The Music Stem / Music theory practice tests / ILTS Music 212
Exam practice
Timed practice for ILTS Music 212, set out in the board's own sections. Every answer comes with an explanation.
ILTS Music (212) is a licensure test for music teachers, owned by the Illinois State Board of Education.
This practice test covers listening, theory, creating and performing, history and teaching, for Illinois music teachers.
The listening questions use our own piano recordings. They cover intervals, chords, cadences, meter, texture, finding errors against a printed score and judging a piano performance. Each error question plays a single melody. Performance questions judge tempo, balance, dynamics and articulation on the piano. Recognizing a style, period, instrument or voice by ear is not included. Intonation, blend, tone and diction are not included either.
Exam mode runs a clock of 3 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test.
The full practice test holds 75 questions.
Study mode has no clock. It checks each answer as you go.
High school sopranos sound strident on a high, sustained "ee" vowel. Which adjustment helps most?
The answer is A, Open the vowel slightly toward "ih" and drop the jaw a little.
As pitch rises, singers modify closed vowels toward more open shapes and allow more jaw space. This vowel modification keeps the tone round. A wide smile spreads and brightens the vowel further. More volume adds pressure. A smaller mouth opening closes the vowel even more.
Many Native American songs include syllables such as he, ya and we that carry no dictionary meaning. What are these syllables called?
The answer is C, Vocables.
Vocables are fixed parts of a song and are learned as carefully as words. Scat syllables are improvised in jazz, solfège syllables stand for pitches, and bols are the spoken syllables of tabla strokes.
A kindergarten teacher pitches songs in a comfortable adult range, and many children cannot reach the lowest notes. Which change best helps them sing in tune?
The answer is C, Pitch songs higher, with most notes near F and G above middle C.
Adults tend to pitch songs too low for young voices. Sarrazin's Music and the Child places a young child's strongest notes around F and G and calls middle C a bit low.
Exam mode gives 3 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test. It holds 75 questions. Study mode has no clock.
It follows the board's order: Responding: Listening, Theory, Creating and Performing, Connecting: History, Culture and Pedagogy.
Yes. Each answer comes with an explanation of why it is correct.
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