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Week 8 · Practice exam

Week 8 — Practice Midterm · Foundations, Rehearsed

Music Theory I · MUS 156 Fictional sample

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 8 of 16 (Week 8) · two sessions per week
Covers: Units 1–7 · SLO 1, 2, 3, 7 — the same scope as the midterm
Format: 40 items · unlimited attempts · 0 gradebook points · full key and feedback below every item · open since week 6

How to use this. Take it cold first — no notes, no studying beforehand — because its first job is diagnosis: every item's feedback names the idea to revisit, and the study guide picks up from there. Then come back as often as you like; unlimited attempts are the point. It mirrors the real midterm's blueprint — same units in nearly the same proportions, same difficulty, same families of item types (plus a few select-two items that make you prove two answers at once). And one promise worth saying precisely: zero overlap with the live exam is a design guarantee, not a promise — the two are drawn from separate pools by construction, so nothing you see here appears on the live exam, and nothing on the live exam can be leaked here. What transfers is the skill, which is the whole idea.

The key is printed with every item because practice exams teach. Read the feedback on the ones you got RIGHT too — confirming why is cheap insurance.

Where these 40 items come from

The table below shows the practice blueprint next to the real one.

Unit Practice items Real-exam items
Week 1 — The map 6 6
Week 2 — Pulse and page 6 7
Week 3 — Dividing the beat 6 7
Week 4 — Major 5 8
Week 5 — Minor, three ways 5 8
Week 6 — Intervals I 6 7
Week 7 — Intervals II 6 7
Total 40 50

The items

Q1 (MC · m3mtp01). For the final held notes of a duet arrangement, which interval lands with nothing still owed?

  • A. m3 ✅
  • B. M7
  • C. d5
  • D. m2

Feedback: Thirds are consonances and can close a piece; seconds, sevenths, and tritones keep asking for motion.

Q2 (Matching · m3mtp02). Working in 4/4, match every value to the number of beats it occupies.

Answer bank: half a beat · two beats · three beats · four beats

  • dotted half note → three beats ✅
  • whole note → four beats ✅
  • half note → two beats ✅
  • eighth note → half a beat ✅

Feedback: With the quarter as the beat, each value's quarter-note arithmetic converts straight into beats — the dot adds half again.

Q3 (MC · m3mtp03). All night the pianist plays beat-length pairs — a held note chased by a quick note tucked into the beat's tail third. That lilt is —

  • A. shuffle — the swing feel ✅
  • B. dead-straight time
  • C. strict march time
  • D. waltz time

Feedback: The shuffle divides each beat like compound meter — two-thirds plus one-third — instead of the even halves of straight time.

Q4 (True/False · m3mtp04). Written music can legitimately be set in C♭ major, whose signature carries the full run of seven flats.

  • True ✅
  • False

Feedback: All seven letters take flats in C♭ major — the enharmonic twin of B major, which spells those sounds with five sharps.

Q5 (MC · m3mtp05). Counting up the scale, the submediant occupies degree —

  • A. ^4
  • B. ^6 ✅
  • C. ^2
  • D. ^3

Feedback: The submediant mirrors the mediant from below the tonic: midway down toward the subdominant, landing on ^6.

Q6 (MC · m3mtp06). Between ^6 and ^7 of G harmonic minor — E♭4 rising to F♯4 — sit three half steps. The proper label is —

  • A. d3
  • B. M2
  • C. m3
  • D. A2 ✅

Feedback: E♭ to F♯ spans only two letters, so its three half steps form an augmented second, never a minor third.

Q7 (MC · m3mtp07). In 4/4, a chord lands on the & after beat 1 and holds, tied, clear through beat 2 — so beat 2 passes with no attack. That is a textbook case of —

  • A. swing feel
  • B. a triplet
  • C. syncopation ✅
  • D. a pickup figure

Feedback: Tie an off-beat attack through the next strong beat and the accent lands early — the signature move of syncopation.

Q8 (MC · m3mtp08). Moving flatward, each new key plants its tonic on which degree of the key before it?

  • A. ^4 ✅
  • B. ^2
  • C. ^7
  • D. ^5

Feedback: Flatward motion falls a fifth — equivalently, it rises to the old key's fa: C hands off to F, F to B♭, and so on.

Q9 (MC · m3mtp09). All four beats of a 4/4 measure are performed as eighth-note triplets. By ear alone, that measure duplicates which 12/8 bar?

  • A. four dotted quarters struck once each
  • B. twelve flowing eighths, grouped three to a beat ✅
  • C. four plain quarter notes
  • D. sixteen even sixteenth notes

Feedback: Triplets on all four beats produce twelve even notes in threes — precisely the surface 12/8 writes natively.

Q10 (MC · m3mtp10). Sound a perfect fourth directly against the bass line: under this course's rules it counts as —

  • A. an interval banned from two-voice writing
  • B. a dissonance owing a resolution ✅
  • C. an augmented third wearing a disguise
  • D. a consonance of the same rank as the fifth

Feedback: Over the bass the fourth loses its stable standing and resolves — most often down into a third.

Q11 (True/False · m3mtp11). D♯4 and E♭4 trigger one and the same piano key yet remain two distinct notated pitches.

  • True ✅
  • False

Feedback: That is the heart of enharmonic spelling: identical sound, different written identity — the context decides which name is right.

Q12 (MC · m3mtp12). A treble clef opens a staff. You can expect that staff to hold —

  • A. chiefly the upper notes, from middle C on up ✅
  • B. chiefly the deep notes under middle C
  • C. nothing but sharped notes
  • D. notes that carry no letter names

Feedback: Clefs assign register: treble takes the territory above middle C, bass takes the territory below it.

Q13 (MC · m3mtp13). A vocal line shows a bracketed 3 over three quarter notes spanning two beats of 4/4. The singer must —

  • A. accent the last of the three notes hard
  • B. ease the tempo back until all three notes fit
  • C. sing the three-note figure three times over
  • D. fit three even notes where two quarters would go ✅

Feedback: A tuplet bracket re-slices a fixed span: here two beats' worth of time divides into three equal notes.

Q14 (MC · m3mtp14). Two intervals both cover five letter names; the first measures six half steps, the second seven. Name the pair, in order.

  • A. a pair of matching perfect fifths
  • B. a diminished fifth, then a perfect fifth ✅
  • C. an augmented fourth, then a perfect fifth
  • D. a perfect fifth, then an augmented fifth

Feedback: Five letters fix the size at a fifth; six half steps fall short of perfect (diminished), while seven hit it exactly.

Q15 (MC · m3mtp15). Which movable-do syllable belongs to ^4?

  • A. sol
  • B. fa ✅
  • C. re
  • D. mi

Feedback: Degree four is fa in every major key — movable do renames notes, never the ladder positions.

Q16 (Select TWO · m3mtp16). Hidden among these five spellings are TWO that sound as white keys. Choose them both.

  • A. B♯3 ✅
  • B. D♭4
  • C. F♭5 ✅
  • D. G♯5
  • E. A♯3

Feedback: B♯ climbs onto C and F♭ slides onto E — the four spellings B♯, C♭, E♯, and F♭ all disguise white keys.

Q17 (MC · m3mtp17). So far a 6/8 measure shows an eighth, a quarter, and another eighth. One value completes it. Which?

  • A. a dotted quarter note
  • B. an eighth note
  • C. a sixteenth note
  • D. a quarter note ✅

Feedback: A 6/8 bar totals six eighths; eighth + quarter + eighth spends four, leaving exactly a quarter's worth of room.

Q18 (MC · m3mtp18). Your trusted note is D5; the tune then falls a perfect fourth. Notate —

  • A. A4 ✅
  • B. B4
  • C. A♭4
  • D. G4

Feedback: Four letters down from D is A, five half steps below: A4 — always measure from the note you trust.

Q19 (Select TWO · m3mtp19). Exactly TWO of these fill a 3/4 measure to the brim. Pick both.

  • A. dotted quarter + eighth + quarter ✅
  • B. eighth + eighth + eighth
  • C. quarter + half + eighth
  • D. half + quarter ✅
  • E. half + half

Feedback: Tally quarter-beats and demand exactly three: 2+1 works, and 1½+½+1 works; the others run over or come up short.

Q20 (MC · m3mtp20). When harmonic minor lifts ^7, do-based solfège renames the syllable te as —

  • A. la
  • B. le
  • C. ti ✅
  • D. do

Feedback: The raised ^7 recovers its major-key syllable ti, voicing the half-step pull toward do.

Q21 (MC · m3mtp21). What makes transcribing by intervals faster than hunting every pitch from scratch?

  • A. each unknown pitch becomes a measurable distance from a known one ✅
  • B. the melody converts itself into C major
  • C. rhythm can be skipped and penciled in later
  • D. listening gets replaced by lucky guessing

Feedback: Anchors turn hearing into arithmetic: catch the leap, spell the distance, write the note.

Q22 (MC · m3mtp22). A choir stretches one syllable across many slow notes while a metronome ticks steadily beneath. Those even ticks are marking —

  • A. the beat ✅
  • B. the barlines
  • C. the melody
  • D. the rhythm

Feedback: However free the melody floats, the evenly spaced ticks underneath are the beat — the grid everything else is measured against.

Q23 (MC · m3mtp23). Which formal name attaches to ^3?

  • A. the subtonic
  • B. the supertonic
  • C. the mediant ✅
  • D. the submediant

Feedback: The mediant earns its name by sitting midway between tonic and dominant.

Q24 (MC · m3mtp24). G♭4 shares its piano key with exactly one spelling below. Which?

  • A. G♯4
  • B. F4
  • C. F♯4 ✅
  • D. F♯3

Feedback: The black key between F and G answers to both F♯ and G♭ — and the octave number must match for the spellings to share one key.

Q25 (MC · m3mtp25). Counted this course's way, the late note of every swung pair arrives on the syllable —

  • A. la
  • B. ta
  • C. &
  • D. li ✅

Feedback: The swung pair's second note rides the beat's final third — the li of the compound count, never the halfway &.

Q26 (MC · m3mtp26). In the do-based system, natural minor's ^6 takes the syllable —

  • A. sol
  • B. la
  • C. le ✅
  • D. te

Feedback: Do-based minor lowers three syllables from the major set — me, le, and te for ^3, ^6, and ^7.

Q27 (MC · m3mtp27). Which sequence of values comes out to exactly one bar of 3/4?

  • A. half + quarter + quarter
  • B. quarter + eighth + eighth + quarter ✅
  • C. dotted quarter + eighth + eighth
  • D. whole note + eighth note

Feedback: Add in quarter-beats: 1 + ½ + ½ + 1 = 3, exactly the three-beat budget of a 3/4 measure.

Q28 (MC · m3mtp28). E4 rising to C♯5 forms —

  • A. a perfect fifth
  • B. a minor sixth
  • C. a major seventh
  • D. a major sixth ✅

Feedback: Sixth letter up from E reaches C; nine half steps confirm that this sixth is major.

Q29 (MC · m3mtp29). A notehead sitting below the staff's middle line ordinarily takes its stem —

  • A. upward, attached on the right side ✅
  • B. in either direction, chosen at random
  • C. downward, attached on the left side
  • D. nowhere — low notes go stemless

Feedback: Stem direction follows staff position: low noteheads stem up on the right, high ones stem down on the left.

Q30 (MC · m3mtp30). Which note sits a minor sixth ABOVE E4?

  • A. C♯5
  • B. C5 ✅
  • C. B♯4
  • D. B4

Feedback: Sixth letter from E is C, and eight half steps keep it minor: C5 — B♯4 matches the sound while lying about the letter.

Q31 (MC · m3mtp31). Name the pitch a perfect fourth UNDER G♯4.

  • A. D♯4 ✅
  • B. C♯4
  • C. E♭4
  • D. D4

Feedback: Four letters below G is D; five half steps down from G♯4 gives D♯4 — E♭4 merely rents its sound.

Q32 (MC · m3mtp32). Halfway through a bar, a ♮ appears in front of a note that had carried a sharp. The natural sign —

  • A. drags the note one half step lower than plain
  • B. restores the plain letter pitch, undoing the earlier sharp ✅
  • C. lifts the note another half step higher
  • D. bumps the note a whole octave higher

Feedback: A natural is notation's eraser: it strips away any sharp or flat and returns the letter's unaltered pitch.

Q33 (Select TWO · m3mtp33). Only two of the five spans below are perfect. Choose that pair.

  • A. A3 up to C4
  • B. C4 up to A4
  • C. F4 up to B4
  • D. D4 up to G4 ✅
  • E. G3 up to D4 ✅

Feedback: D4-G4 is a perfect fourth and G3-D4 a perfect fifth; the rest come out major, minor, or augmented.

Q34 (MC · m3mtp34). The keys g♯ minor and a♭ minor are —

  • A. relative keys sharing one signature
  • B. identical keys on paper as well as in sound
  • C. a whole step apart in pitch
  • D. a single sound written as two distinct keys ✅

Feedback: Five sharps versus seven flats: the ear cannot separate them, the page always can — that is an enharmonic pair.

Q35 (MC · m3mtp35). Auld Lang Syne launches from a lone unstressed note just ahead of its first strong downbeat. That opening note is —

  • A. a grace-note ornament
  • B. a pickup, formally an anacrusis ✅
  • C. a fermata hold
  • D. the first downbeat itself

Feedback: An anacrusis is a running start: unstressed lead-in notes that aim the music at the first downbeat.

Q36 (MC · m3mtp36). On a grand staff, middle C is printed —

  • A. squarely on the middle line of the treble staff
  • B. on the lowest line of the treble staff
  • C. on a small stroke of its own between the two staves ✅
  • D. in the top space of the bass staff

Feedback: Middle C belongs to neither staff — it rides a single ledger line in the gap, reachable from both treble and bass.

Q37 (Select TWO · m3mtp37). Pick the TWO keys below whose signatures already contain a D♯.

  • A. G♭ major
  • B. B major ✅
  • C. A major
  • D. D major
  • E. E major ✅

Feedback: D♯ is sharp number four in the F-C-G-D order, so only keys with at least four sharps — E and B here — carry it.

Q38 (MC · m3mtp38). A3 rising to C♯4 and A3 rising to D♭4 are twins for the ear. On the page they are —

  • A. two identical diminished fourths
  • B. a major third followed by a diminished fourth ✅
  • C. two identical major thirds
  • D. an augmented second followed by a minor third

Feedback: C♯4 makes the letter distance a third (major); D♭4 makes it a fourth (diminished) — same sound, two intervals.

Q39 (MC · m3mtp39). In F major, scale degree ^2 is —

  • A. G ✅
  • B. B♭
  • C. C
  • D. A

Feedback: One whole step above the tonic F lands on G, the supertonic of the key.

Q40 (MC · m3mtp40). Inverted at the octave, a minor sixth turns into —

  • A. a major sixth
  • B. a minor third
  • C. an augmented third
  • D. a major third ✅

Feedback: Six inverts to three while minor trades for major: a major third comes back.

After an attempt

  1. Score yourself honestly, by unit. Three misses inside one unit is a flag; one scattered miss is noise.
  2. Follow the feedback to the study guide — its unit sections and trap table are built for exactly this loop.
  3. Drill the wobble with the prep-tutorial coach (AI allowed there; banned session 1), then come back for another attempt.
  4. When an attempt comes back clean — or nearly — you're ready. Stop rehearsing and go sleep; the exam only writes down what you already know.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object     = Quizzes::Quiz
title             = "Practice Midterm — Foundations (Units 1–7)"
quiz_type         = practice_quiz          # 0 points; never touches the gradebook
points_possible   = 0
allowed_attempts  = unlimited
show_correct_answers = true                # feedback after every submission
published         = true
available_from    = releases with week 6 — two weeks
                    ahead of the exam, alongside the study guide and prep tutorial
due               = none — open through exam morning
# QTI rendered by the build system from _build/exams/practice-midterm.json
# (idents m3mtp01–m3mtp40, globally unique). This page is the human-readable form.
This is the human-readable exam with its vetted answer key and rationale. The import-ready Classic-QTI version (O-practice-exam-week-08-qti.xml) ships inside the course's .imscc package — it lands in the Canvas gradebook on import.

~ Professor Hemsworth's edition · Kenosis College · built with thecoursemaker.com