Using Melodic Dictation in the long term

[Jason Sioco]

I have been using the Melodic Dictation exercise for a few months and have been progressing well. What I want to achieve in the Melodic Dictation is to transcribe complex solos, melodies, and phrases instantly by ear. Right now when I hear a melody in my Ipod, I still don't recognize the melody. In the long term, how will the melodic dictation exercise help me transcribe music instantly?

By the way I am still using Ear Master Pro 5. I plan to get Ear Master 6 because of the sight singing component, I have a lot of items in my wish list right now.

How Ear Master helped me?

I am a first year student in York University, with Music as my major. There was a mandatory course I took and we did an aural test. We were tested on scales, modes, triads, intervals etc. My classmates were wildly humming the tones to recognize what they hear, while I instantly recognize the components very well, as if I was just practicing in my computer. Even though the professor was strict and scary, I had a big grin on my face.

[Quentin]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for sharing that, I reckon it must have been very satisfying to see hours of EarMaster practice paying off when it mattered most.

In EarMaster 6, the melodic dictation activity has been much improved. One of the best new features is that you can train with musical exerpts from the built-in melody library of EarMaster (about 180 real book classics), or even even melodies from notation software via MusicXML. That way, you can use EarMaster to train to transcribe Mozart, Gregorian chants, Glenn Miller or Led Zeppelin, the possibilities are quite vast. Notice however that when importing MusicXML, EarMaster can - for now... - only accept monophonic voices (no chords), with up to 4 voices. It is perfect for choral works with a SATB setup for example.