MTEL Music case studies

MTEL Music · Put your knowledge to work in context.

The MTEL Music (16) is a Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure Subject Matter Test, one of the fields listed on the official MTEL test selection page. Massachusetts uses MTEL subject matter tests as part of educator licensure, so candidates typically take Music (16) to demonstrate the content knowledge required for a music teaching license in the state. The MTEL Music case studies are 5 cases and about 3,162 words.

Diagnosing a Doubled Leading Tone in a Student Chorale

You are reviewing a 16-measure four-voice chorale exercise submitted by a high school AP Music Theory student. The exercise is in G minor and ends with a Picardy third.

669 words, about 3 min 2

Program Ethics in a 'Music of the Americas' Concert

You direct a 40-voice SATB choir at a high school preparing a 35-minute district concert titled 'Music of the Americas.' You have six 90-minute rehearsals; one will be lost to a snow-day make-up and one is shared with the band for a finale. The program committee proposes five works, with approximate durations: a Renaissance Mexican Latin motet (4 minutes), a recent arrangement of a Navajo corn-grinding song by a non-Native arranger with English lyrics (5 minutes), a contemporary work by an Indigenous composer with spoken word and optional drum (7 minutes), a spiritual with baritone solo (4 minutes), and an Argentine tango with piano and two singers (6 minutes).

666 words, about 3 min 3

Simplifying a Marching Band Show Before Assessment

You direct a 64-member high school marching band with three weeks until state assessment. The three-movement show has one unresolved section: 32 counts of drill in movement 2 that the band has never marched cleanly.

621 words, about 3 min 4

Designing a Composition Unit With Limited Orff Instruments

You teach third-grade general music at a school where each class has 28 students and meets twice weekly for 25 minutes. The district requires a four-week composition/improvisation unit assessed with a simple rubric.

612 words, about 3 min 5

Placing a Transfer Violinist in a Contest Orchestra

A violinist transfers into your high school orchestra in October. She has studied privately for five years and plays with accurate intonation and mature vibrato, but her audition reveals weak sight-reading, inconsistent subdivision in 6/8, and no experience playing in an ensemble.

594 words, about 3 min