Book Chapter
Easy Exercises in Hearing
Published 1939 | Added September 26, 2026
Fourteen simple exercises for children from Jaques-Dalcroze’s “Music Movement and Ear-Training: Games and Exercises” (1939).
Exercises with the hands and fingers:
Singing: {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex1a.png} 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th fingers.
And the children play them on the floor with their five fingers as on the Piano.
The Teacher then varies the order of the notes {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex1b.png} etc.
The Teacher plays or sings one note the children repeat with voice and fingers.
Three or four notes represented by children in different places of the room.
When the Teacher plays one of the notes the group will run towards the child representing the note played.
Each child represents a note. They run anywhere in the room.
- When the Teacher plays a note (for instance Doh) everyone kneels except the doh’s who group themselves and sing it.
- The same thing but the Teacher does not play the note but calls it out and the children who represent it group themselves and sing it.
- The same thing with two notes. {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex3.png}
The children stand in a row of eight, each representing a note of the scale:
The Teacher plays {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex4b.png} The child representing the note turns round on the spot or jumps with two feet.
The Teacher then tries playing two notes at a time successively or simultaneously.
Example: {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex4c.png}
The Teacher then gives a melodic idea {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5a.png} saying that when he plays {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5b.png} the children make a step, when he plays {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5c.png} they make 3 steps, when he plays {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5d.png} they make five steps, and {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5e.png} 8 steps.
But if the Teacher plays a strange note for example {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex5f.png} the children whistle or miouw like a kitten.
The same exercise with other movements
- C = a jump
- E = kneel
- G = a skip
- C = one step backward
The manner of playing the exercise:
The children walk about while the Teacher plays several times a melody on the notes of the scale.
at “hop”, the children kneel in turn following the number of the note they represent, then they get up in turn.
The children are numbered up to eight or ten Doh Rey Me Fah Soh Lah Te Doh Ray Me. They run eight quavers. The teacher plays and can repeat several times the following motives.
The number 4, 3, 5 and 8 kneel; the others stop, or continue to run or they make springs.
A large circle. The Teacher calls out “Four” (and that decides the bar time {4/4}) or“Three” ({3/4}) etc.—
The children do four skips during which the Teatcher plays four notes. The Teacher can repeat these notes several times.
The same with three or five notes.
Four Circles turn during which the Teacher sings four notes, which the children stopping shall repeat.
The 1st circle sings the 1st note, the 2nd circle the 2nd, etc. While each circle sings, the others continue to skip.
The same with these rhythms: {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex10b.png}
The children walk while beating the {q} on drums.
The Teacher plays a chord, the children stop and sing a rhythm on a given melodic design, beginning on the highest note of the chord.
The fowls walk and pick up all they find.
or {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex12a.png}
or {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex12b.png}
But they see the cat, are frightened and call the Cock in semiquavers.
Exercises for two.
Number two does exactly the same movements but in the other direction.
This ean be followed by combinations of attitudes and gestures invented freely by number A and imitated by number B.
The Teacher plays a note {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex14a.png} the children repeat it {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex14b.png} while making gesture 5.
The Teacher follows this note by playing the degree above {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex14c.png} and the children make gesture 6.
The Teacher plays the degree {ex: https://dalcrozeusa.org/app/uploads/2026/09/music-mov-and-ear-training_ch1_ex14d.png}and the children make gesture 4.
The same exercise can be given with different gestures.
Note: For other gestures see those given in “LA RYTHMIQUE” and “LA PLASTIQUE ANIMÉE” by M. E. Jaques-Dalcroze.
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Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze was a Swiss composer, educator, and developed Dalcroze eurhythmics.
While teaching music at the Geneva Conservatory, he observed that his students lacked essential musical skills. They could not actually hear the music and harmonies they were writing. When they performed, their playing showed little sense of rhythmic life.
He began to devise ear training games to develop better inner hearing. These games honed the students’ perceptions and resulted in more sensitive music-making: timing, articulation, tone quality, and phrase shape. Dalcroze noticed his students would exhibit subtle, spontaneous movements—swaying, tapping a foot, a slight swinging of the arms—as they sang. The body was conscious of the life and movement of the music.
Jaques-Dalcroze began to explore these natural, instinctive gestures. He invited students to walk and swing their arms, or to conduct while they sang or listened to him improvise at the piano. He called this study of music through movement “eurhythmics,” from the Greek roots “eu” and “rythmos” meaning “good flow.”
Jaques-Dalcroze continued to experiment with eurhythmics, giving demonstrations of his “Rhythmic Gymnastics” throughout Switzerland and Western Europe. In 1911, he founded a school in Hellerau, Germany, where he refined his pedagogical methods and mounted innovative theatrical productions informed by these newly developed aesthetic principles.
These “festivals” drew audiences that included many of the leading thinkers of the day, including Rudolf von Laban, Darius Milhaud, Serge Rachmaninoff, Rainer Maria Rilke, and many others. By the time he left Germany in 1914, his work had created an international sensation.
In 1915, he founded the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland where he continued to develop fresh applications of his approach until his death in 1950. The school continues to train new instructors who have, in turn, established training schools internationally.
Today, people from around the world study this remarkable method of music education and experience.
About the Author(s)
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze was a Swiss composer, educator, and developed Dalcroze eurhythmics.
While teaching music at the Geneva Conservatory, he observed that his students lacked essential musical skills. They could not actually hear the music and harmonies they were writing. When they performed, their playing showed little…
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