Melodic Dictation

Melodic dictation involves the ability to hear a piece of music and quickly play it back or write down the notes of the melody.

This sounds like mass chaos, and it kind of was, but it was neat watching students processing what I was asking them to do.

We recently learned a new song called "Tideo".  This song is used to reinforce the rhythm of "tiri-tiri" or a group of 16th notes.  When we learned the song, I also had them work on listening for the solfege syllables of mi-re-do and sing that pattern every time they heard it.  Once we had learned the song, we learned the activity.  

This was the extension part after the activity.  I gave them a starting note on xylophones and they had to see if they could notate the rest.  Most of the song is repetitious so there were patterns they would hear multiple times. I had them begin by finding the mi-re-do pattern to write down and play and then move on from there.  

Some students had a very interesting approach to it and just kept trying different patterns to see if it sounded like the song.  Others were only working on the part they knew and would write that down.  We'll see if we can finish this project next time.  It's almost time to begin Centers!!!