piano-trainer.appPress Play to start a new dictation.
Click any chip to hear that interval played from the tonic. Helps you anchor the key in your head before answering.
Intervals in F majorMelodic dictation is the single most useful exercise to develop your inner ear. You hear a phrase, then play it back. It is the bridge between recognizing music in your head and being able to perform it, transcribe it, or compose with it.
Producers use this skill constantly: pull a melody from a song you love, sketch ideas straight into a DAW, harmonize a hummed line. Without dictation training you guess; with it you reach for the right note immediately.
Pick a key (C major and A minor are easiest for beginners) and how many notes the melody should contain.
Press space or Play. The app generates a short diatonic melody and plays it.
Replay it on your MIDI keyboard or click the on-screen piano. Wrong notes flash red but do not interrupt the run.
When you nail the last note, the score reveals the notation so you can see what you just played.
Begin with 3-4 notes in C major or A minor at 80-100 bpm. Do not jump to chromatic keys before short diatonic phrases feel automatic.
Enable "Show next note" while you build muscle memory. Disable it as soon as you can predict the right pitch.
Length, then key, then tempo. Changing all three at once stalls progress because nothing feels solid.
Ear training rewards regular short sessions. The brain consolidates pitch patterns during sleep.
Most learners notice clear progress after 4-8 weeks of daily 10-minute sessions. Reaching the level where you can transcribe simple pop melodies usually takes 3-6 months.
No. The on-screen piano works on desktop and mobile. A MIDI keyboard is faster and feels more musical, but is optional.
Diatonic notes are the seven pitches that belong to a chosen key. C major diatonic = C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The trainer keeps melodies diatonic by default so they sound musical and learnable.
No. Wrong attempts do not stop the timer or end the run. Push through, then look at the reveal to see where you missed.
Knowing your intervals (second, third, fifth, octave) makes dictation dramatically faster. The theory page covers them with audible examples and a piano you can try.