Rhythmic Dictation

I have been meaning to leave a blog post about rhythmic dictation for some time now. I hope to shed some light on the reasonable question, "Why do we teach rhythmic dictation?"

One thought I have on this questions is that in order to get to melodic dictation, we have to start by teaching them to listen to rhythm in the first place. For the most part, anytime we can break down a process step by step, there will be students that will benefit from it. To me it makes sense to start with rhythmic dication, and then follow the same principles when we teach them to dictate melody from a given instrument.

Another thought I would like to share is one that is more broad. Being a percussion instructor, rhythm is the launching pad of just about everything I do. This is how rhythmic dictation helps me...on a daily basis. When I stand out in front of a drumline, the main thing I have to work with is the sound that those guys/girls produce. If I don't have ears that can deduce a rhythm accurately, then it is safe to say that the drumline cannot/will not progress. Everyday, in an instantaneaous fashion, I have to look at what is written on the page and figure out if what I hear matches the written music.

To piggy-back my previous point, rhythmic dictation goes past using it in the field of percussion. If I were a band director...it would be the same story. I would listen to the band and without realizing it, I would check to see if what I hear matches what I see. If I were a choir/voice teacher...the same story. Obviously, there are different skill sets that are needed in each of these categories, but rhythm is rhythm. Without having a background in rhythmic dictation, a music educator cannot be as effective than if they have trained their ears to hear rhythm.

Teaching Rhythmic dictation with a melodic passage vs. playing multiple rhythms on one note can also be debated. As some of us stated in class, it is sometimes easier to pick out the rhythms that are being played when they bounce around the staff. I think that either way that the rhythm is dictated to the class leads to the same conclusion. Theory students need to be taught how to listen to rhythm and then write it down first. Start with one thing, in this case rhythm, and then build on it by applying the same principles to melodic dictation.