Keyboard Proficiency

The keyboard proficiency examination is administered at the end of each semester during piano juries. Four one-credit Keyboard Skills courses (MUZ 161, 162, 261, 262) are offered to help students prepare for the proficiency exam, or students may take private piano lessons (e.g., MUZ 156) for the same purpose. Piano or Organ performance majors or other majors concentrating in piano or organ as their applies area are not exempt from the keyboard skills requirements; they must pass the exam.

The requirements are as follows:

1. Play all major and minor scales, two octaves, hands together, ascending and descending (M.M.=120)
2. Play all major and minor triads in root position and inversions, in blocked form, two octaves, hands together, ascending and descending.
3. Major and minor extended cadences, hands together (I-IV-I-V7-I).
4. Harmonize melody with given chord symbols (at sight).
5. Harmonize melody without given chord symbols (at sight).
6. Play an accompaniment selected from the literature of the student's own area of concentration. Prepared. (Choice of accompaniment must be approved by Keyboard Skills instructor.)
7. Play a hymn in four-part harmony (instrumental majors) or play from an open score (vocal majors). Prepared. (Choice of hymn or score must be approved by Keyboard Skills instructor.)
8. Play two pieces, by two different composers, one must be from memory. These may be selected from the following literature (or repertoire of comparable difficulty), and must be approved by Keyboard Skills instructor.
1. Album for the Young, Robert Schumann
2. Sonatinas, Op. 36 #1-6, Clementi
3. An Introduction to the Works of J.S. Bach, ed. Willard Palmer
4. An Introduction to the Works of Chopin, ed. Willard Palmer
5. An Introduction to the Works of Beethoven, ed. Willard Palmer
6. Songs Without Words, Felix Mendelssohn
7. Microcosmos, Vol. 4, Bela Bartok
8. Sonatina, Dmitri Kabalesky
9. Sonatina, Sergei Prokofiev