Musical dictation

Subject: Musical dictation
From: GUEST,Buscuit
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 11:11 AM

Can anybody inspire me with an effective way of teaching musical dictation? I do not feel I do much to help my student. We just practise. I play melodies on the piano in C major and my student writes. I first play twice the four first measures (he writes). Then play the four first measures and connect them with the next four measures up to the eight measure. Then play measures 3 and 4 and continue like that for the whole thing. How can I teach and direct his learning in musical dictation? Any other ideas on how to teach him creatively more?

Another exercise I do with him to prepare him for an exam is to play a chord and the tonic note on the piano. Then play a 2nd, 3rd, 4rth or 5th above the tonic and ask the student to identify the note.

Subject: RE: Musical dictation
From: grumpy al
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 04:12 PM

don't know what your on about but it sure sound impressive, why not let them learn by ear/osmosis as most folkies do?

Subject: RE: Musical dictation
From: nutty
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 04:59 PM

Forget all about exams - they never teach anyone to love music - they just make learning a chore

Get him to make his own simple compositions and transcribe them, let him change the key of simple tunes, let him experiment and be creative and then (and only then )teach him the theory of music

Subject: RE: Musical dictation
From: alison
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 09:47 AM

dictation is dull... never had a teacher who could make it interesting.. but it is great for developing your ear so as you can play by ear later on....... you learn how to guess intervals.... which means you can for example anticipate the next chord change etc.....

and yes exams are boring too... but they give you a good grounding........ and I've found theory in particular (although I loathed it at the time) to be wonderfully helpful when arranging pieces.......

slainte

alison