Study Guide

Field 027: Fine Arts—Instrumental Music
Sample Listening and Multiple-Choice Questions

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General Directions

This test consists of two sections: (1) a listening section in which you will listen to audio excerpts and answer multiple-choice questions, and (2) a multiple-choice section in which you will respond to questions presented on the screen. The directions for each section appear immediately before that section.

Read each question and answer choice carefully and choose the ONE best answer. You should answer all questions. Even if you are unsure of an answer, it is better to guess than not to answer a question at all.

You may NOT use any type of reference materials during the testing session.

Listening Section

Directions

This section of the test contains multiple-choice questions that involve listening to a recorded excerpt. Excerpts will vary in length. Unless otherwise indicated, each listening excerpt will be played twice.

The audio will begin automatically once you advance to the next screen. There will be 20 seconds of silence before the audio excerpt begins to play. During these 20 seconds, you should familiarize yourself with the test question(s).

Once the audio begins, you will not be able to pause, stop, or replay it. Therefore, listen carefully. You will not be able to go back and review your answers to questions in this section of the test. Once you move to the next question, you will not be able to go back to previous questions in this section. Therefore, be sure to select your answer carefully before you move to the next question.

Sample Listening Question

Objective 0005
Musicianship (Standards 1.1–1.2, 1.6–1.7)

1. The melody in this excerpt is based on which of the following scales or modes?

(The examinee listens to a 30-second excerpt of traditional music from Japan.)

  1. Phrygian mode
  2. octatonic scale
  3. Dorian mode
  4. pentatonic scale
Answer
Correct Response: D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate a broad and comprehensive understanding of essential listening skills. The listening example features traditional Japanese music played and sung by an ensemble, including a koto (a long thirteen-stringed zither) and a shamizen (a three-stringed lute played with a plectrum). The musicians also sang as they played. The koto, shamizen, and voices shared a basic melody in a heterophonic texture. The music was primarily pentatonic with occasional auxiliary pitches added by one or the other of the performers.

Multiple-Choice Section

Objective 0006
Composing, Arranging, and Improvising (Standards 3.1–3.2, 3.7)

2. Which of the following notes, written for E-flat baritone saxophone, will sound a concert middle C?

Answer
Correct Response: B. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate a broad and comprehensive understanding of techniques for composing and arranging, including knowledge of instrumental transpositions and ranges. The E-flat baritone saxophone sounds an octave and a major 6th lower than the written pitch. In order to sound a concert middle C, the written note would have to be an A immediately above the treble clef staff.

Objective 0007
Conducting and Repertoire (Standard 5)

3. Use the excerpt below to answer the question that follows.

On which of the following parts of the measure should the conductor give the preparatory beat for the entrance indicated in the excerpt?

  1. beat one
  2. last half of beat one
  3. beat three
  4. last half of beat three
Answer
Correct Response: C. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate a broad and comprehensive understanding of conducting techniques, including preparatory beats. The time signature for the example is 4/4, and the entrance is an eighth note on the last half of beat three. To be clear, the preparatory beat should be beat three of the standard 4/4 pattern, and in the correct tempo of the music to follow.

Objective 0008
Instrumental Performance Techniques (Standards 6.2–6.11)

4. Which of the following actions most often causes a bassoon to play flat?

  1. playing on a soft or worn reed
  2. tightening the embouchure around the reed
  3. biting the reed with the lower teeth
  4. placing too much reed in the mouth
Answer
Correct Response: A. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate a broad and comprehensive understanding of instrumental performance techniques, including knowledge of common technical challenges encountered in playing various instruments. In playing a bassoon, the nature of the reed being used is of primary importance in controlling intonation. A reed which is too soft and/or worn will play flat over the range of the instrument, and minor adjustments in intonation will be difficult to make. There are certainly other potential causes for a bassoon to play flat, but among the choices given this would be the most correct.

Objective 0008
Instrumental Performance Techniques (Standards 6.2–6.11)

5. Which of the following best describes how a violinist should perform a passage marked pizzicato?

  1. playing an open string of the violin simultaneously with a stopped string
  2. plucking the strings of the violin using the right index finger
  3. attaching a small mute to the strings of the violin before playing
  4. striking the strings of the violin using the stick of the bow
Answer
Correct Response: B. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate a broad and comprehensive understanding of instrumental performance techniques, including techniques for performing on high strings. The term pizzicato, for violins and other bowed stringed instruments, is an indication the string is to be plucked with a finger, most often the right index finger.