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About the MGEEs All incoming graduate and transfer students to the USC Thornton School of Music are required to complete the Music Graduate Entrance Exams (MGEE) to determine appropriate placement in classes. This site is designed to help you prepare for these exams by allowing you to test yourself with examples of the various exams and determine those areas in which you need further study. Although these are not the actual exams you will take, they are quite similar and should give you a good idea of how you will do taking the exams. Please note: successful completion of these online exams is not a guarantee of success in the actual MGEEs. As you complete each of the practice exams on this site, not only will you receive a score of how well you did, you will also be given further information on areas of study related to the questions you missed. We strongly encourage you to follow those suggestions for reading and study before taking the actual exams. The Examinations (Brief Descriptions and Suggestions for Review) Aural Skills/Theory/Analysis: based on materials covered in four semesters of undergraduate Music Theory (MUCO 133ab, 233ab) and four semesters of Aural Skills (MUCO 132ab, 232ab) at the USC Thornton School of Music. Includes harmony and voice leading (including chromatic harmonies and possibly modulations), figured bass with Roman numerals, form and analysis, and 20th century techniques; melodic and harmonic dictation (diatonic and chromatic possibly with modulation), dictation of atonal fragments, possible dictation of two-part counterpoint excerpts. Review Suggestions: Kostka & Payne, Tonal Harmony; Kostka, Materials and Techniques of 20th Century Music; Green, Form in Tonal Music; Berkowitz, A New Approach to Sight Singing; and Horvit, Music for Ear Training. Orchestration: based on material covered in one semester of Orchestration (MUCO 338x) at the USC Thornton School of Music and includes questions on ranges, clefs and transpositions of orchestral instruments, score comprehension and literacy, and short arranging problems. Review Suggestions: Kennan, Orchestration; Blatter, Instrumentation/Orchestration; and Adler, The Study of Orchestration. Note: composition majors take a different orchestration exam which is not included on this site. Please contact the Composition Department for details. Counterpoint: based on material covered in three semesters of Counterpoint for composition majors (MUCO 135, 235, 435) at the USC Thornton School of Music and included identification and writing of such contrapuntal forms as motet, canon, invention, chorale-variation, and fugue. Review Suggestions: Kennan, Counterpoint; and Benjamin, Craft of Modal Counterpoint. Note: only composition majors take this exam and it is not included on this site. Please contact the Composition Department for details. Music History and Literature (for transfer undergraduates only): The examination is based on materials covered in three semesters of undergraduate Music History and Literature (MUHL 231, 232 and 233) at the USC Thornton School of Music, which covers Western music from antiquity to the present. The exam is multiple-choice format, with some questions in each part involving listening examples and scores (listening examples do not necessarily correspond to score excerpts on the exam). Review Suggestions: Grout and Palisca, A History of Western Music; Weiss and Taruskin, Music in the Western World; and Simms and Wright, Music in Western Civilization. Choral Conducting: based on materials covered in Choral Conducting I (MUCD 340) at the USC Thornton School of Music. The exam tests familiarity with standard conducting patterns (1-12, simple, compound, and mixed meters) and ability to conduct from choral scores in four parts in modern clefs. Review Suggestions: Green, Modern Conductor; McElheran, Conducting Techniques for Beginners and Professionals; and Willetts, Upbeat Downbeat: Basic Conducting Patterns and Techniques. Instrumental Conducting: The instrumental conducting examination is designed to place transfer and graduate students in either Instrumental Conducting I or Instrumental conducting II. (Note that many graduate programs only require students to pass out of Instrumental Conducting I.) The examination is based on material covered in Instrumental Conducting I (MUCD 343), and tests familiarity with standard conducting patterns, including sub-divided meters. Students must be prepared to conduct all movements of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Review Suggestions: Green, Modern Conductor; McElheran, Conducting Techniques for Beginners and Professionals; and Willetts, Upbeat Downbeat: Basic Conducting Patterns and Techniques. Piano Literature: The piano literature examination is based on material ordinarily covered in a two-semester, upper-division undergraduate keyboard literature course (MPKS 472ab in the Thornton School of Music section of the USC catalogue). Although such courses cover the entire history of this literature, special emphasis is placed on the solo literature of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries that frequently appears on piano recitals. Review Suggestions: Gillespie, Five Centuries of Keyboard Music; Gordon, A History of Keyboard Literature; and Kirby, Music for Piano: a Short History. Note: only piano majors take this exam and it is not included on this site. Please contact the Department of Keyboard Studies at (213) 740-7703 for details. Which Exams Will You Take Undergraduate transfer students who have had coursework in any of the fields of study listed above must take the appropriate examination(s) before they will be allowed to register for those classes. Doctor of Musical Arts students must take all examinations listed above before registering for classes (Exceptions: only piano majors are required to take the piano literature examination; only composition majors are required to take the counterpoint examination). PhD students must take the same examinations as Masters candidates in Musicology. Students who hold an undergraduate or graduate degree from the Thornton School of Music are exempt from any examinations in fields in which they have taken comparable coursework. Master's degree students: required examinations for particular majors are listed below. Students who hold a Bachelor of Music or a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Thornton School of Music are exempt from any examinations in fields in which they have taken comparable coursework.
This site is designed to work on any modern Windows PC or Macintosh computer. For the audio examples, you will need some sort of mp3 player software (RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, iTunes, etc.) and the free Adobe Reader software for the pdf format printed examples. Clicking the "Reveal Answer" button in each of the exams creates a new window. If these fail to open, turn off the Pop-Up Window Blocker function in your web browser. |
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MGEE Home | Theory and Analysis Exam | Aural Skills Exam | Orchestration Exam  Music Admissions USC Thornton School of Music Los Angeles, CA 90089-0851 Phone: 213.740.8986 Fax: 213.740.8995 Email: uscmusic@usc.edu www.usc.edu/music/ |
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