Harmonic Dictation

Melodic dictation followed one line. Harmonic dictation deals with four lines sounding at once.

That is four times the information, but it does not require four times the work. Fixing the order in which you take them lets a large part be filled in by inference.

Take the bass first

The order is fixed: bass, then soprano, then inner voices.

Two reasons.

1. The bass determines the chord. Bass on the root means root position, on the third means first inversion, on the fifth means second inversion. Knowing the bass alone narrows the candidates for what the chord is enormously.

2. The bass is easy to hear. The lowest note does not share a register with the other voices and is not buried in their overtones. It is physically the most separable voice.

Following only the bass in Fig. 1 gives C – F – G – C: tonic, subdominant, dominant, tonic in C major. That by itself all but confirms I – IV – V – I.

Getting most of the answer without transcribing the upper three voices is what taking the bass first achieves.

Bass alone, then all four voices

▶Bass alone▶All four voices

Check: The first sounds only the bass motion. The second plays the same progression in four voices. Memorizing the first and then listening to the second trains you to pick the bass line out of the texture. In dictation you fix your ear on the lowest voice for one hearing and then move it upward.

C – F – G – C

Then the soprano

The soprano comes next, and it too sits in an audible position. The human ear is built to pick up the topmost line as melody, so it is often already being followed without effort.

With bass and soprano in hand, both outer voices are fixed. Matching those two against the candidate chords usually resolves to a single answer.

The inner voices, alto and tenor, come last. In practice, harmonic dictation exercises often do not require them to be transcribed exactly. Answering with the bass and Roman numerals alone is the common format precisely because that is where most of the information is.

Check

You hear E in the bass of a chord and you know the key is C major. What are the strong candidates at this point?

First inversion of I, or root-position iiiV onlySecond inversion of IV onlyRoot-position ii

Check answer

Narrow the candidates by function

The other weapon is the framework of function. The T → SD → D → T flow from Unit 4 means chords do not arrive in arbitrary order.

Preceding function	Likely to follow
Tonic	anywhere
Subdominant	dominant, tonic
Dominant	tonic (or vi, in a deceptive cadence)

The tendency for a dominant to be followed by a tonic is strong enough that hearing V makes I nearly certain next. Conversely, moving from dominant back to subdominant is rare in classical harmony, so hearing that is worth treating as a possible mishearing.

This is inference, not the answer. But as a tool for reducing candidates it is powerful, letting you fill in a chord you failed to catch from its surrounding context.

Check

You hear the progression I – ? – V – I in C major and cannot identify the second chord. Which is most likely?

A dominant chordA subdominant chord (IV or ii)A chord from outside the keySecond inversion of V

Check answer

Write the answer in Roman numerals

Harmonic dictation answers are written in Roman numerals, for reasons that lie in the nature of the notation.

	Chord names	Roman numerals
In C major	C – F – G – C	I – IV – V – I
In G major	G – C – D – G	I – IV – V – I
What is recorded	the actual pitches	the role within the key

Roman numerals are the same regardless of key, so the recognition that you know a progression accumulates directly. Memorizing chord names means starting from scratch when you hear the same progression in another key.

And Roman numerals carry the role. Writing V already contains the information that this chord is the dominant. That is what makes dictation an analysis rather than a transcription.

Hear inversions from the bass

Identifying inversions again comes down to the bass.

• bass on the root → root position; solid and settled
• bass on the third → first inversion (6); light, flowing onward
• bass on the fifth → second inversion (64); unstable, wanting support

The second chord of Fig. 2 is Dm, but the bass is F rather than D. Listening to the bass alone makes it easy to confuse with IV (the F chord), so one note above has to be checked. Hearing A means ii6; hearing C means IV.

ii6 against IV

▶ii6 (bass on F)▶IV (bass on F)

Check: The bass is F in both. The first is ii in first inversion and contains D above; the second is IV in root position and contains C. With the same bass, distinguishing them requires a note from above. This is a case where the bass alone does not settle it. That said, both carry subdominant function, so mishearing one for the other does not greatly change the sense of the progression.

contains D

The procedure in summary

1. Establish the key — sound the tonic chord to put the center in your ear
2. Listen through once — grasp how many chords there are and where it divides
3. Take the bass — fix your attention on the lowest voice for another hearing
4. Take the soprano — move your attention to the top voice for another
5. Narrow by function — fill what can be filled from surrounding context
6. Write Roman numerals and check — sound what you wrote and compare against what you heard

As with melodic dictation, the key is to do one thing per playback. Attempting everything at once leaves everything half-done.

▶ Practice harmonic dictation in the dictation trainer Switch to harmonic dictation. The advanced level mixes in inversions and seventh chords, but answers are graded on root-position degrees, which makes it practice at hearing a chord's role without being misled by the bass Dictation Trainer →

That completes transcription of pitch. The final lesson takes up the one remaining axis: rhythm.