A classroom course with over 90 minutes of spoken “rhythm tests” on 2 CDs.
Pupils respond to short extracts and short tunes, writing answers onto individual answer sheets.
Develops pupils’ ability to notate rhythms.
Begins with exercises based on the concept of steady pulse, and introduces different rhythms gradually. At first, pupils listen to each short tune and decide which of the rhythms a) b) c) or d) written on the sheet is correct.
In later questions, they have to decide how each rhythm is COUNTED (ie “1, 2, 3+ 4”) and towards the end of the course pupils will have developed the skills required to write down the rhythm of tunes up to 3 bars in length using conventional music notation.
These music dictation skills are invaluable for answering questions in the listening section of the GCSE exam.