Section I: Multiple Choice
Overview
The multiple-choice section tests aural and written theory skills across harmony, melody, rhythm, form, and score analysis. You will hear excerpts and see notated examples; questions ask you to identify intervals, chords, cadences, scales, textures, and formal structures.
Key Concepts
- Intervals and chords: Identify quality and quantity by ear and from notation, including inversions and seventh chords.
- Scales and modes: Major, natural/harmonic/melodic minor, and church modes; recognize scale-degree patterns.
- Harmony and voice leading: Roman numeral analysis, cadence types (authentic, half, plagal, deceptive), and common chord progressions.
- Rhythm and meter: Simple vs. compound, duple/triple/quadruple, syncopation, and rhythmic dictation.
- Melody and texture: Contour, sequence, imitation, monophony/homophony/polyphony.
- Form: Binary, ternary, strophic, through-composed, and basic sonata form.
Traps
- Confusing relative and parallel keys; always check the key signature and tonic.
- Mistaking compound meter for simple (e.g., 6/8 is compound duple, not simple sextuple).
- Inversions: root position has the root in the bass; first inversion has the third; second inversion has the fifth.
- Cadences: a deceptive cadence goes V–vi; a plagal is IV–I; a half cadence ends on V.
- Aural questions may play an excerpt twice; focus on bass line and cadence points.
Worked Example
Given a notated chord: bass C, tenor E, alto G, soprano B♭. Stack in thirds: C–E–G–B♭ = C dominant seventh (C7). Since the bass is the root, it is in root position. Roman numeral in F major: V7. Rule of thumb: to identify a chord, reduce to root position by stacking thirds; the lowest note of that stack is the root.
Rule of Thumb
For Roman numerals, first determine the key, then label the chord's root scale degree; use quality (major, minor, diminished) to refine the numeral.