The Department of Music requires all incoming music majors to take a short Music Fundamentals Assessment Exam when they arrive on campus.  The exam allows the music faculty to assess your ability to do the following:

  1. Identify and write notes in various clefs.
  2. Identify and construct major and minor scales on any given note.
  3. Identify and write key signatures in all major and minor keys.
  4. Identify and write major, minor, augmented, and diminished intervals.
  5. Identify and construct major, minor, augmented, diminished triads in root position.
  6. Recognize, comprehend, and notate rhythmic patterns in simple and compound meter signatures.

Students who demonstrate thorough mastery of all material on the Fundamentals Assessment Exam will be given the opportunity to bypass MU101 (Music Theory 1) during their first semester.

Click the link below to download a sample assessment exam (PDF). We encourage you to complete this practice exam on your own to help you determine if there are skills you need to work on prior to your arrival at NMU in the fall (see below for suggested study resources). 

We recommend either of the following books to help you prepare for this exam: 

  • The Practice of Harmony, 7th ed., Spencer and Bennett, published by Pearson Prentice Hall, © 2019. (Chapters 1-6)
  • Basic Materials in Music Theory: A Programmed Course, 13th ed.,Steinke and Harder, published by Pearson Prentice Hall, © 2019. (Entire book)

The following websites are also valuable resources: