Learn Piano

Most melodic dictation tools have you answer with solfege syllables or scale degree numbers. That's useful for general ear training, but it doesn't solve the specific problem piano players have: knowing where the notes are on the keyboard in every key.

Everyone knows G is the 5 in the key of C. But what's the 5 in F#? What's the 6 in Ab? Most pianists have to count through the letters to figure it out. We never built the automatic mental map for keys beyond C major and maybe G and F.

This is why transposing feels so hard. We learned music as letter names and finger positions in specific keys. Move to a different key and we're starting over, translating note by note.

The C Major Trap

Piano players learn in C major first—all white keys, easy to see and understand. Then we stay there too long. C becomes "normal" and every other key feels like a variation with inconvenient black keys thrown in.

But F major is F major. It has its own 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, and none of them care what C major is doing. You can sight-read difficult music in C but stumble through simple hymns in Db because you never internalized that key the way you internalized C.

The fix isn't to memorize more pieces in more keys. The fix is to practice hearing scale degrees and finding them on the keyboard in all 12 keys until it becomes automatic.

Melodic Dictation for Piano

This is what I built Tonic Sense for. You hear a melody, identify the scale degrees, and play them back on a keyboard—but you pick the key. The same folk tune in G major, then in B major, then in Db.

The melodies are simple—hymns, folk songs, children's songs—because the goal isn't to challenge your technique. The goal is to make your hands know where the scale degrees are in every key.

I'm not aware of other melodic dictation tools that work this way. Most have you answer with syllables or numbers, which trains your ear but doesn't connect that training to your hands on the keyboard.

What You're Building

When you practice melodic dictation on the keyboard in different keys, you're building keyboard visualization—the ability to picture where notes are without counting.

You should be able to see, in your mind's eye, where the 2 is in Ab major. Where the 6 is in E major. Where a 1-5-6-4 progression sits in Bb. This mental map makes transposing feel possible instead of impossible. It makes playing by ear in any key feel natural instead of laborious.

It also helps with sight reading. When you know where scale degrees live on the keyboard in every key, you can look at sheet music in Eb and your hands already know where to go.

How to Practice

Tonic Sense keyboard lessons let you select any of the 12 major keys before you start. The tonic notes are marked so you know where "home" is.

You hear a short melody, then play it back on the on-screen keyboard. If you're on a desktop, you can also see scale degree buttons for reference. On a phone, you just see the keyboard.

Start with keys you know well, then deliberately practice the ones that feel unfamiliar. For most of us, that's the keys with lots of flats—Db, Gb, Ab—or the sharp keys beyond G and D.

There are hundreds of melodies organized by difficulty. Start with the basic keyboard lessons and work up from there.

If you want to compare the keyboard method with solfege or numeric scale degrees, I wrote about all three practice methods and when each one is useful.