First part teaching aid“Solfeggio with pleasure” is intended for high school students of children’s music schools and children’s art schools and consists of explanatory note, including some guidelines, a collection of dictations and an audio CD. The collection of dictations includes 151 samples of classical and modern music domestic and foreign authors, as well as samples of modern pop music and meets the requirements of children's music schools and children's art schools for each level of education.
Task of this manual – intensification of the educational process, expansion of the auditory base of students, formation of their artistic taste, and the main purpose is education wide range competent music lovers who, depending on their abilities, can become simply listeners or music lovers, and with certain abilities and efforts - professionals.
The manual was created on the basis of the author’s 35 years of experience. All presented materials have been tested over 15 years of work at the Akkord State Budgetary Educational Institution of Children's Art School. The author presents musical dictation as a series of exciting tasks. In addition, many examples can be used for auditory analysis and solfège, for example Nos. 29, 33, 35, 36, 64, 73.
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On the topic: methodological developments, presentations and notes
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Musical dictation is one of the most important, responsible and complex forms of work in a solfeggio lesson. It develops students' musical memory, promotes conscious perception of melody and other elements of musical speech, and teaches them to write down what they hear.
When working on a musical dictation, all the knowledge and skills of students are synthesized, and the level of their auditory development is determined. This is a kind of result of the entire learning process, because it is in dictation that the student must show, on the one hand, the level of development of musical memory, thinking, all types of musical hearing, and on the other hand, certain theoretical knowledge that helps him correctly write down what he heard.
The purpose of musical dictation is to develop the skills of translating perceived musical images into clear auditory representations and quickly consolidating them in musical notation.
The main tasks Work on the dictation can be called the following:
- create and strengthen the connection between the visible and the audible, that is, teach the audible to make visible;
- develop musical memory and inner hearing of students;
- serve as a means to consolidate students’ theoretical and practical skills.
Stage of preparation for recording a musical dictation
The process of recording a dictation requires the development of special, special skills and therefore, before starting this form of work, the teacher must be sure that the students are very well prepared for it. It is advisable to start recording full-fledged dictations only after certain preparation, the duration of which depends on the age, degree of development and receptivity of the group. Preparatory work, which lays in students a fundamental basis of skills and abilities, ensuring in the future the ability to competently and painlessly record musical dictations, should consist of several sections.
Mastering musical notation.
One of the most important tasks The initial period of training in the solfeggio course is the formation and development of the skill of “quick recording” of sounds. From the first lessons, students should be taught to write notes correctly graphically: in small circles, not very close to each other; ensure the correct spelling of stems and accidental signs.
Mastering durations.
It is an absolutely indisputable fact that the correct metro-rhythmic design of a melody is even more difficult for students than its direct musical notation. Therefore, the “rhythmic component” of the dictation should be given Special attention. At the initial stage of training, it is very important that students simply understand the graphic representation and name of each duration well. In parallel with mastering the graphic representation of durations and their names, you need to work on the immediate awareness of long and short sounds. After the names and designations of durations are well mastered, it is necessary to begin mastering the concepts beat, beat, meter, rhythm, size. Once children have realized and mastered these concepts, it is necessary to introduce conducting practice. And only after all this work should we begin to explain the splitting of shares. In the future, students will become familiar with various rhythmic figures, and for better mastery of them, these rhythmic figures should definitely be introduced into musical dictations.
Rewriting notes.
In first grade, simply copying out notes seems very helpful. The rules of musical notation calligraphy are simple and do not require such detailed elaboration as the spelling of letters. Therefore, all exercises related to the correct recording of musical texts can be transferred to homework.
Mastering the order of notes.
At the first stage of learning, auditory assimilation of the order of notes is also very important. A clear understanding of the musical sequence up and down, awareness of a single note in relation to others, the ability to clearly and quickly count notes in order, one or two at a time - this is, in the future, the key to successful and competent recording of a full-fledged dictation. Practice shows that simply memorizing notes is not enough. It is necessary to bring this skill to the level of automatism so that the child perceives and reproduces notes almost without thinking. And this requires constant and painstaking work. Various games of teasing, repeating and all kinds of echoes help here. But the most invaluable assistance in this work is provided by sequences.
Working on comprehension and auditory perception steps seems to be one of the most important in developing the skill of recording musical dictation. Work on the levels should be carried out constantly, in every lesson, and carried out in different directions. The first is the ability to think in steps. It is very important at first to develop the ability to quickly and accurately find any individual step in the tonality. Here again, sequences can help - chants that are memorized over several lessons until they become automatic. It is very helpful to sing the sequence of steps; Also, singing the steps according to hand signs and the Bulgarian column provides good assistance in such rapid step orientation.
Melodic elements.
Despite the huge variety of melodic material, music also has enough a large number of standard phrases, which are often repeated, are perfectly isolated from the context and are recognized both by ear and when analyzing the musical text. Such revolutions include scales - trichord, tetrachord and pentachord, movement from introductory tones to the tonic, singing, auxiliary notes, as well as various modifications of these revolutions. After becoming familiar with the basic melodic elements, it is necessary to develop in students a quick, literally automatic recognition of them both in the musical text in sight reading and in auditory analysis. Therefore, melodic turns by ear, sight reading exercises, and dictations of this period should contain as many of these elements as possible or simply consist of them.
Very often the melody moves along the sounds of the chords. The ability to isolate a familiar chord from the context of a melody is a very important skill that students need to develop. Initial exercises should be aimed at purely visual and auditory perception of the chord. Invaluable help in memorizing the melody of chords is provided by small chants in which the desired chord is sung and called at the same time.
As you know, the biggest difficulty in recording a dictation is caused by jumps. Therefore, they must be worked out as carefully as other melodic elements.
Definition of form.
The work of determining and understanding the musical form is of great importance for the successful recording of musical dictation. Students must be very aware of the location of sentences, cadences, phrases, motives, as well as their relationships. This work should also begin from the first grade.
In addition to all this preparatory work, some forms of tasks that directly prepare the recording of a full-fledged dictation are very useful:
Recording a previously learned song from memory.
Dictation with an error. The melody “with an error” is written on the board. The teacher plays the correct option, and students must find and correct the mistakes.
Dictation with passes. A fragment of the melody is written on the board. Students should hear and fill in the missing bars.
The melody is written on the board in the form of a stepped path. Students, listening to a melody, write it down with notes, correctly rhythmically designing it.
Recording ordinary rhythmic dictations.
Note heads are written on the board. Students must formulate the melody rhythmically correctly.
So, summing up all of the above, we can conclude that in the first grade the main, basic skills of recording a musical dictation are laid. This is the ability to “listen” correctly; remember, analyze and understand musical text; the ability to comprehend it graphically and write it down correctly; the ability to correctly identify and understand the metro-rhythmic component of a melody, clearly conduct it, feeling the pulsation of the beats and being aware of each beat. All further work comes down to developing these basic skills and complicating the theoretical material.
Forms of musical dictations
Dictation forms can be different. When recording a dictation, it is important to choose the form of work that is most suitable for mastering a given melody.
Dictation is demonstrative.
A demonstration dictation is conducted by a teacher. Its purpose and task is to show the writing process on the board. The teacher aloud, in front of the whole class, tells the students how he listens, conducts, hums the melody and thereby becomes aware of it and records it in musical notation. Such a dictation is very useful before moving on, after preparatory exercises, to independent recording, as well as when mastering new difficulties or varieties of dictations.
Dictation with preliminary analysis.
Students, with the help of a teacher, determine the mode and tonality of a given melody, its size, tempo, structural aspects, features of the rhythmic pattern, analyze the pattern of development of the melody, and then begin recording. The preliminary analysis should take no more than 5–10 minutes. It is more appropriate to use this form of dictation in junior classes, as well as when recording melodies in which new elements of musical language appear.
Dictation without preliminary analysis.
Such a dictation is recorded by students for a set time, with a certain number of plays. Such dictations are more appropriate in middle and high schools, i.e. only when students learn to independently analyze the melody.
Oral dictation.
An oral dictation is a short melody built on melodic turns familiar to students, which the teacher plays two to three times. Students repeat the melody first for any syllable and only then sing a dictation with the name of the sounds. This form of dictation should be used as widely as possible, since it is oral dictation that helps students consciously perceive individual difficulties of the melody and develops musical memory.
“Self-dictation”, recording of familiar music.
To develop inner hearing, students should be offered “self-dictation,” a recording of a familiar melody from memory. Of course, this form will not replace a full-fledged musical dictation, since there is no need to grasp and remember new music, that is, the student’s musical memory is not trained. But for working on a recording based on your inner ear, this is a very good technique. The form of “self-dictation” also helps to develop students’ creative initiative. This is very convenient form for independent work, homework, and recording training.
Control dictation.
Of course, the learning process should also include control dictations, which students write without the help of a teacher. They can be used when completing work on a specific topic, when all the difficulties of dictation are familiar to children and well understood. Typically, this form of dictation is used in test lessons or exams.
Other forms of dictation are also possible, for example, harmonic (recording of the listened sequence of intervals, chords), rhythmic. It is useful to write down melodies that you have previously sight-read. It is useful to learn written dictations by heart, transpose them into the studied keys, and select an accompaniment for the dictations. It is also necessary to teach students to write dictation in different registers, both in treble and bass clefs.
Methodological guidelines for writing a dictation
Selection of musical material.
When working on a musical dictation, one of the most important conditions is the correct choice of musical material. The musical material for dictation can be melodies from musical literature, special collections of dictations, and also, in some cases, melodies composed by the teacher. When selecting material for a dictation, a teacher must first ensure that the music of the example is bright, expressive, artistically convincing, meaningful and clear in form. The selection of just such musical material not only helps students remember the dictation melody more easily, but also has great educational significance, broadens the students’ horizons, and enriches their musical erudition. Determining the difficulty of an example is extremely important. Dictations don't have to be too difficult. If students do not have time to comprehend, remember and write the dictation or write it with a large number of errors, then they begin to be afraid of this form of work and avoid it. Therefore, it is preferable that the dictations be simpler, but there should be a lot of them. The complication of dictations should be gradual, invisible to students, strictly thought out and justified. It should also be noted that when selecting dictations, the teacher must use a differentiated approach. Since the composition of groups is usually “motley”, difficult dictations need to be alternated with easier ones so that weak students can also complete the recording, whereas in complex dictations this is not always available to them. When choosing musical material for dictation, it is also very important that the material is distributed in detail by topic. The teacher must strictly think through and justify the sequence of dictations.
Performing a dictation.
In order for a student to be able to fully and competently record on paper what he heard, it is necessary that the performance of the dictation be as perfect as possible. First of all, you should execute the example correctly and accurately. No underlining or highlighting of individual difficult intonations or harmonies should be allowed. It is especially harmful to emphasize, by artificially loudly tapping, the strong beat of a bar. First, you should perform the passage at the present tempo indicated by the author. Later, with repeated playback, this initial tempo usually slows down. But it is important that the first impression is convincing and correct.
Fixation of musical text.
When recording music, the teacher must pay special attention to the accuracy and completeness of students recording on paper what they heard. In the process of recording a dictation, students must: write notes correctly and beautifully; arrange leagues; mark phrases and breathing with caesuras; distinguish and designate legato and staccato, dynamics; determine the tempo and character of a musical example.
Basic principles of the dictation recording process.
The environment that the teacher creates before starting work on recording a dictation is of great importance. Experience suggests that the best environment for working on a dictation recording is to create interest in what students are about to hear. The teacher needs to arouse interest in what will be played, concentrate the attention of students, and possibly relieve tension before such difficult work, which children always perceive as a kind of “control”, by analogy with dictation in a secondary school. Therefore, small “conversations” about the genre of the future dictation are appropriate (if this is not an obvious hint from the metro-rhythmic component), the composer who composed the melody, and the like. Depending on the class and level of the group, it is necessary to choose melodies for dictation that are accessible in terms of difficulty; set recording time and number of plays. Usually the dictation is written with 8-10 plays. Fret tuning is required before recording begins.
The first playback is an introductory one. It should be very expressive, “beautiful”, at an appropriate tempo and with dynamic shades. After this playback, you can determine the genre, size, and nature of the phrases.
The second playback should occur immediately after the first. It can be performed more slowly. After it, you can talk about specific mode-harmonic, structural and metro-rhythmic features of music. Talk about cadences, phrases, etc. You can immediately invite students to formulate the final cadence, determine the location of the Tonic and how the melody approached the Tonic - scale-like, jumping, a familiar melodic turn, etc. This beginning of the dictation “on the contrary” is justified by the fact that the final cadence is “remembered” most of all, while the entire dictation has not yet been deposited in memory.
If the dictation is long and complex, if there are no repetitions in it, then the third playback is allowed to be divided in half. That is, play the first half and analyze its features, determine the cadence, etc.
Usually, after the fourth playback, students are already sufficiently oriented in the dictation and have memorized it, if not in its entirety, then at least in some phrases. From this moment on, children write dictation almost from memory.
You can take a longer break between plays. After most of the children have written the first sentence, only the second half of the dictation can be played, which remains from the unfinished third play.
It is very important to avoid “shorthanding” the dictation, so each time you play it, you need to ask students to put down their pencils and try to remember the melody. Required condition it is necessary to conduct when playing and recording the dictation. If a student has difficulty determining a rhythmic turn, it is imperative to make him conduct and analyze each beat of the measure.
At the end of the allotted time, you need to check the dictation. The dictation also needs to be assessed. You don’t even have to put a grade in the notebook, especially if the student didn’t cope with the work, but at least verbally voice it so that he can really assess his skills and capabilities. When assessing, it is necessary to focus the student not on what he did not succeed, but on what he coped with, to reward him for every success, no matter how small, even if the student is very weak and dictations are not given to him due to natural characteristics.
When considering the psychological aspects of organizing the process of recording a dictation, one cannot ignore important point dictation locations in a solfeggio lesson. Along with such forms of work as the development of vocal and intonation skills, solfegging, and definition by ear, more time is devoted to writing a dictation, and it is usually assigned to the end of the lesson. Dictation, rich in complex elements, leads to deformation of the lesson, as it requires a lot of time. Students' lack of confidence in their abilities leads to a loss of interest in dictation, and a state of boredom may arise. In order to optimize work on a musical dictation, it is better to conduct it not at the end of the lesson, but in the middle or closer to the beginning, when the students’ attention is still fresh.
The time for recording the dictation is set by the teacher, as already mentioned, depending on the class and level of the group, as well as depending on its volume and difficulty of the dictation. In lower grades (grades 1, 2), where small and simple melodies are recorded, this is usually 5 - 10 minutes; in seniors, where the difficulty and volume of dictations increase - 20–25 minutes.
In the process of working on a dictation, the role of the teacher is very responsible: he is obliged, working in a group, to take into account the individual characteristics of each student, guide his work, and teach him to write a dictation. The teacher should not simply sit at the instrument, play the dictation and wait for the students to write it themselves. It is necessary to periodically approach each child; point out errors. Of course, you can’t directly suggest, but you can do it in a “streamlined” form by saying: “Think about this place” or “Check this phrase again.”
Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that dictation is a form of work in which all the existing knowledge and skills of students are applied and used.
Dictation is the result of knowledge and skills that determines the level of musical and auditory development of students. Therefore, during solfeggio lessons in the nursery music school musical dictation should be a mandatory and constantly used form of work.
List of used literature
- Davydova E. Methods of teaching solfeggio. – M.: Muzyka, 1993.
- Zhakovich V. Getting ready for a musical dictation. – Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2013.
- Kondratyeva I. Single-voice dictation: Practical recommendations. – St. Petersburg: Composer, 2006.
- Ostrovsky A. Methodology of music theory and solfeggio. – M.: Muzyka, 1989.
- Oskina S. Ear for music: theory and methodology of development and improvement. – M.: AST, 2005.
- Fokina L. Methods of teaching musical dictation. – M.: Muzyka, 1993.
- Fridkin G. Musical dictations. - M.: Music, 1996.
Hello, dear readers. On this page you can test your musical ear using the "Solfeggio Online" block. Let's figure out how it works. To test your musical ear, click "Start". Previously, you can select one of the five presented keys, as well as a mode. By default, the “note” mode and the key of C major will be enabled.
You can guess one note - "note" mode, guess five notes - "test" mode, guess an interval - "intervals" mode.
rice. 1
By clicking on the "Start" button, either a note or an interval will be played to you, in accordance with the mode that you have chosen. Next, from the list, you need to select which note/interval was sounded and click on the “Check” button.
If you guessed correctly, the sun sign will appear. If you select the test mode, you will be shown how many of the proposed notes you guessed. By clicking the "Again" button, you can take the test again, select a different key or mode.
You can also enable or disable the display of the correct note or interval if you do not guess correctly (by default - off) by clicking on the green square with the note in the lower left corner:
rice. 2
And here is the test itself - I wish you good luck.
Note Test Intervals Chords
About intervals
You will hear that the sound of all intervals is different, but they can be divided into several groups - some sound sharp and dissonant - this group is called sharp or dissonant, these include seconds (m2, b2), sevenths (m7, b7) , as well as the tritone (which is called the diminished fifth - um5 or the augmented quart - uv4). All other intervals are euphonious.
But the latter can also be divided into large, small and pure. Major and minor euphonious intervals are thirds and sixths, pure fourths, fifths, octaves (pure ones are also called “empty”, since they have a sound neither major nor minor). Major and minor, as you remember, differ in their sound - major third (b3), for example, sounds major (cheerful) and is the main indicator of the major chord, minor (m3) - minor (sad), with sixths also - major (b6 ) - has a major sound; small (m6) - minor.
Now that you know how intervals are distributed in terms of sound, it will be easier for you to navigate the process of recognizing them by ear.
Musical dictation is one of the most important, responsible and complex forms of work in a solfeggio lesson. It develops students' musical memory, promotes conscious perception of melody and other elements of musical speech, and teaches them to write down what they hear.
When working on a musical dictation, all the knowledge and skills of students are synthesized, and the level of their auditory development is determined. This is a kind of result of the entire learning process, because it is in dictation that the student must show, on the one hand, the level of development of musical memory, thinking, all types of musical hearing, and on the other hand, certain theoretical knowledge that helps him correctly write down what he heard.
The purpose of musical dictation is to develop the skills of translating perceived musical images into clear auditory representations and quickly consolidating them in musical notation.
The main tasks Work on the dictation can be called the following:
- create and strengthen the connection between the visible and the audible, that is, teach the audible to make visible;
- develop musical memory and inner hearing of students;
- serve as a means to consolidate students’ theoretical and practical skills.
Stage of preparation for recording a musical dictation
The process of recording a dictation requires the development of special, special skills and therefore, before starting this form of work, the teacher must be sure that the students are very well prepared for it. It is advisable to start recording full-fledged dictations only after certain preparation, the duration of which depends on the age, degree of development and receptivity of the group. Preparatory work, which lays in students a fundamental basis of skills and abilities, ensuring in the future the ability to competently and painlessly record musical dictations, should consist of several sections.
Mastering musical notation.
One of the most important tasks of the initial period of training in a solfeggio course is the formation and development of the skill of “quick recording” of sounds. From the first lessons, students should be taught to write notes correctly graphically: in small circles, not very close to each other; ensure the correct spelling of stems and accidental signs.
Mastering durations.
It is an absolutely indisputable fact that the correct metro-rhythmic design of a melody is even more difficult for students than its direct musical notation. Therefore, the “rhythmic component” of the dictation needs to be given special attention. At the initial stage of training, it is very important that students simply understand the graphic representation and name of each duration well. In parallel with mastering the graphic representation of durations and their names, you need to work on the immediate awareness of long and short sounds. After the names and designations of durations are well mastered, it is necessary to begin mastering the concepts beat, beat, meter, rhythm, size. Once children have realized and mastered these concepts, it is necessary to introduce conducting practice. And only after all this work should we begin to explain the splitting of shares. In the future, students will become familiar with various rhythmic figures, and for better mastery of them, these rhythmic figures should definitely be introduced into musical dictations.
Rewriting notes.
In first grade, simply copying out notes seems very helpful. The rules of musical notation calligraphy are simple and do not require such detailed elaboration as the spelling of letters. Therefore, all exercises related to the correct recording of musical texts can be transferred to homework.
Mastering the order of notes.
At the first stage of learning, auditory assimilation of the order of notes is also very important. A clear understanding of the musical sequence up and down, awareness of a single note in relation to others, the ability to clearly and quickly count notes in order, one or two at a time - this is, in the future, the key to successful and competent recording of a full-fledged dictation. Practice shows that simply memorizing notes is not enough. It is necessary to bring this skill to the level of automatism so that the child perceives and reproduces notes almost without thinking. And this requires constant and painstaking work. Various games of teasing, repeating and all kinds of echoes help here. But the most invaluable assistance in this work is provided by sequences.
Working on comprehension and auditory perception steps seems to be one of the most important in developing the skill of recording musical dictation. Work on the levels should be carried out constantly, in every lesson, and carried out in different directions. The first is the ability to think in steps. It is very important at first to develop the ability to quickly and accurately find any individual step in the tonality. Here again, sequences can help - chants that are memorized over several lessons until they become automatic. It is very helpful to sing the sequence of steps; Also, singing the steps according to hand signs and the Bulgarian column provides good assistance in such rapid step orientation.
Melodic elements.
Despite the huge variety of melodic material, music also has a fairly large number of standard phrases, which are often repeated, are perfectly isolated from the context and are recognizable both by ear and by analyzing the musical text. Such revolutions include scales - trichord, tetrachord and pentachord, movement from introductory tones to the tonic, singing, auxiliary notes, as well as various modifications of these revolutions. After becoming familiar with the basic melodic elements, it is necessary to develop in students a quick, literally automatic recognition of them both in the musical text in sight reading and in auditory analysis. Therefore, melodic turns by ear, sight reading exercises, and dictations of this period should contain as many of these elements as possible or simply consist of them.
Very often the melody moves along the sounds of the chords. The ability to isolate a familiar chord from the context of a melody is a very important skill that students need to develop. Initial exercises should be aimed at purely visual and auditory perception of the chord. Invaluable help in memorizing the melody of chords is provided by small chants in which the desired chord is sung and called at the same time.
As you know, the biggest difficulty in recording a dictation is caused by jumps. Therefore, they must be worked out as carefully as other melodic elements.
Definition of form.
The work of determining and understanding the musical form is of great importance for the successful recording of musical dictation. Students must be very aware of the location of sentences, cadences, phrases, motives, as well as their relationships. This work should also begin from the first grade.
In addition to all this preparatory work, some forms of tasks that directly prepare the recording of a full-fledged dictation are very useful:
Recording a previously learned song from memory.
Dictation with an error. The melody “with an error” is written on the board. The teacher plays the correct option, and students must find and correct the mistakes.
Dictation with passes. A fragment of the melody is written on the board. Students should hear and fill in the missing bars.
The melody is written on the board in the form of a stepped path. Students, listening to a melody, write it down with notes, correctly rhythmically designing it.
Recording ordinary rhythmic dictations.
Note heads are written on the board. Students must formulate the melody rhythmically correctly.
So, summing up all of the above, we can conclude that in the first grade the main, basic skills of recording a musical dictation are laid. This is the ability to “listen” correctly; remember, analyze and understand musical text; the ability to comprehend it graphically and write it down correctly; the ability to correctly identify and understand the metro-rhythmic component of a melody, clearly conduct it, feeling the pulsation of the beats and being aware of each beat. All further work comes down to developing these basic skills and complicating the theoretical material.
Forms of musical dictations
Dictation forms can be different. When recording a dictation, it is important to choose the form of work that is most suitable for mastering a given melody.
Dictation is demonstrative.
A demonstration dictation is conducted by a teacher. Its purpose and task is to show the writing process on the board. The teacher aloud, in front of the whole class, tells the students how he listens, conducts, hums the melody and thereby becomes aware of it and records it in musical notation. Such a dictation is very useful before moving on, after preparatory exercises, to independent recording, as well as when mastering new difficulties or varieties of dictations.
Dictation with preliminary analysis.
Students, with the help of a teacher, determine the mode and tonality of a given melody, its size, tempo, structural aspects, features of the rhythmic pattern, analyze the pattern of development of the melody, and then begin recording. The preliminary analysis should take no more than 5–10 minutes. It is more appropriate to use this form of dictation in elementary grades, as well as when recording melodies in which new elements of musical language appear.
Dictation without preliminary analysis.
Such a dictation is recorded by students for a set time, with a certain number of plays. Such dictations are more appropriate in middle and high schools, i.e. only when students learn to independently analyze the melody.
Oral dictation.
An oral dictation is a short melody built on melodic turns familiar to students, which the teacher plays two to three times. Students repeat the melody first for any syllable and only then sing a dictation with the name of the sounds. This form of dictation should be used as widely as possible, since it is oral dictation that helps students consciously perceive individual difficulties of the melody and develops musical memory.
“Self-dictation”, recording of familiar music.
To develop inner hearing, students should be offered “self-dictation,” a recording of a familiar melody from memory. Of course, this form will not replace a full-fledged musical dictation, since there is no need to embrace and remember new music, that is, the student’s musical memory is not trained. But for working on a recording based on your inner ear, this is a very good technique. The form of “self-dictation” also helps to develop students’ creative initiative. This is a very convenient form for independent, homework, and recording practice.
Control dictation.
Of course, the learning process should also include control dictations, which students write without the help of a teacher. They can be used when completing work on a specific topic, when all the difficulties of dictation are familiar to children and well understood. Typically, this form of dictation is used in test lessons or exams.
Other forms of dictation are also possible, for example, harmonic (recording of the listened sequence of intervals, chords), rhythmic. It is useful to write down melodies that you have previously sight-read. It is useful to learn written dictations by heart, transpose them into the studied keys, and select an accompaniment for the dictations. It is also necessary to teach students to write dictation in different registers, both in treble and bass clefs.
Methodological guidelines for writing a dictation
Selection of musical material.
When working on a musical dictation, one of the most important conditions is the correct choice of musical material. The musical material for dictation can be melodies from musical literature, special collections of dictations, and also, in some cases, melodies composed by the teacher. When selecting material for a dictation, a teacher must first ensure that the music of the example is bright, expressive, artistically convincing, meaningful and clear in form. The selection of just such musical material not only helps students remember the dictation melody more easily, but also has great educational significance, broadens the students’ horizons, and enriches their musical erudition. Determining the difficulty of an example is extremely important. Dictations don't have to be too difficult. If students do not have time to comprehend, remember and write the dictation or write it with a large number of errors, then they begin to be afraid of this form of work and avoid it. Therefore, it is preferable that the dictations be simpler, but there should be a lot of them. The complication of dictations should be gradual, invisible to students, strictly thought out and justified. It should also be noted that when selecting dictations, the teacher must use a differentiated approach. Since the composition of groups is usually “variegated,” difficult dictations need to be alternated with easier ones so that weak students can also complete the recording, whereas in complex dictations this is not always possible for them. When choosing musical material for dictation, it is also very important that the material is distributed in detail by topic. The teacher must strictly think through and justify the sequence of dictations.
Performing a dictation.
In order for a student to be able to fully and competently record on paper what he heard, it is necessary that the performance of the dictation be as perfect as possible. First of all, you should execute the example correctly and accurately. No underlining or highlighting of individual difficult intonations or harmonies should be allowed. It is especially harmful to emphasize, by artificially loudly tapping, the strong beat of a bar. First, you should perform the passage at the present tempo indicated by the author. Later, with repeated playback, this initial tempo usually slows down. But it is important that the first impression is convincing and correct.
Fixation of musical text.
When recording music, the teacher must pay special attention to the accuracy and completeness of students recording on paper what they heard. In the process of recording a dictation, students must: write notes correctly and beautifully; arrange leagues; mark phrases and breathing with caesuras; distinguish and designate legato and staccato, dynamics; determine the tempo and character of a musical example.
Basic principles of the dictation recording process.
The environment that the teacher creates before starting work on recording a dictation is of great importance. Experience suggests that the best environment for working on a dictation recording is to create interest in what students are about to hear. The teacher needs to arouse interest in what will be played, concentrate the attention of students, and perhaps relieve tension before such complex work, which children always perceive as a kind of “control,” by analogy with dictation in a secondary school. Therefore, small “conversations” about the genre of the future dictation are appropriate (if this is not an obvious hint from the metro-rhythmic component), the composer who composed the melody, and the like. Depending on the class and level of the group, it is necessary to choose melodies for dictation that are accessible in terms of difficulty; set recording time and number of plays. Usually the dictation is written with 8-10 plays. Fret tuning is required before recording begins.
The first playback is an introductory one. It should be very expressive, “beautiful”, at an appropriate tempo and with dynamic shades. After this playback, you can determine the genre, size, and nature of the phrases.
The second playback should occur immediately after the first. It can be performed more slowly. After it, you can talk about specific mode-harmonic, structural and metro-rhythmic features of music. Talk about cadences, phrases, etc. You can immediately invite students to formulate the final cadence, determine the location of the Tonic and how the melody approached the Tonic - scale-like, jumping, a familiar melodic turn, etc. This beginning of the dictation “on the contrary” is justified by the fact that the final cadence is “remembered” most of all, while the entire dictation has not yet been deposited in memory.
If the dictation is long and complex, if there are no repetitions in it, then the third playback is allowed to be divided in half. That is, play the first half and analyze its features, determine the cadence, etc.
Usually, after the fourth playback, students are already sufficiently oriented in the dictation and have memorized it, if not in its entirety, then at least in some phrases. From this moment on, children write dictation almost from memory.
You can take a longer break between plays. After most of the children have written the first sentence, only the second half of the dictation can be played, which remains from the unfinished third play.
It is very important to avoid “shorthanding” the dictation, so each time you play it, you need to ask students to put down their pencils and try to remember the melody. Conducting is a prerequisite when playing and recording a dictation. If a student has difficulty determining a rhythmic turn, it is imperative to make him conduct and analyze each beat of the measure.
At the end of the allotted time, you need to check the dictation. The dictation also needs to be assessed. You don’t even have to put a grade in the notebook, especially if the student didn’t cope with the work, but at least verbally voice it so that he can really assess his skills and capabilities. When assessing, it is necessary to focus the student not on what he did not succeed, but on what he coped with, to reward him for every success, no matter how small, even if the student is very weak and dictations are not given to him due to natural characteristics.
Considering the psychological aspects of organizing the process of recording a dictation, one cannot ignore the important point of the location of the dictation in a solfeggio lesson. Along with such forms of work as the development of vocal and intonation skills, solfegging, and definition by ear, more time is devoted to writing a dictation, and it is usually assigned to the end of the lesson. Dictation, rich in complex elements, leads to deformation of the lesson, as it requires a lot of time. Students' lack of confidence in their abilities leads to a loss of interest in dictation, and a state of boredom may arise. In order to optimize work on a musical dictation, it is better to conduct it not at the end of the lesson, but in the middle or closer to the beginning, when the students’ attention is still fresh.
The time for recording the dictation is set by the teacher, as already mentioned, depending on the class and level of the group, as well as depending on its volume and difficulty of the dictation. In lower grades (grades 1, 2), where small and simple melodies are recorded, this is usually 5 - 10 minutes; in seniors, where the difficulty and volume of dictations increase - 20–25 minutes.
In the process of working on a dictation, the role of the teacher is very responsible: he is obliged, working in a group, to take into account the individual characteristics of each student, guide his work, and teach him to write a dictation. The teacher should not simply sit at the instrument, play the dictation and wait for the students to write it themselves. It is necessary to periodically approach each child; point out errors. Of course, you can’t directly suggest, but you can do it in a “streamlined” form by saying: “Think about this place” or “Check this phrase again.”
Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that dictation is a form of work in which all the existing knowledge and skills of students are applied and used.
Dictation is the result of knowledge and skills that determines the level of musical and auditory development of students. Therefore, in solfeggio lessons at a children's music school, musical dictation should be a mandatory and constantly used form of work.
List of used literature
- Davydova E. Methods of teaching solfeggio. – M.: Muzyka, 1993.
- Zhakovich V. Getting ready for a musical dictation. – Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2013.
- Kondratyeva I. Single-voice dictation: Practical recommendations. – St. Petersburg: Composer, 2006.
- Ostrovsky A. Methodology of music theory and solfeggio. – M.: Muzyka, 1989.
- Oskina S. Musical ear: theory and methods of development and improvement. – M.: AST, 2005.
- Fokina L. Methods of teaching musical dictation. – M.: Muzyka, 1993.
- Fridkin G. Musical dictations. - M.: Music, 1996.