Music Program: Aural Skills and Music Theory Placement Test for Music Majors

Exam date: Wednesday, 26 Aug. 2009 at 10:00 am

All incoming freshmen music majors and transfer students are required to take an Aural Skills Placement Test and (written) Theory Placement Test. The Theory Placement Test allows students to place out of Introduction Music Theory (700:125).

Upon admission to the college, students are asked to contact the Fine Arts Department to register for the audition and placement exams. All Placement Tests will be given on the audition date. Each student has to complete a 5-minute aural skills test and a written theory test (which may take up to 1-hour).

1. Aural Skills Placement Test

Every student is required to take the Aural Skills Placement Test. It consists of:

• matching pitches (we play a pitch on a piano and you sing the same pitch)
• sing a major scale • sight-sing a simple melody (we will give you the notation of a simple melody, and you sing it)
• repeat short melodies (we play or sing a melody and you sing it back to us)
• sing a well-known song
• repeat short rhythms (we will clap a rhythm and you clap it back to us)
• perform a simple rhythm at sight (we will give you the notation of a simple rhythm, and you clap it)
• identify melodic direction (we will play two notes and you tell us whether the second note was higher, lower, or the same)

This aural skills test will take approximately 5 minutes and does not require any preparation.

2. Written Music Theory Placement Test

Our diagnostic examination checks students' knowledge of musical fundamentals. All students who receive a high score on the test can test out of our basic music theory class (called "Introduction to Music Theory" 700:125). The Theory Placement Test consists of:

• Pitches in treble and bass clefs
• Simple note and rest values (up to thirty-second notes/rests)
• Meters and time signatures (simple, e.g. 2/4, and compound, e.g., 6/8)
• All major scales and their key signatures
• All minor scales (in all three types: natural, harmonic and melodic) and minor key signatures
• The size and quality of all simple intervals (e.g., major thirds, augmented fourths)
• All types of triads (major, minor, augmented and diminished)

Prospective students are encouraged to review these skills before entering the program. Almost any basic harmony or music appreciation textbook will have introductory chapters that students may consult for preparation.

The Aural Skills and written Music Theory Placement tests for incoming freshmen and transfer students are offered on the same day one week before fall classes begin. All transfer students are REQUIRED to take these placement tests. Students who do not take placement tests will have to re-take the entire Aural Learning and Music Theory sequence, starting with Basic Musicianship I and Introduction to Music Theory.

Here are some suggestions on how to prepare for the written Theory Placement Test:

1. Use on-line resources to study any of the above topics. Click here to view a list of on-line resources.
2. Buy a book on essential musicianship / introductory music theory, e.g. J. T. Kolosick / A. H. Simon: Explorations. A New Approach to Music Fundamentals (2nd edition; Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing, 1998), J. Clough / J. Conley / C. Boge: Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm, and Meter (3rd edition, New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), or William Duckworth: A Creative Approach to Music Fundamentals (with CD-ROM) 9th Edition, Wadsworth, 2007. The latter book (by Duckworth) is the one currently used in our Introduction to Music Theory course. However, in our Theory I through III courses, we are using the latest edition of S. Kostka / Dorothy Payne: Tonal Harmony (5th edition, Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004); all topics on the diagnostic test are also covered in chapters 1 through 4 of Tonal Harmony.
3. Hire a tutor. Any college-trained musician should be able to help you with essential musicianship.

Some additional suggestions for the study of music theory in general:

1. If you are not playing piano already, start taking piano lessons, regardless of the instrument you are playing. Playing the piano supports the study of music theory; in addition, you can already work towards the piano proficiency which is required of all music majors at Rutgers-Camden.
2. If you are not a singer, start singing on a regular basis. You do not need to take voice lessons, but you should be able to sing in tune and match pitches. In Basic Musicianship classes, you train your abilities to sing at sight, etc.
3. In Basic Musicianship classes, you will also train your ear, especially with writing down what you hear. You can get a headstart by using some on-line resources for aural learning or by buying eartraining software. (The eartraining books & software we are currently using in our Aural Learning classes are Music For Sight Singing, 6th ed. by Robert W. Ottman, Studying Rhythm, 3rd ed. by Anne Carothers Hall, and Auralia Eartraining Software by Sibelius).

If you have questions about the music curriculum at Rutgers-Camden, please do not hesitate to contact the music program coordinator, Dr. Joe Schiavo.

All transfer students are required to take an Aural Skills Test as well as a Written Theory Test; the level of these tests will be at the level of the last theory and aural skills courses that students passed at their former college/university with at least a grade of C.

All THEORY Placement Tests for Freshman and Transfer Students will be given on the audition date:
Diagnostic Examination - Sample Exam (To view the exam, you'll have to download a musical font plugin from Sibelius.com).
Diagnostic Examination - Answer Key