AEPA Music Exam

The Music test measures your knowledge according to the Arizona Academic Standards. Success on the test indicates that you are qualified to teach music in Arizona public schools. The test content is drawn from five subareas based on AEPA learning objectives: Music Theory (17% of the test); Music Performance (27%); Listening Skills (21%); Music History and Culture (21%); and Music and Other Disciplines (14%). Test-takers should know the basics of each of these areas. For instance, the Music Theory subarea covers topics such as musical notation, harmonic function, and forms and techniques of composing, arranging, and evaluating music. The test includes questions on sound production, singing, instruments, conducting, and types of performance. Test-takers should be able to identify instruments and key components in music. They should know world music and the development of Western music from the Middle Ages to the present. The final subarea includes content on music education and philosophies of music.

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AEPA Music Practice Questions

1. What is the term for a musical expression repeated several times?

A: caesura
B: ostinato
C: basso profundo
D: glissando

2. What is the name of the Brazilian dance that is slightly faster than the tango?

A: cha-cha
B: conjunto
C: mambo
D: samba

3. What is the musical term for the simultaneous performance of variations on the same melody?

A: syncopation
B: polyphony
C: synecdoche
D: heterophony

4. What is the name for instruments that produce sound when the skin stretched across a chamber of air is struck?

A: chordophones
B: idiophones
C: membranophones
D: electrophones

5. What is the name for the unique and identifiable quality of the sound produced by a certain musical instrument?

A: timbre
B: rhythm
C: pitch
D: pulse

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Answer key

1. B. Ostinato may be either harmonic or melodic.
2. D. The samba is often associated with the Carnival in Brazil.
3. D. Heterophony is different from polyphony, in which harmonized versions of the same melody are played simultaneously.
4. C. Drums are the best examples of membranophones.
5. A. Differences in timbre enable the listener to identify individual instruments playing the same note.