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Department of Music
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Placement Tests and Resources

New Music Major and Prospective Double Major Info

Welcome to the UCI Department of Music! Below are some links to important information that will help set you up for success in your studies here.

Welcome Week and Placement Tests

“Welcome Week” refers to the 3 days in fall quarter prior to the first day of classes. For Fall 2025, those days are Mon-Wed. Sept. 22–24, with Thursday Sept. 26 being the first day of classes. This week is also called “week 0” because each quarter has 10 full weeks of classes, and in fall the first full week of classes (“week 1”) begins the following Monday, Sept. 30.

CTSA and the Music Department hold many activities during Welcome Week and some are required, so please be sure to review the Welcome Week Schedule.

Two of the most important required activities for all new music majors in Welcome Week are the Music Theory and Musicianship Placement Exams. The Theory test will determine whether you are able to begin the first quarter in our core first-year theory sequence (MUS 16A), or instead must take Fundamentals (MUS 25) first, and begin MUS 16A in your second year. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you study theory basics over the summer to help you achieve the skill level needed to place into MUS 16A in your first quarter in the music major. To help with this, we provide you with details on the content of our Music Theory and Musicianship Placement Exams, and we also offer a page listing Resources for studying Music Theory and Musicianship, including free, online textbooks.

Ensemble Auditions

Most of our ensemble classes are open by audition to all UCI students. For some classes, auditions take place in fall during Welcome Week, and for others, they are handled differently. Details about all ensemble auditions are summarized on our Ensemble Auditions page. For more information about each ensemble/area, please see the Ensembles page.

Summary of Ensemble Auditions details for all ensembles
Overview of all department Ensembles

Degree Requirements and Course Advising

Please note that B.A. and B.Mus. degrees will be changing starting in Fall 2025. Welcome Week Schedule provides lists of the requirements for all degrees, including for new music majors entering in Fall 2025.

The CTSA Student Affairs and Academic Advising office has a wonderful team of staff and peer mentors who can help you with questions about degree requirements and course advice, including how to ensure that you are moving efficiently through the degree requirements and other questions such as how to pursue a double major. You can contact the CTSA Academic Advisors in various ways including a live chat.

Music Theory and Musicianship

Music Theory and Musicianship Placement Exams

All incoming Freshman music majors and transfer students must take placement exams in music theory and musicianship.

The theory placement test will indicate whether a student needs to take a remedial fundamentals of music course or can be placed into one of the four required quarters of music theory (16A-D). All students must take the brief fundamentals section of the theory placement test, which includes pitch notation and naming, rests, staves, the piano keyboard, simple and compound meters, minor and major scales, key signatures, and diatonic and chromatic intervals. Those who don’t pass the fundamentals section of the exam will be required to take fundamentals at some point in their Freshman year, prior to beginning the Music 16 sequence the subsequent Fall. Qualified students are welcome to take further exams in the sequence. Below is a summary of topics covered by each successive quarter of Music 16.

The musicianship placement exam will indicate a student’s approximate skill level for placement within the skill modules within MUS 15. Other than rare cases in which a student places out of MUS 15 entirely during that placement exam, all students should enroll in MUS 15: Musicianship when beginning the music major, and continue to enroll in that course each quarter, up to a maximum of six quarters, until they have satisfied the department’s musicianship requirement.

Online resources to prepare for both the theory and musicianship placement exams can be found here.

Music 16A

seventh chords
chord spacing
part-writing in four voices
melodic figuration and embellishing tones
harmonic function
proper use of the dominant seventh chord
first inversion chords
species counterpoint
cadences
elementary phrase construction.

Music 16B

thematic analysis (period and sentence)
linear chords (64, dominants, and others)
pre-dominant part-writing
advanced melodic figuration and rhythmic devices
secondary triad function
secondary dominants and leading-tone chords
modulation to I and III
diatonic sequence

Music 16C

seventh-chord sequences
binary, ternary, variation and compound classical forms
modulations to related keys
introduction to chromatic harmony (modal mixture, the Neapolitan and the augmented sixth chord)
analysis of extended excerpts.

Music 16D

introduction to sonata form
augmented triads
altered dominants
common-tone sevenths
extended harmonies (9th, 11th, 13th and added-note)
chromatic sequence
dominant prolongation
foreign modulations

Musicianship

As noted in the UCI Catalogue, MUSIC 15 (Musicianship) is a repeatable course students must take starting at the beginning of their major studies. At the end of the course, there is a Musicianship Proficiency Exam, which students must pass within six quarters of entering the major.

MUS 15 instructs students in the use of moveable “do” for the purposes of sight-singing, in addition to transcribing (i.e., dictating) melodies, rhythms, and harmonic progressions. After completing all course modules and satisfying the Musicianship Proficiency Exam, students should be able to:

Sing any tonal melody from sight using solfege, including those that feature modulation, mixed meters, and complex divisions of the beat
Transcribe melodies and harmonic progressions (notating outer voices and roman numerals) from a range of genres
Perform short harmonic progressions in the piano, in tempo and featuring proper voice leading

Musicianship Placement, 2024–2025

All incoming students must enroll in Musicianship (Music 15) in fall quarter, and continue enrolling in the course until all dictation and sight-singing exams have been passed. To determine their starting point in the curriculum, all new students must take a required Musicianship Dictation Exam during Welcome Week. Students may also choose to take an optional five-minute Sight-Singing Placement Test. Both tests are listed on the Welcome Week Schedule.

Part 1: Dictation Exam (Mandatory for all new Music Undergraduates)

What: Students will transcribe short melodies and harmonic progressions of increasing difficulty. Students can leave the exam early when they feel they’ve reached the limits of their current abilities.

When: Monday, Sept. 23 from 2pm–4pm

Where: MM 316

How: Bring a pencil and arrive on time.

Part 2: Sight-singing Hearings

What: Students will sing short melodies on sight of varying difficulty on moveable-do solfege, with conducting.

When: Monday, Sept. 23 from 4pm–5pm

Where: MM 316

How: Sign up here (signup genius link). Arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled time. You will be called when your time is ready.

Optional: If you do not take the optional Sight Singing Hearing, you will be placed at the start of the sight-singing curriculum in fall.

After the Welcome Week exams, await an email from the Music Dept. with the results of your Musicianship placement. Unless you are told that you’ve passed out of the entire Musicianship curriculum, you must enroll in MUS 15 Musicianship in fall.

Resources

Music Theory

Open Textbooks and Study Guides

Gotham, M. et al. Open Music Theory, Vol.2. E-book, Viva Open Publishing, 2022
Mount, A. Fundamentals, Function, and Form. E-book, Milne Open Textbooks, 2009.
Murphy, B. Music Theory Materials: Musical Examples, Handouts, and Videos. Music Theory Materials website, University of Tennessee School of Music, 2018.
Hutchinson, R. Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom, E-Book.

Video Tutorials

Ito, John. Theory Fundamentals. John Paul Ito’s Music Theory Website, 2012

Interactive Exercises and Applications

Musictheory.net
Teoria.com tutorials and exercises
Picardy (free demos)
UTheory (free demos)
Artusi (online demos)
Theta Music Trainer

Basic Musicianship and Ear Training