What is this tool?

Dictation means writing down music you hear. This tool gives you two kinds of exercise. Melodic dictation plays a short phrase and asks which scale degree each note is. Harmonic dictation plays a four-chord progression and asks for the Roman numeral of each chord. The key is chosen at random every time, so instead of memorising particular pitches you learn to measure distance from the tonic. You can sound the tonic before answering, and every answer is generated from the theory engine rather than typed in by hand, so the exercises stay consistent in all twelve keys.

When it helps

• Hear a melody as a set of steps

  Once you can think "that note is three steps above the tonic", you can write down a tune you hear. Start with stepwise phrases and work up to leaps.

• Work out chord progressions by ear

  What you need when transcribing a song is not the absolute chord name but its position in the key. Answering in Roman numerals builds a way of listening that transfers to any key.

• Stay oriented through inversions and sevenths

  The advanced level mixes in inversions and seventh chords. You can confirm by ear that a chord keeps its role even when the bass note changes.

How to use

1. 1 Choose melodic or harmonic dictation and pick a level
2. 2 Press Tonic to fix the centre of the key in your ear
3. 3 Press play to hear the exercise. Replay it as often as you like
4. 4 Enter scale degrees or Roman numerals in order. Undo removes the last entry
5. 5 Press Check when the list is full. Each slot shows whether it was right and what actually sounded

Related Tools

Lessons that use this tool

The sections of the systematic curriculum where this actually comes up.

• Dictation and Solfège Melodic Dictation
• Dictation and Solfège Harmonic Dictation