Hear it. Write it.
Understand it.

Where the exercises come from

Nothing here is pre-written. A melodic dictation starts as a harmonic skeleton (one chord per bar), gets a rhythm assembled from metric cells, and then a pitch line is walked over the top starting on the tonic: chord tones on strong beats, steps and neighbours in between, leaps recovered by step in the opposite direction. Melodies that wander too far, repeat too much, or have no clear high point are thrown away and regenerated. In minor, ^7 is raised whenever it rises and left natural when it falls, and ^6 is raised when it steps up into a raised ^7 — so ascending lines come out as melodic minor and descending ones as natural minor.

A harmonic dictation starts with a randomised walk through a functional-harmony graph — tonic to predominant to dominant, with cadential six-fours, inversions and a required cadence at the end. Every chord is then expanded into every legal SATB voicing (correct doubling, no doubled leading tone or seventh, voices in range and correctly spaced), and the four-part setting is chosen with a shortest-path search where illegal moves cost infinity: parallel fifths and octaves, direct fifths and octaves into the outer voices, unresolved leading tones, sevenths that don’t fall by step, augmented seconds, leaps that are too wide. The result is checked a second time by an independent verifier before it reaches you, and discarded if anything slipped through.

Writing your answer

In practice, a melodic dictation gives you the first note and nothing else — you enter both the pitches and the rhythm, because the rhythm is worth roughly as many points as the pitches on the real exam. Pick a note value, then click the staff at the height of the pitch you hear. A note that would spill over a barline is refused, so the bars have to add up. Click a note to select it and click it again to let it go; once selected you can drag it, nudge it with the arrow keys or the ▲▼ buttons, change its duration, or delete it. Anything you do can be undone.

A harmonic dictation gives you the whole first chord and its Roman numeral, then you supply the rest. You notate soprano and bass, which is what the exam asks for; tick Alto & tenor too if you want to write all four. The numeral under each chord is a dropdown with every triad and inversion in the key. The cadence stays hidden until you show the answer.

Accidentals are absolute: a note with no accidental takes whatever the key signature says. Checking marks each note green when it’s right, dark red when it’s wrong or missing, and amber when it’s half right — in a melody, the pitch or the rhythm but not both; in a progression, the right sound spelled differently. Each part is scored separately, mistakes are sorted by kind, and you get a suggestion for what to practice next.

Exam mode

Exam mode follows the format of the dictation questions on the AP Music Theory exam as the College Board describes it. A melody is played three or four times (three for question 1, four for question 2) and a progression four times, with a 30-second pause after the first playing and a one-minute pause after each later one. The pulse is set before the first playing. In a melody you get the first pitch but have to notate its rhythm yourself; in a progression you get the soprano, bass and Roman numeral of the first chord, and you write the soprano, the bass and a numeral for every chord. Hints, the tonic button and replays are switched off. Checking early ends the exam, and when the last pause runs out your answer is checked for you. Skip the pause is there for when you’re ready sooner — the real exam won’t let you.

Drills

Drills take one skill at a time. Rhythm only plays every note on one pitch, so you write just the rhythm. Pitch only prints the rhythm for you, so you place just the pitches. Bass line and Roman numerals take one half of a harmonic dictation each. The three ear drills — chord quality and inversion, cadence type and scale degree — answer with a tap, and explain what you heard either way.

Hints

A hint comes in five steps, each giving away a little more: the pulse and meter with the number of notes (or chords) in each bar; the contour of the line; each bar played on its own; one bar of the real answer — the first bar where your answer is wrong or unfinished; and finally the whole solution. An exercise where you looked at the answer before checking isn’t added to your progress.

Your progress and the daily question

Every checked exercise is saved in this browser — when, what kind, how long and how it went — so you can see your recent practice, pitch against rhythm, and your strongest and weakest skills. It stays on this device: nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing your browser’s site data (or pressing Erase my history) wipes it. The daily question changes at midnight and links to the drill that practices the same idea.

What’s in the vocabulary

Major and minor up to four sharps or flats, or pick an exact key. Triads on every scale degree in root position and first inversion, V7 in all four positions, vii°6, cadential six-fours, authentic and half cadences, deceptive resolutions. Melodic dictations come in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 and 6/8, four or eight bars; harmonic ones in 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4. Rhythms run from whole notes down to sixteenths, including dotted values. In 6/8 the click sounds all six eighths with the stress on beats one and four, so you can feel the two main beats and the subdivisions under them.

Shortcuts

space play · n new exercise · t tonic · h hint · r show the answer · esc stop.

On the staff: ↑ ↓ move a note, ← → change which note is selected, − flat, = sharp, 0 natural, ⌫ deletes the selected note, ctrl/⌘ + Z undoes. Melodic only: 1–5 pick a duration (16th to whole), . dots it. Harmonic only: shift + ↑ ↓ switches voice.