All students applying for the B.Mus. Program or the B.A. (major in Music) must take two written assessments: one in theory and the other in aural skills. You will write these on the same day as your audition.

Aural Skills

The individual aural skills assessment will take approximately fifteen minutes. You will be asked to do the following:

• sing given melodies at sight
• sing a melody first played on an instrument
• clap a rhythm at sight
• clap a rhythm first played on an instrument
• identify, by ear, types of intervals and triads played on tape (e.g., perfect 4th, minor 3rd, major triad, diminished triad).

Theory Assessment

You will be given two hours to complete the theory assessment. A minimum grade of 60% must be attained as a prerequisite for entrance into Music Theory 113. If you have already passed the Royal Conservatory of Music Advanced Rudiments (formerly called Grade 2 Theory) within the previous two years, you may be exempt from the theory assessment.

Material to be covered in the theory assessement includes the following:

• Ability to work in treble, bass, alto or tenor clefs
• Identification and writing of all intervals (up or down)
• Inversion of intervals
• Compound intervals of 9ths or 10ths
• Enharmonic respelling of intervals
• Identification and writing of triad types (major, minor, diminished, augmented) in all positions (root, first inversion, second inversion)
• Identification or writing of dominant seventh chords in root position and all inversions
• Identification or writing of diminished sevenths in root position only
• Identification of the key implied by a given dominant seventh chord or diminished seventh
• Transposition of a short passage in piano score up or down any given interval, maintaining proper alignment of notes and using the new key signature
• Writing of major and minor (both harmonic and melodic) scales
• Writing of any of the church modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian) beginning on any pitch
• Identification and writing of key signatures for major and minor keys
• Identification and writing of the degrees of a given major or minor scale (e.g., mediant, dominant, leading tone, etc.)
• Addition of rests to a short musical excerpt to complete the measures in any given time signature (simple, compound or mixed metre)
• Supplying a time signature (simple, compound or mixed metre) to a given rhythmic pattern
• Addition of bar lines and beams to given note heads, to form rhythmic patterns in simple, compound or mixed metre
• Identification or writing of basic types of cadences (e.g., I-V, IV-V, V-I, and IV-I) 

Applicants for the B.A. (Music) program must be interviewed and must complete the written theory and ear tests, preferably on one of the Audition days listed above. They will perform an audition only if they wish to take Applied Music as an elective in their program. Such instruction will be approved only if faculty time permits.