Musical dictated: how to prepare him for the admittent test
The dictation is the part of the test that takes most to mature. We give you a method for each hearing, a daily 20-minute routine and a step-by-step plan.
A musical dictation is to listen to a fragment and write it with a score: a rhythm, a melody, a intervals or a progression of chords. It's prepared as a language: with short daily practice, advanced from simple to complex and with a fixed method for each hearing.
The key is to separate problems: first the rhythm, then the support notes and at the end the details. With that order and a few months of constancy, the dictation ceases to be the scares part of the test.
To sum up
- The most common types of dictation in the tests are rhythmic, melodic, intervals, chord and harmonic.
- First write the rhythm and support notes and complete details with the following auditions.
- Do not have an absolute ear: the dictation resolves with relative ear, thinking about degrees of the scale.
- Fifteen to 20 minutes a day give up more than two hours a weekend.
- He wants another person to say to you: if you play exercise, you know the answer.
The issue of acceptance tests
Almost all music tests include dictation, as part of the theoretical examination or hearing test. At the most recent call we have reviewed:
- The National University includes melodic and harmonic intervals dictation in the written part of his Theory, Audition and Reading Test.
- The District ASAB He evaluated dictation of intervals, of chords, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic, within his dictation and reading component.
- The National pedagogical included his ditto and his musical knowledge.
- Univalle included melodic dictation in his theoretical examination.
The level changes a lot between programs: it's not the same to recognize if a chord is more or less than to write a complete progression with his low. Check how far yours gets in his official instructiva, as published by his [ASAB's Music arts admissions page]](https://fartes.udistrital.edu.co/artes-musicales/index.php/admisiones).
Types of dictation and how to solve each
| Tipo | What are you listening to? | What do you write? | Key to solve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ritmic | A rhythm about a single note or pellet | Figures and Silences in The Projected Beast | Fold the pulse with his foot and place every attack with respect to that pulse |
| Melodic | A tune of some compas | Rhythm and heights in the pentagram | He sings from inside in degrees of the scale (1, 3, 5...) and don't lose his tone |
| Melodic intervales | Two notes, one after another | The name of the interval or both notes | Stretch them at the beginning of known songs while you learn their color |
| harmonic intervales | Two notes at once | The interval | Sing the bad note, then the sharp note, and measure the distance |
| Chords | 3 or 4 simultaneous notes | Type of chord (higher, lower, decreased, increased, severed) and sometimes investment | Behave with his voice starting with his bass |
| harmonic | A progression of chords | Grades or functions (I, IV, V...) and sometimes low | First listen to the low line, and the final cadence will guide you. |
For intervals, reference songs help a lot at first, and you have examples at [what's a musical interval]](/blog/que-es-un-intervalo-musical). The goal with time is to recognize the color of each interval without passing through the song, because at the exam there's no time to play it whole. To practice daily, use our [listening training of intervals]](/herramientas/entrenamiento-auditivo).
Step by step method for a melodic dictation
The melodic dictation is the most common and brings together nearly every other. Use this order at every exercise until it becomes automatic:
- Before it sounds: Write down what they give you (tone, compass, number of compas, first note). He's mentally singing the scale and the tonic chord.
- First audition: just listen. Don't write. Follow his pulse, count his compas and look at his shape: does he come up, come down and say something about his motif?
- Second audition: rhythm. Write it up above the pentagram with rayitas if necessary and mark the bar bars.
- The third audition: the support notes. Write the first note of each bar, those that fall into strong and final time. Think of degrees: tonic, dominant and sensitive.
- Following auditions: filled. Complete passing and leaping notes. If a leap costs you, sing from the tonic.
- Last audition: check. Keep with your eyes what you wrote while it's ringing. Check that every bar adds up and that you have applied the changes to your armor.
If you get lost, don't stick with the rough suit: stick with the rest and come back later. An empty suit in half costs less than half as bad as a blank.
The number of auditions and the time between them are defined by each university or by the jury. Do with few repetitions so that the day of the test will get you about time.
A daily exercise of 20 minutes
| Bloque | Tiempo | Ejercicio |
|---|---|---|
| Singing | 5 min | A scale greater and lower, and an apace and leaping from the tone (1-3, 1-5, 1-6, 1-8) with note name |
| Intervalos | 4 min | Ten random intervals: ascending, descending and harmonic |
| Ritmo | 4 min | Two short rhythmic dictations, with four bars |
| Melody | 5 min | A melodic dictation from four to eight bars with the upper method |
| Chords | 2 min | Recognize triads or chords from seventh to piano or an application |
Where to get dicted
- Ask your teacher, a partner or someone from your house to play drill from a textbook or from a solphis.
- Use listening training applications or pages for intervals and chords.
- He transforms melodies that you know: a childish song, a bamboo, the choir of a song that you like. Then check his piano.
- Record your own random exercises and listen to them a few days later, as soon as you don't remember what they were.
To sing's part of training, and not an extra: if you can't sing what you listen to, you're barely gonna write about it. what's the solpus and how to practice it.
Common errors in dictation
- Write notes from first audition and lose your rhythm along the way.
- To lose his pulse: if you don't know where time one is, everything else goes.
- To forget about the changes of the armor as they pass the notes to paper.
- To practice only ascending intervals, while in the test there are also descendants and harmonics.
- Training with piano only. Also listen to voice, guitar or violin: the bell changes perception.
- To say something to yourself and believe that you're better off than you are.
- Obsessed with [absolute ear]](/blog/oido-absoluto-y-oido-relativo): What counts is to understand the relations between the notes.
- To get jammed up and leave the rest blank.
Reg Plan: from simple to examination level
| Etapa | Ritmic | Melodic | Intervales and chords |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1 to 4 | Blanche, black and clasp at 2 / 4, 3 / 4 and 4 / 4 | Two to four compas per high level co-ordinated | second, third, fifth and octave triades with a minor |
| Weeks 5 to 8 | Ripples, half-families and quiet | Reparations by triad notes, high and high sun | All simple ascending intervals; triads diminished and increased |
| Weeks 9 to 16 | Symptoms, 3 and 3 and compases as 6 / 8 | Minor tones with sensitive, phrases of eight compas | Retirement and harmonic intervales and chords of seventh |
| Week 17 and beyond | Mixed Rhythms at your program level | Chromaticms and simple modulations if your program wants them | Progress with I, IV, V, ii and vi, harmonic dictation with low |
The times are tipsy: get to the next stage when you get most of the current exercise right without an effort, and not after the week's end. In the last month before the test, have been timed with your university format.
A teacher that dictates to you, fixes and increases the level at time makes a difference. A medio tono Can you take [music theory classes]](/clases/teoria-musical) with dictation and solphis, virtual or at home in Bogotá as part of your [preparation for admission]](/preuniversitario-musica)To organize the rest of the test, look how to get ready for the music entrance test.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an absolute ear to do good with dicates?
No. The dictation is solved with relative ear: to recognize how each note relates with the tonic and with the other. The relative ear training with practice, and that's what most musicians use.
How many times do they play the dictation at the exam?
It's up to the university and to the type of dictation, and that's what the instructive or jury indicates at the start. That's why we have to practice with few repetitions: if you have ten auditions at home, you'll have to have time at the test.
Can I practice dictation myself?
Partly. The intervals and chords are well trained with applications, and transcribed songs also helps. For melodic and harmonic dictates you need someone to give you or recordings that you don't know about.
How long have we been better at dictation?
With daily practice, intervals and rhythms tend to improve in a few weeks. Long and harmonic melodic dictation takes more time, so it starts several months before the test.