The validation/exemption exam for T151 is a 90-minute exam focusing on diatonic harmony. The exam includes brief part-writing exercises (to be completed in four voices, observing principles of good voice leading) as well as short musical excerpts for analysis and other short theoretical questions. Students will be required to write and/or identify common diatonic triads and seventh chords, identifying root, quality, inversion, Roman numeral, and/or harmonic function as appropriate. Students should be also be able to write and/or identify the common types of six-four chords, cadences, and non-chord tones. The analytical portions could also include questions about rhythmic/metric structure, basic phrase structure, and melodic/motivic structure in the given excerpts. There may also be questions about more fundamental concepts such as scales, intervals, key signatures, and spelling of triads and seventh chords.
T151 covers approximately the first 14 chapters of the textbook The Complete Musician, 3rd edition, by Steven G. Laitz, or the first eight chapters of Graduate Review of Tonal Theory by Steven G. Laitz and Christopher Bartlette. Students preparing to take the exam may find it useful to review relevant chapters from either textbook.