A typical format for a music listening quiz is two-fold:

1. Your instructor plays a series of music selections in class
2. You are tasked to identify the composer and title of each music selection

Pretty simple.

Preparing, however, for such a simple test as this can prove difficult if you have never done so.

Here are 8 study tips to help you successfully prepare for your next music listening quiz:

• Gather all the recordings that will be on the quiz and put them in place. This can either be a burned CD or play list on your computer or iPod.
• Passively and actively listen to all the music selections at least once a day leading up to the quiz.
• Passively listen to the selections while you are driving in your car, cooking, cleaning, exercising, or any other daily activity you can do and simultaneously listen to music.
• Actively listen to the selections in an solitary environment where you can isolate yourself from distractions like the phone, email, internet, television, radio, and anything or anyone else that can take your mind and your ears away from the task of learning the music.
• During your active music listening sessions, take notes while you listen. Jot down the composer name and song title a few times. Make note of the instrumentation, the voices, the tempo, the meter, the dynamics, the texture, the style, and the time period.
• Make the active music listening session personal by commenting on the intertextuality. That is… write about how the piece of music makes you feel. What does the music piece remind you of? Is there a person or a life event that you can associate with this music?
• Your listening frequency should increase as you get closer to the day of the exam.
• Finally, test yourself. Put the burned CD or the play list on random/shuffle. Listen to the songs in the new order, and write down the composer name and song title down as if you were taking the quiz in class. Go back and grade yourself in a self-assessment to see how you scored. Repeat this practice test until you feel completely comfortable identifying all the songs on the list.

Further Reading

What Everybody Ought to Know About Active Music Listening

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