: before each audio, a click plays on every beat, louder on the first, at the same tempo as the dictation. Count along with it and keep counting silently while the rhythm plays, rests included.

If you find it hard, start with Which rhythm is playing? or with Which audio is it?. The next group is dotted half notes and sixteenth notes. All the groups are in the rhythm dictation index.