Music Theory Jeopardy

Notation, intervals, chords, and harmony on a free music theory review board for AP and college students. Play it on a projector with phone buzzers.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Every clue on this board

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Notation and Rhythm

$200
In 4/4 time, a half note lasts this many beats.
What is two?
$400
A dot placed after a note adds this fraction of the note's value.
What is half?
$600
Three notes played in the time normally taken by two of the same kind form this.
What is a triplet?
$800
In this compound meter, each measure holds six eighth notes grouped into two beats.
What is 6/8?
$1,000
This C clef places middle C on the middle line of the staff and is the standard clef for viola.
What is the alto clef?

Scales and Key Signatures

$200
This major key has no sharps or flats.
What is C major?
$400
This major key has a single sharp, F sharp.
What is G major?
$600
This minor key is the relative minor of C major.
What is A minor?
$800
This major key has four flats: B, E, A and D.
What is A-flat major?
$1,000
This form of the minor scale raises only the seventh degree, creating an augmented second.
What is harmonic minor?

Intervals

$200
This interval spans eight letter names, as from C up to the next C.
What is an octave?
$400
This is the interval from C up to G.
What is a perfect fifth?
$600
This interval of three whole steps, such as F to B, was nicknamed the devil in music.
What is the tritone?
$800
Inverting a major third produces this interval.
What is a minor sixth?
$1,000
This is the interval from C up to D-sharp, which sounds the same as a minor third.
What is an augmented second?

Triads and Seventh Chords

$200
This triad has a major third and a perfect fifth above its root.
What is a major triad?
$400
This triad is built from two stacked minor thirds.
What is a diminished triad?
$600
In first inversion, this member of the chord is in the bass.
What is the third?
$800
A diminished triad plus a minor seventh above the root forms this seventh chord.
What is a half-diminished seventh chord?
$1,000
A triad with the figured bass 6/4 is in this position.
What is second inversion?

Cadences and Harmony

$200
A cadence moving from V to I is this kind of cadence.
What is an authentic cadence?
$400
This IV to I cadence is often sung as the Amen at the end of a hymn.
What is a plagal cadence?
$600
A cadence that pauses on the V chord, like a musical comma, is this.
What is a half cadence?
$800
A V to vi progression that sidesteps the expected tonic is this cadence.
What is a deceptive cadence?
$1,000
Ending a minor-key piece on a major tonic chord is called this.
What is a Picardy third?

Form and Terminology

$200
This Italian term tells a performer to get gradually louder.
What is crescendo?
$400
This three-part form follows a contrasting B section with a return of A.
What is ternary form?
$600
In this form, a main theme returns between contrasting episodes, as in ABACA.
What is rondo?
$800
Sonata form consists of an exposition, a development, and this section.
What is the recapitulation?
$1,000
In this contrapuntal form, perfected by Bach, a subject enters in imitation in each voice in turn.
What is a fugue?

Final Jeopardy — Coming Home

The chord built on the fifth degree of a scale has this name, and it most often resolves to the tonic.

What is the dominant?

How to run this board

Six columns cover theory fundamentals: notation and rhythm, scales and key signatures, intervals, triads and seventh chords, harmonic function and cadences, and musical form and terminology.

If there is a piano in the room, play short examples for the interval and cadence clues and let teams answer by ear. It turns a written review into ear training, which the exam also tests.

Teams of three with one phone each keep it lively. Require exact answers - a major sixth, not just a sixth - on the top two rows.

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