AP Music Theory!!!

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>I need an art elective and I think this counts as it in my school. </p>

<p>If I take it, I will be taking 6 APs during senior year along with Multivariable. </p>

<p>I have a general understanding of music theory, an OK pitch that could definitely be better. I play guitar in my free time and I know a few scales. By no means am I proficient since I am self-taught. </p>

<p>What is most challenging about the exam? How long will it take for someone with limited knowledge of music theory to prepare? Is this even possible while taking 5 other AP's?? Has anyone does this? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Hey! It’s always good to see people interested in AP Music Theory. I am a current student in the class, but I think I can help provide some information about the class and its requirements. I am going to state upfront that I have been involved in classical music since I was 4 and that I attend an arts high school. Although I had not taken a theory class before AP Theory, I had taught myself a LOT of theory in order to help with composing.</p>

<p>AP Theory is all about analyzing music in general and working with four-part chorales in the Baroque style. Chances are that you’ve implicitly done the former and never touched the latter. Your class will certainly hit upon the multiple choice section and how you are expected to analyze modern works, so I wouldn’t worry too much about not knowing that. What you need to come into the class with is a competent knowledge of very basic theory. Don’t worry about part-writing; your class will cover every component of part-writing. What you need to know is all of the music theory required to play a classical instrument; that is to say, you need to be fluent in key signatures, major scales and natural/harmonic/melodic minor scales; fluent in constructing triads; fluent in treble and bass clef; and functional in alto and tenor clef. Let me state that clearly - if you cannot read a musical staff proficiently, you are not going to perform well in AP Music Theory at all. You will struggle severely. Think of it like skipping straight to an AP foreign language.</p>

<p>While I highly doubt that scales are directly tested on the exam, you need to know them for part-writing. There are enough things to worry about when part-writing (avoiding those arbitrary rule violations, maintaining good voice leading, constructing chords with adequate doubling, etc.) that you do NOT want to be thinking about whether or not a C# is usable in A minor.</p>

<p>If you have key signatures, triads, scales, and treble/bass clef down pat by the time you enter the class, you will be perfectly fine. Chances are you’ll be ahead, too. Even at my arts high school, some kids struggled with their scales and triads when starting the class. You should also learn how to read alto and tenor clef just because it will save you a bit of pain figuring it out in class. Nobody is fluent in those clefs besides viola players in alto clef and the rare bassoonist in tenor clef. Everything else (part-writing, analysis, ear training, etc.) will be completely hammered in class.</p>

<p>That brings me to the point about the workload. It is completely possible to take AP Theory with a rigorous schedule. Assuming that you put in the preparation that you need, the class will be pretty easy. However, you will probably get a good deal of homework in AP Theory just because of the importance of practicing part-writing. You want to get to the point where you don’t even have to think about avoiding parallel 5ths or how to resolve the V/V chord. The more you practice, the more chord progressions you will become familiar with, and the less you will have to think about the best voice leading on a IV-V-I. Don’t procrastinate on the homework, and don’t BS it. It’s very easy to just slap down notes in the right chords without worrying about voice leading or Baroque rules, but it will seriously hurt your success in the class.</p>

<p>My final point - learn how to play your scales and chords on guitar. This is because it can sometimes be hard to think about the chords completely in your head. I find it much quicker and easier to finger out a C# minor 7 chord than I do to try to mentally construct it.</p>

<p>Best of luck! The class and exam are doable for you; you just need to put in the effort. Again, much like a foreign language, music theory is not something you can just memorize and regurgitate (like the social science APs) or listen to a lecture on and perform flawlessly (like the science and math APs).</p>

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<p>Keasbey Nights, thank you so much for such a thorough and thoughtful response! It has given me a very good idea of what the class is like. I do not think anyone who has taken it in the past in my school could have explained it as thoroughly. </p>

<p>I have no idea what you mean by four part chorales in Baroque style (though I am familiar with the latter term). In my school, I heard the class is a joke but I can tell that the AP test is not. Perhaps it is because I have no idea from the top of my head what half the stuff you mentioned is (though I am certain that I have played those chord progressions you speak of). Though I am certain that if I make myself learn the theory I may be able to do it. Is there any particular practice material that you would recommend? It would really help, since I want to start preparing after I finish taking my AP tests this year. </p>

<p>Once again, I really, really appreciate your response!! It has greatly helped me.</p>

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<p>Essentially, you’ll be writing Baroque church hymns for four parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. This is known as four-part harmony or four-part chorale. You may have played the IV-V-I progression on guitar, but what’s important is that in the Baroque style of music, there are various unofficial rules governing how each of these four voices can move relative to each other. For example, no two voices can be on an interval of a 5th or an octave on adjacent notes. The church directed most music of the Baroque age (for obvious reasons), and they saw these parallel 5ths or octaves as signs of the devil. Seriously. So basically, no music of the time period was written as such. So when composing four-part chorales on the progression IV-V-I, you have to be wary of how to avoid “errors” such as those parallel 5ths or octaves (there are others, but they aren’t as common to come across). It’s so important to practice because you’ll end up seeing and writing a IV-V-I so often that you won’t even have to think about it, you’ll just know instinctively how to avoid the errors.</p>

<p>In terms of practice, [url=&lt;a href=“http://teoria.com%5Dteor”&gt;http://teoria.com]teor</a></p>

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<p>“Writing Baroque church hymns”? That sounds just as frightening to me as if you have said “Calculating air resistance via fluid dynamics”. Hopefully this won’t be the case after I self-study and take the class, and learn more of these unofficial rules. There is also a pre-examination in my school to enroll in the class (hopefully that does not require knowledge of the aforementioned!!). I have looked over the website - it’s just what I was looking for, I believe it has ear training too! - and I will most likely order that book. What I am most afraid of is lack of time to practice since like you said, it is ALL about practice. But I will take on the challenge I think. Thanks again!</p>

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<p>It’s definitely nowhere near the level of fluid dynamics, I promise hahaha. Your entrance exam will most likely consist of the basic rudiments of theory that I mentioned (key signatures / triads / scales). On mine, we had to do those plus two easy melodic dictations (teacher plays a simple melody on piano four times and you have to write it out), a Roman numeral analysis (I doubt you’ll have to do that), and some basic ear training (the teacher played five triads and we had to write if they were major, minor, diminished, or augmented). Because I go to an arts school, chances are that your pre-examination won’t be as involved as mine. And I know I emphasized practice but I don’t get more than 45-60 minutes of homework every class. (I only have the class three days a week thanks to block scheduling.)</p>

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<p>Whew, that doesn’t sound too bad.
Hahah I feel after BC Calculus anything is possible. But I may be wrong of course. :slight_smile: This whole course will probably make me cry at some point but I feel that I am a pretty masochistic person when it comes to this stuff. Melodic dictations don’t sound that bad though. Do you just have to write out the notes and signatures? Oh, and I have a basic understanding of scales on keyboard (no more). I am going to die.</p>

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<p>I took it…the class is probably an easy A but the test is not. The theory is not bad at all, you’ll learn voice leading and the like rather easily. The ear training is the hardest. It’s difficult for people without a good background to do well just listening, and it’s very hard to train and study for that portion of the test. Good luck though, I’m sure you’ll do well</p>

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<p>MercyPlease2, how did you do on the test and what was your background like? (If you don’t mind me asking :wink: )
The class seems veeery appealing since being a sciency person, everything interests me, especially the inner workings of something I love. I just hope it is manageable with everything else I am doing.</p>

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<p>I am a sciency person as well. I’ve done piano basically since I was in kindergarten, but I have no talent for music. I got a 3 on the test, with a 4 in theory and 3 in listening. You’ll probably do better than me, my hearing is terrible (for music, I’m not impaired)</p>

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<p>I have a feeling my hearing is terrible too, although I am a fairly good singer (I don’t know if that will translate into good hearing skills or not).</p>

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<p>any tips for self studying?</p>

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<p>bookannelida - yeah, for melodic dictations, all you have to do is write the proper notes and rhythms. The key signature, time signature, clef, and first note are given to you. You also have to do harmonic dictations, in which you have to write out every chord as a Roman numeral (you’ll get to that in the class, I promise), write the soprano line, and write the bass line. It…is a bit harder than melodic dictation.</p>

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<p>Keasbey Nights, thanks for that info. I am definitely taking this course, it looks immensely interesting.</p>

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<p>Keasbey Nights:</p>

<p>Thank you so much for giving us such detail description for APMT. </p>

<p>I have one more question:
I found that 55% of the APMT is for aural. Can listen skill be trained in a short time? Like if one person cannot easily tell between E and E flat, how much time/effort need to put to train the listen skill up to the level of able to handle APMT test?</p>

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<p>cherryli2015 - AP Music Theory requires relative pitch, not absolute perfect pitch. You will be given the first note for melodic dictations, which might be an E-flat. If the next note played is an E, you should be able to hear that the interval is a half-step and thus write down an E-natural or F-flat. And yes, you can be trained quite quickly to hear a half-step interval.</p>

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<p>"you can be trained quite quickly to hear a half-step interval. "</p>

<p>Really? My daughter has played piano for 6 years. Her teacher usually blame her: “You played a wrong note, you even could not tell?”. But maybe my daughter does not have the habit to listen carefully. </p>

<p>Anyway, you give me lots of confidence. Thank you!</p>

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<p>There is a massive difference between playing a wrong note by mistake (and not even hearing it because you have to worry about ten fingers and many difficult rhythmic and harmonic patterns) and being able to hear an isolated half-step interval.</p>

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<p>Keasbey Nights -Thank you. You sound like a kid with music talent.
However, kids and Kids are different. I hope my daughter can own half talent as you. I will let my daughter first to take a real test(I bought 2003 real test from College Board) at home. If she can get 50% of them correct, I might let her take APMT course (it is just one semester course in our high school), and then take the AP test.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Cherryli2015
Do you have the link from the College Board for buying released exam papers?
Thanks</p>