Increasingly Small Subdivisions in Rhythmic Dictation

New directions

Now that we have reached such fluency with dividing and subdividing the beat in simple and common time, we will add very small subdivisions plus tripletized subdivisions to our repertoire of rhythmic dictations. In this example, some of the divisions of the beat are further subdivided into triplets. Be aware of the difference between duple and triple.

Tips for success

• As always, be very sure of your beat note before you begin to write the rhythm. It’s sometimes useful to make a table of common possible divisions and subdivisions before you start, if there is time.
• Checking: be very careful, when checking your work, to add up all the notes you have written to make sure you have “filled up” the measure.