Grade 5 Music Theory Review

Irregular Time Signatures

An irregular bar is a bar that you cannot divide into equal groups of two or three beats. The most common irregular bars have:

• five beats - quintuple time

• seven beats - septuple time

Here are some examples of irregular time signatures:

5/4 = five crotchets (quarter notes) in a bar

7/4 = seven crotchets (quarter notes) in a bar

5/8 = five quavers (eighth notes) in a bar

7/8 = seven quavers (eighth notes) in a bar

These are the only four irregular time signatures you must identify in Grade 5. It will not be too difficult to add bar-lines or time signatures in the exercises, so long as you count carefully!

Tenor Clef

Both the alto and tenor clefs are C clefs (𝄡): the only difference between them is their position on the stave. In alto clef, middle C is on the third line. In tenor clef, middle C is on the fourth line.

The tenor clef may be used by cellos, bassoons, and tenor trombones.

Major and Minor Keys up to Six Sharps and Six Flats

You studied keys with up to five sharps or flats in Grade 4. In Grade 5, you will study keys with six sharps or flats. They are:

• F# Major - 6 sharps: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#

• D# Minor - 6 sharps: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#

• G♭ Major - 6 flats: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭

• E♭ Minor - 6 flats: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭

F# Major and G♭ major are enharmonic equivalents - their scales sound the same but they are written differently.

Transposition

In the exam, you will have to transpose a melody. You may need to use any of these intervals:

1. Up or down an octave

2. Up or down a major 2nd

3. Up or down a minor 3rd

4. Up or down a perfect 5th

These four intervals are used by the transposing instruments in the orchestra.

Transposition Up or Down an Octave

You studied transposition at the octave in Grade 3, using the treble and bass clefs. In Grade 5, you will also need to use the alto and tenor cleffs. When you are familiar with these clefs, it should not be too difficult - but make sure that you do actually transpose the passage (rather than merely rewrite it at the same pitch in a different clef), and also that you transpose it one octave and not two.

Transposition Up or Down a Major 2nd

When instruments ‘in B flat’ (such as clarinets in B♭, trumpets in B♭) play middle C, the note you will hear is the B♭ below. In other words, instruments in B♭ produce sounds that are a major 2nd lower than the written notes.

Accidentals

You also need to be careful with the accidentals that occur in a melody. Note that:

• An accidental may have to be changed in the transposed version.

• A chromatically altered note must be replaced by its exact equivalent and not by an enharmonic substitute. (It is true that, for various special reasons, composers do occasionally use enharmonic substitutes, but these are exceptions.) The F natural in the first example (flattened 7th in G major) becomes E flat in the transposed version (flattened 7th in F major) - not D sharp.

Until the early 20th century, horn and trumpet parts were written without a key signature, whatever the key: accidentals were added before individual notes as necessary. However, in the following exercises, and in the Grade 5 exam, you should assume that a key signature is to be used unless there is an instruction to the contrary.

Except where a transposed part is written without a key signature, every accidental in the original requires a corresponding accidental in the transposed version. Do not try to improve on the given music by leaving out an accidental where one in the original was not strictly necessary. (The composer might have put it there as a sensible precaution, e.g. something being played by another instrument might cause confusion.)

Transposition Up or Down a Minor 3rd

The concert pitch of instruments in A is a minor 3rd lower than it is written. For example, if you play a written middle C on either a clarinet in A or on a trumpet in A, the note that you actually hear is the A below. So music that is written in C major actually sounds like A major. In the same way, you would have to write music in E♭ major if you wanted to have a concert pitch in C major.

Transposition Up or Down a Perfect 5th

If you play a written C on an instrument in F, you will actually hear the note F (concert F). The French horn and the cor anglais are the most common instruments in F. The notes played by both these instruments sound a perfect 5th lower than the written notes, their parts are written a perfect 5th above the concert notes.

Voices in Score

Most choral music uses a combination of four different voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The music for these four seperate parts is written on either two or four staves.

• In a two-stave layout, the upper voices - soprano and alto - are wirtten in the treble clef on the top stave; and the two lower voices - tenor and bass - are written in the bass clef on the bottom stave.

• In a four-stave layout, each part has its own stave in the order of soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

• When different voices share a stave, it is called short score.

• When each voie has a stave of its own, it is called open score.

SATB is short for:

Soprano

Alto

Tenor

Bass

You may be asked to transcribe into open score a passage written in short score, or the other way around. The examples below show three important points:

1. In short score, the tenor part is written in the bass clef; but in open score, it is written in treble clef, an octave higher than it actually sounds. It is advisable to write a small 8 under the tenor’s treble clef to show that the music sounds an octave lower than written.

2. In short score, the stems of soprano and tenor notes always go up, wherever they are on the stave; and the stems of alto and bass notes always go down. Whenever two parts on the same stave share the same pitch, you must draw a stem for each voice. However, if the note value is a semibreve, you must write two overlapping semibreves on the stave, like this 𝅝𝅝 to represent both voices.

3. When two vocal lines share the same stave, an accidental before a note in one part must be writtten again if the same note occurs in the other part later in the same bar.

More Irregular Time Signatures

You have already studied the most common irregular time divisions: triplets and duplets.

• A group of 5, 6, or 7 uses the same time values as a group of 4.

• A group of 9 uses the same values as a group of 8.

Intervals

In Grade 5, you must be able to describe the interval between any two notes. Sometimes the two notes may be more than one octave apart.

You can describe intervals of less than an octave in the same way that you did at Grade 4.

Intervals of more than one octave are called compound intervals. You can describe compound intervals in two ways. Musicians generally refer to a 9th, 10th, 12th, and 15th rather than to a compound 2nd or a compound 3rd etc. However, in the exam both forms are acceptable.

Naming Chords

Use roman numbers to describe chords:

I = 1

II = 2

III = 3

IV = 4

V = 5

In Grade 4, you identified these chords in root position:

• Tonic (I)

• Subdominant (IV)

• Dominant (V)

In Grade 5 you will also look at the supertonic.

In the exam, you will need to say which note is the lowest note of the chord (root, 3rd, or 5th), in other words, which inversion the chord is in.

Ornaments

In Grade 5 you must be abelt o replace written-out ornaments with ornament signs.

Don’t be confused by the fact that there may be other possible interpretations of the appropriate ornament apart from the one given.

Chords at Cadential Points

In the exam, you will be asked to choose chords for a simple melody in C, G, D, or F major. You will only need to know the chords on the tonic, supertonic, subdominant, and dominant (I, II, IV, and V for each of these keys.) They will be used a points in the melody where there is a cadence.

These chords most commonly used at cadences:

• V-I = Perfect Cadence

• IV - I = Plagal Cadence

• (any chord) - V = Imperfect Cadence

You may also be asked to use or identify a 6/4 5/3 chord progression. This is a good sequence to use when preparing a perfect or imperfect cadence point on the dominant note (where 6/4 refers to chord Ic and 5/3 refers to chord V).

There are a number of different ways to indicate a chord. You can:

1. Use roman numerals

2. Show how it might appear in jazz or popular music

3. Add a figured bass

4. Write out the notes in full on the staves

You can choose to write chords in any of these ways, just make sure it is clear!

Most degrees of the major scale can be harmonized in two ways, using the chords listed above. But there are no alternative chords for the 3rd adn 7th degrees. These are the possibilities in C major.