Take-it-down reps for taking-a-rhythm-down and taking-a-tune-down. For each: play it
once, work it out (clap the rhythm, sing the tune in numbers), write it, then reveal
to check. Don't replay before you've committed to an answer — that's a different, easier
exercise.
Rhythmic and melodic drills, roughly Level 1–3 here; extend by transposing and lengthening.
Rhythmic dictation
66 bpm
Level 1 — quarters and halves. Clap, place each note on its count, write, reveal.
60 bpm
Level 2 — one eighth-note pair per bar. Find which beat splits.
56 bpm
Level 3 — a sixteenth group on beat 3 of bar 1; an eighth pair on beat 1 of bar 2.
Melodic dictation
66 bpm
Level 1 — G major, all steps, in the tonic triad's neighbourhood. Rhythm: all quarters, ends long. Degrees: ^1 ^2 ^3 ^2 ^1.
66 bpm
Level 2 — G major, arpeggiated up (^1 ^3 ^5), then a step down through ^3 ^2 to ^1.
63 bpm
Level 3 — D major, and it uses ^7 (C♯). Hear ^7 strain up — the phrase ^5 ^6 ^7 ^5 then leaps home to ^1.
More drills
A seed set. Extend by transposing the melodic drills to A / C major and B / E minor, adding
tendency tones, and lengthening to two phrases. When Level 3 of both kinds is reliable, you
have the ear for learning-a-tune-by-ear.