Week 2 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Pulse and Page

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 2 of 16 (Week 2) · two sessions per week
Objectives tested: SLO 1 (read and notate rhythm and meter) · SLO 7 (name what you hear — here, name what you can count)
Points: 10 (10 × 1) · Group: Quizzes (lowest 2 of 14 dropped) · Due: the end of Week 2 · online, 15-minute timer, 1 attempt, closed to AI.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready QTI is rendered by the build system from _build/banks/lu-02.json, which also holds this unit's 15 exam-pool items (idents k3lu02x01–x15) — those test the same concepts with different stems, feed the midterm, and never appear on this quiz. Every item below is answerable from text alone; no images required.

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Blueprint

The table below maps each item to its type, concept, and objective.

#	Type	Concept(s)	Objective
1	Multiple choice	Beat vs. rhythm vs. tempo	SLO 1
2	Multiple choice	Note-value proportions	SLO 1
3	Multiple choice	The augmentation dot	SLO 1
4	Multiple choice	The tie	SLO 1
5	Matching	Meter classification (duple/triple/quadruple)	SLO 1
6	Multiple choice	Time signature — the bottom number	SLO 1
7	Multiple choice	"1 e & a" counting	SLO 7
8	Multiple choice	Barlines and measures	SLO 1
9	Multiple choice	Anacrusis (pickup)	SLO 7
10	True / False	Beaming is visual grouping	SLO 1

No trick questions; every distractor targets a misconception named in the Week 2 outline (the dot "adds a beat," the bottom number as a count, tie-equals-slur, 3/4 as "three quarter notes," beams changing the sound).

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Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). A drummer counts off, and for the rest of the tune the whole group locks onto one grid of equally spaced pulse points. That underlying pulse is —

• A. the rhythm
• B. the beat ✅
• C. the tempo
• D. the measure

Feedback: The beat is the steady reference pulse a group locks onto; rhythms ride on top of it and tempo only says how fast it goes.

Q2 (MC). How many half notes does it take to match one whole note?

• A. 3
• B. 4
• C. 8
• D. 2 ✅

Feedback: Each value halves the one above it: a whole note splits into two halves, four quarters, or eight eighths.

Q3 (MC). Counted in quarter-note beats, a single dotted quarter note lasts —

• A. 1½ beats ✅
• B. 1 beat
• C. 2 beats
• D. 2½ beats

Feedback: A dot tacks on half the note's own length, so a quarter (one beat) grows to a beat and a half.

Q4 (MC). A half note is tied to the quarter note after it, both on the same line. A listener hears —

• A. two separate sounds, connected a little more gently
• B. one sound cut to half its length
• C. one unbroken three-beat sound, attacked once ✅
• D. two different pitches played legato

Feedback: A tie welds two written notes into one sounding note: their values add, and only the first is attacked.

Q5 (Matching). Match each signature to the meter family it belongs to.

Answer bank: simple duple · simple triple · simple quadruple

• 2/2 → simple duple ✅
• 3/8 → simple triple ✅
• 4/2 → simple quadruple ✅

Feedback: The top number sets the count — 2, 3, or 4 beats — and in simple meters each of those beats splits in two.

Q6 (MC). In the signature 3/8, what is the 8 on the bottom telling you?

• A. the eighth note is the beat unit ✅
• B. every measure packs in eight beats
• C. the piece must be taken at a brisk clip
• D. the piece is eight measures long

Feedback: The bottom number names a note value, never a speed: an 8 hands the beat to the eighth note.

Q7 (MC). In 3/4 you slice every beat into four equal sixteenths. Beat 2 is spoken —

• A. 2 &
• B. 2 & a
• C. 2 e & a ✅
• D. 1 e & a

Feedback: Simple-meter subdivision borrows the beat's number and then runs e-&-a through the remaining sixteenths.

Q8 (MC). Thin vertical strokes slice the staff into equal parcels of time. One parcel — the span from stroke to stroke — is called —

• A. a measure ✅
• B. a phrase
• C. a system
• D. a beat

Feedback: Barlines are the fences; the measure is the plot of musical time fenced in between them.

Q9 (MC). A waltz in 3/4 opens with a one-beat pickup note. By tradition, the closing measure of the piece then contains —

• A. three beats, like any complete measure
• B. four beats, to absorb the difference
• C. one beat, mirroring the opening
• D. two beats — it hands back what the pickup borrowed ✅

Feedback: Pickup and final bar form one whole measure between them, so a one-beat pickup leaves a two-beat closing bar in 3/4.

Q10 (True/False). Writing four sixteenth notes under one beam, rather than flagging each separately, changes the rhythm a listener hears.

• True
• False ✅

Feedback: Beams are purely visual bookkeeping — they bundle notes for the eye and leave the sound completely untouched.

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Answer key (quick reference)

The table below lists each item's correct response.

Q	Answer
1	B
2	D
3	A
4	C
5	2/2 → simple duple · 3/8 → simple triple · 4/2 → simple quadruple
6	A
7	C
8	A
9	D
10	False

Quality gate (machine-checked): exactly one correct option per single-answer item; the multiple-choice key sequence B D A C A C A D carries no run longer than two and no positional lean; option lengths balanced within each item; every spelling claim verified against the course theory reference by the correctness gate; no item tests material from a later unit; no stem or scenario reuses the tutorial, practice, chapter, studio, assignment, or exam-pool surfaces (leakage-checked mechanically at build time).

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Item-bank note (instructor-facing)

The ten quiz items above carry idents k3lu02q01–k3lu02q10 in _build/banks/lu-02.json, each tagged with its ledger concept_ids and objective. The same bank holds k3lu02x01–k3lu02x15: fifteen exam-pool items on the same eleven Week 2 concepts with fully different stems (zero text overlap — the leakage gate checks). The midterm draws from the pool, never from the live quiz.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Quizzes::Quiz
title            = "Week 2 Quiz — Pulse and Page"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible  = 10
grading_type     = points
time_limit       = 15
allowed_attempts = 1
shuffle_answers  = true
due              = the end of Week 2
published        = true
access_note      = "Closed to AI — this one is just you and the grid. The proctored midterm works the same way."

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