The ability to recognize pitch is crucial for music students. A student with perfect pitch can recognize a note by ear without being given a reference note. A student with relative pitch can recognize a note by ear if she is told the pitch of a note played before it. The National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has a simple test that can reliably diagnose tone deafness, while GIA publications has a musical audiation test designed specifically for students in grades seven to 12.
All musicians, not just percussionists, must have a sense of rhythm. Several tests have been developed to determine a student's sense of rhythm, some of these having been specifically designed for secondary school students. GIA Publications' rhythm improv readiness record test measures rhythmic abilities for students in grade three and up.
For teachers who want to test musical aptitudes more generally, comprehensive musical aptitude tests measure skills in melody, harmony, tempo, meter, phrasing, balance and style. The most popular test of this nature is GIA's musical aptitude profile, which is intended specifically for students in grades five to 12. This test is the industry standard in musical aptitude testing and is to date the only truly comprehensive musical aptitude test in existence.
For some classes, musical abilities must be combined with other intellectual and/or academic abilities. Performing musicians, for example, must have a good memory and be able to remember the lyrics to several songs at once. Music theorists, on the other hand, must have a strong grasp of mathematics, because musical theory is derived primarily from mathematical theorems. For teachers of performing or theoretical musicians, general aptitude tests may be used to tease out the students' verbal, mathematical and visual abilities. The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation offers one such test.