Time Lines Practice Blocks for Rhythmic Dictation

If you are new to rhythmic dictation and want to ensure that you are accurately transcribing what you hear, the Time Lines Practice Block sheets can help. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to read the introduction to rhythm dictation. These sheets provide you with a timeline with blocks that represent each beat and subdivision of the beat. They allow you to quickly write down how the music sounds so you can translate that to musical notes. When a note sounds, determine what beat it starts on and how long it is sustained. Fill in the duration of that sound on the practice sheet. If there is silence, leave the block empty.

Here’s an example of how you would fill in the practice block sheets for a rhythm pattern. Listen to this audio example of the pattern.

Play the audio example below
Play the audio example:

Using a pencil, quickly shade the beats that include notes, as shown below.
Example of how to shade the Time Lines practice blocks for rhythmic dictation.

You can also simply draw a line through the boxes that include notes, as shown below. This approach is better when you have longer notes that are longer than one beat.
Example of how to draw a line to fill in the Time Lines practice blocks for rhythmic dictation.

Once you have filled in the blocks, you can convert them to music notation, like this:
Example of converting the Time Lines practice blocks to actual music notation.