How do I recognise chords and complete a harmonic dictation by ear?
Harmonic dictation and chord recognition: hearing the bass line, chord quality and cadences, and completing missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, the harmonic aural skill of the Listening and Appraising paper.
A focused answer to harmonic dictation and chord recognition in OCR A-Level Music. Covers hearing the bass line, judging chord quality and sevenths, using cadence logic at phrase ends, and completing missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, the harmonic aural skill underlying Section B and the listening questions in H543/05.
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What this dot point is asking
Some dictation and listening questions are harmonic: you must hear chords and complete missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, or identify chord qualities in an extract. This dot point sets out the harmonic aural skill, hearing the bass line, judging chord quality and sevenths, and using cadence logic, so you can recognise and notate harmony by ear in Section B and the listening questions.
Hearing the bass and chord quality
Cadence logic and harmonic dictation
Identifying chord qualities in an extract
How harmonic listening is examined
Harmonic dictation appears in Section B as chord or bass completion, and chord-quality identification appears in the listening questions. The marks reward chords and qualities that fit the key and the bass, with partial credit for a correct bass note or cadence chord. As with melodic dictation, it is a trained skill, improved by little-and-often practice, naming cadences and chord qualities and taking down short progressions, ideally in the styles you study.
Try this
Q1. Why should you hear the bass line first in a harmonic dictation? [Knowledge recall]
- Cue. The bass anchors the chords (revealing roots and inversions) and its motion reveals the cadences, so it is the most reliable foundation for labelling harmony by ear.
Q2. How does cadence logic help you complete a harmonic dictation at a phrase end? [Short explanation]
- Cue. Phrase ends use predictable cadences, so a finished sound implies to , an unfinished sound implies a chord to , and a surprise implies to , giving you the cadence chords.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 2020 (H543/05 Section B, style)4 marksComplete the Roman-numeral chord labels for the cadence in the printed extract, using the recording. (Section B, harmonic dictation)Show worked answer →
Up to four marks. Method: hear the bass line first (it anchors the chords and reveals inversions), judge each chord's quality (major or minor) and any seventh, and apply cadence logic ( then for a perfect cadence; a chord then for an imperfect). Then write the Roman numerals that fit the key and the bass. Markers reward chords that fit the key, bass and cadence, with partial credit for a correct bass note or cadence chord. They penalise chords outside the key or that contradict the bass. The bass plus cadence logic is the most reliable route to the chords.
OCR 2021 (H543/05 Section A, style)3 marksIdentify the quality of the three marked chords (for example major, minor or dominant seventh). (Section A, unfamiliar listening)Show worked answer →
Up to three marks (one per chord). Judge each chord by its colour and function: major (bright), minor (darker), diminished (tense), and listen for a dominant seventh (a driving pull, often at a cadence) or other added notes. Use the bass and the surrounding harmony to place the chord in the key. Markers reward correct chord qualities tied to what is heard, including sevenths. They penalise guessing without reference to the sound, or naming chords that do not fit the key. Comparing each chord with the tonic helps fix its quality and function.
Related dot points
- Melodic and rhythmic dictation: hearing and notating pitch (contour, intervals against the key) and rhythm (metre, beat subdivision, bar-counting), the score-completion skill of Section B and the wider aural demands of the paper.
A focused answer to melodic and rhythmic dictation in OCR A-Level Music. Covers hearing and notating pitch (contour, intervals against the key, using anchor notes) and rhythm (fixing the metre, subdividing the beat, counting the bar), the order to work in, and a reliable method for the score-completion dictations in Section B and the paper's aural demands.
- The Section A unfamiliar-listening skill: describing extracts you have never heard against the elements, identifying style and features, and comparing an unfamiliar extract with the prescribed work or another extract, within the printed number of playings.
A focused answer to the Section A unfamiliar-listening skill in OCR A-Level Music. Covers describing extracts you have never heard against the elements, identifying the style and signature features of your areas of study, comparing an unfamiliar extract with the prescribed work, and managing the printed number of audio playings in the H543/05 paper.
- The Section C extended essay: answering two essays on two different areas of study, structuring an argument with named musical evidence, evaluating, and meeting the quality-of-extended-response criterion within the timing of H543/05.
A focused answer to the Section C extended essays in OCR A-Level Music. Covers answering two essays on two different areas of study, structuring an argument by theme with named musical evidence, evaluating rather than describing, meeting the quality-of-extended-response criterion, and managing the timing of the H543/05 paper.
- Aural recognition of harmony, hearing major and minor chords, sevenths, cadences and modulations, and tracking harmonic rhythm and the bass line, as required by the listening questions and the harmonic dictation.
A focused answer to recognising harmony by ear for OCR A-Level Music. Covers hearing chord quality (major, minor, diminished, sevenths), identifying cadences and the bass line, tracking harmonic rhythm and modulation, and a method for the harmonic dictation, building the aural skill the listening questions and Section B require.
- Triads and seventh chords, their qualities and inversions, Roman-numeral and figured-bass labelling, and functional harmony (tonic, subdominant, dominant function and common progressions), as the harmonic vocabulary for analysis and the composing exercises.
A focused answer to chords and functional harmony for OCR A-Level Music. Covers triads and seventh chords, major, minor, diminished and augmented qualities, inversions and their figured-bass and Roman-numeral labelling, and functional harmony (tonic, predominant and dominant function, common progressions and the cycle of fifths), for analysis and the composing technical exercises.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level Music (H543) specification — OCR (2016)