Performing Arts Center (PAC)
Room 106
mtad@csuchico.edu
530-898-5152
Summer Office Hours
Monday-Thursday
7 a.m.– 5:30 p.m.
Office Hours
Monday–Friday
8 a.m.– 5 p.m.
Mailing Address
Music, Theatre and Dance
400 W. First St.
Chico, CA 95929–0805
Placement and Challenge Exams
- MUSC 101, MUSC 103, and MUSC 105 are required music core classes
- You should be enrolled in the class you wish to test out of
- Register
- Complete and print the required request form:
- PLACEMENT EXAM Request
- CHALLENGE EXAM Request
- Review the information below to see the difference
- Exams are held the week before classes begin or during the first week of each semester.
- If you are unsure if you should sign up for an exam, please contact Dr. David Scholz.
- Use your Wildcat email address for all communication.
- If you earned credits/units for a theory, aural, or piano class elsewhere.
- and wish those credits/units to be transferred.
- REGISTER
- Complete and print a PLACEMENT EXAM Request form
If you pass the Placement exam, units will substituted.
- If no credits/units were earned elsewhere for a theory, aural, or piano class.
- and wish to test out of a theory, aural, or piano class.
- REGISTER
- Complete and print a CHALLENGE EXAM Request form
Aural, Theory, and Piano Exam Details
Exam Date: Tuesday, August 22, 12pm - 1:30pm
Location: PAC 208
- Register by 5:00PM, Monday, August 21 - Find the sign up sheet outside PAC 106.
- EMAIL Placement & Challenge FORM (PDF) to Natalya Shkoda(opens in new window) by 5pm, Monday, August 21
- one form per exam
Exam Date: Tuesday, August 22, 6:00PM – 9:00PM
Location: PAC 116
- Register by 5:00PM, Monday, August 21
- Bring a completed Placement & Challenge FORM (PDF) with you on the day of the exam.
CSU, Chico uses the textbook “Tonal Harmony, Eighth Edition” by Kostka/Payne/Almén.
- Specifics for each level of theory exams are listed below. Exams are based upon self-tests in the textbook and accompanying workbook.
Questions? Contact Brad Martin
Exam Date: Friday, August 18, 12:00PM – 2:00PM
Location: PAC 112
- Register by 5:00PM, Thursday, August 17
- Bring a completed Placement & Challenge FORM (PDF) with you on the day of the exam.
Exam Date: Requests accepted throughout the year
Location : TBD
- Schedule appointment by Email(opens in new window)
- Dann Sargent will inform you if an Exam form is needed
What to know in order to challenge (test out of):
- MUSC 101 - Theory I
Tonal Harmony, Eighth Edition, Part One, Chapters 1-4, pages 1-65
Identification of pitches (treble, bass, and C-clef; octaves)
Major/Minor scale identification
Major/Minor key signature identification
Interval identification (including compound and inversion)
Durational symbols identification
Time signature identification (Simple/Compound)
Triads identification
Seventh chords identification
Diatonic triads in Major/Minor identification
Diatonic seventh chords in Major/Minor identification
4-part harmonic analysis
- MUSC 102 - Theory II
Tonal Harmony, Eighth Edition, Part Two, Chapters 5-13, pages 66-217
Root position 4-part writing rules
Parallel sixth chord identification
Identification of cadential, passing, and pedal six-four chords
Identification of cadences, periods, phrases and sentences
Two-Part Counterpoint – 1st species
Identification of non-chord tones
Harmonic analysis (4-part, various textures) with first and second inversion triads and seventh chords
First and second inversion 4-part writing rules
- MUSC 201 - Theory III
Tonal Harmony, Eighth Edition, Parts Three and Four, Chapters 14-20, pages 218-356
Voice-leading considerations (seventh chords)
Secondary dominant identification
Secondary leading-tone identification
Modulation identification
Harmonic analysis (4-part, various textures) with triads/seventh chords including modulations
Larger Musical Forms
- MUSC 202 - Theory IV
Tonal Harmony, Eighth Edition, Part Five and Six, Chapters 21-28, pages 357-554
Borrowed chord identification
Neopolitan chord identification and function
Augmented sixth chord identification and function
Altered chord identification
Chord extension identification (9, 11, 13)
Mode identification
Alternate scale identification
Pandiatonicism identification
Twelve-tone and serial row analysis and creation (including permutations)
Harmonic analysis (4-part, various textures) with triads/seventh chords including modulations
- MUSC 103 - Aural Musicianship IPrepare, and sight-sing major and minor melodies such as those found in Ottman chapters 2-5
Take dictation of melodies similar to those in Ottman chapters 2-5
Aurally identify all intervals - ascending, descending, and harmonic.
Aurally identify qualities of triads
Perform rhythms using division of the beat in simple and compound meter signatures
Take dictation of rhythms using division of the beat in simple and compound meter signatures
* Ottman, Robert, Music for Sight Singing (6th edition) - MUSC 104 - Aural Musicianship II
Take dictation of melodies at least as difficult as Ottman, 6th ed. #398 (perhaps shorted by leaving out the 2nd line).
Take dictation of rhythms at least as difficult as Ottman 6th ed. #494, 503, 504, 506, 517 (perhaps without the rests), 522
Take harmonic dictation, writing outer voices and Roman Numerals, of chord progressions such as:- I V6 I IV6 I6 ii6 V6/4-5/3 I (sorry about the problems notating Cadential 6/4)
I IV6 ii6 V6/4-4/2 I6 IV V6/4-5/3 I
I ii6 V4/2 I6 IV V6/4-5/3 vi
Students will learn to “audiate” a musical score. By the end of the course students should be able to:
Perform rhythms at least as complex as Ottman 6th ed. #s 501-515, 519-540
Prepare singing melodies at least as difficult as Ottman #427
Sightsing melodies at least as difficult as Ottman #305
* Ottman, Robert, Music for Sight Singing (6th edition) - I V6 I IV6 I6 ii6 V6/4-5/3 I (sorry about the problems notating Cadential 6/4)
- MUSC 105 - Beginning Piano I
- Technique:
- Major and harmonic minor scales beginning on any white key, 1 octave, hands together;
- Chromatic scale beginning on any key, 2 octaves, separate hands;
- Major and minor arpeggios beginning on all white keys, 2 octaves, hands alone;
- Appropriate use of the damper pedal.
- Chords and Chord progressions:
- Major/minor/diminished/augmented triads on any note, hands together in root position;
- Primary Chord Progressions in all Major and minor keys, hands together.
- Harmonization:
- Ability to provide a two-hand accompaniment to pieces using primary chords;
- Ability to improvise the L.H. accompaniment in various accompaniment styles (e.g. the Waltz Bass, the Alberti Bass or the March Bass).
- Sight-reading:
- Pieces at the level of Bartok's Mikrokosmos, Vol. I.
- Solo Repertoire:
- Pieces at the level of Kabalevsky's “A Little Joke.”
- Technique:
- MUSC 106 - Beginning Piano II
- Technique:
- All Major Scales, parallel motion, 2 octaves, hands together;
- Harmonic minor scales starting on any white key, parallel motion, 2 octaves, hands together;
- Selected contrary motion Major scales, 2 octaves, hands together;
- All Major and minor arpeggios, 2 octaves, hands together;
- Continued use of the damper pedal.
- Chords and Chord Progressions:
- Inversions of all types of triad chords;
- Various seventh-chord qualities in blocked and broken positions;
- Secondary chord progression of I-vi-IV-ii6-I6/4-V7-I in all Major keys.
- Harmonization:
- Ability to provide a two-hand accompaniment to pieces using the inversions of primary & secondary chords and seventh-chords;
- Ability to improvise the L.H. accompaniment in various accompaniment styles (e.g. the Extended L.H. Accompaniment).
- Transposition:
- Ability to transpose folk song arrangements into nearby keys.
- Sight-reading:
- Pieces at the level of easier pieces from Kabalevsky's “Twenty-Four Pieces for Children,” Op. 39.
- Solo Repertoire:
- Pieces at the level of J. S. Bach's Minuet in G; Clementi's Sonatina in C; or Kabalevsky's Toccatina
- Technique: