<p>k, well i've barely seen anyone take music theory, but if u have, what did u get on the AP?</p>
<p>Even though the test didn't go well for me, you should take the class.
It's worthwhile learning about music, but having a musical background helps you(like being involved in band).</p>
<p>It's a good class.</p>
<p>I took AP Music Theory Sophomore year.</p>
<p>I got a 2 on the test. The dictation hurt me the most on the test. The college board lost my sight singing portion.</p>
<p>lol, naw i took it, but i just wanna no how people did ;p, i got a 4, what brought me down was the non aural stuff...</p>
<p>I guess the Theory threw you off. The dictation threw me off.</p>
<p>I'm taking the course/exam this coming year (so I guess I don't belong here lol). I was just wondering, how hard is the singing portion of the exam? I've never sang before and currently can't hit pitches by myself (will work on it obviously). Am I screwed?</p>
<p>Your not screwed the sight-singing isn't hard. you can sing by using numbers, la, (do,re,mi). You can't hum.</p>
<p>The dictation and theory are the much harder parts.
They don't care about the sound of your voice as long as your singing the right distance of the notes, such as singing a 3rd.</p>
<p>What a stupid exam (singing, wth?).</p>
<p>I wouldn't say it's necessarily stupid, but I would say that the singing is unnecessary for the test because it's only 10% of the test.</p>
<p>I guess singing could be used as an indicator of people's knowledge about the distances of notes, such as 2nds, 3rd, 4ths.</p>
<p>Yes, but what happens if you happen to have a sore throat the day of the exam and you can barely whisper? What do they do then?</p>
<p>^sucks for you then</p>
<p>lol yea, the singing it pretty dumb, but i mean, it really doesnt count so heavily for the final grade, even though it says 10%. my friend messed up the sight singing and still got a 5, just nail down the nonaural stuff</p>
<p>why can't you play an instrument instead of singing? lol.</p>
<p>For me, playing an instrument would've been better because I've been playing alto sax for over 5 years.</p>
<p>kyledavid-- what if I was hit in the head with a hammer before I stepped into the room for my AP test?</p>
<p>Yeah I took the AP music theory test this year and I got a composite score of 4. My non aural subscore was a 5 and my aural subscore was a 4. Shouldn't my composite be a 5 rather then a 4. Also, the harmonic and melodic dictations were killer on the test not only because of what was played but also the enormous time constraints. It seemed like their was absolutely no time to think about what was just played. I literally left all of the chord progressions for the harmonic dictations completely blank. As a musician the non aural stuff was a piece of cake. Do any of you guys remember that one world music example that sounded really bizarre on the test. That made my day right their.</p>
<p>I took it this year and got a 5 on both parts. </p>
<p>The singing isn't really stupid; it's more of a practical demonstration of your skill and knowledge. You don't need to be a good singer to do well, as long as your rhythm, pitch, and intervals are right. You can even transpose the music if your range isn't high/low enough. </p>
<p>The listening parts are easy enough if you can focus on the music. Sometimes you won't get definite answers, so you just have to put down an educated guess. Do the ones that are the easiest first so that you can get easy points. </p>
<p>I actually thought the written theory part was more difficult. There's a lot of chord progression analysis that you have to do, which I think is more difficult than the listening. </p>
<p>The aural section is easy enough if you have a good ear. Do all the note dictation first, then the chords. As for the dictation, there's nothing you can really do except learn to recognize intervals and their qualities (major, minor, diminished, augmented). </p>
<p>The hardest part for me was the composition and the voice leading. Just study that heavily and check as many times as you can.</p>
<p>Elbart, I remember the Indian song with the sitar on the background; it was my favorite piece of the test. I hate the opera and vocal pieces. And there weren't any jazz songs! Once time on a practice test I actually knew the jazz piece that was played, so I could do it without listening to the track.</p>
<p>Having no music background, how hard would this class be to handle?</p>
<p>Very hard. You would probably have to take a pre-ap/regular music theory course before attempting it. </p>
<p>Unless you have perfect pitch and don't know it. Which is rare. Extremely rare.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks!</p>
<p>kakaolo99: well said.
I had a similar experience on a practice test (maybe the same one?). It was the 1998 released exam, I believe, and as I read through the questions (before the tape started), I thought to myself, "wow... this looks EXACTLY like "In the Mood"... and sure enough, it was.</p>
<p>Here's my AP Music Theory story:</p>
<p>I never took an actual AP Music Theory class... at the beginning of the school year I took the 2003 released exam and got a 4: 5 aural, 2 non-aural. I started taking piano when I was around seven... got tired of practicing but still fooled around a bit on the keyboard, developing my ear by attempting to play songs I'd heard on the radio- melodies at first, then with chords. Anyways, I took a few (maybe 6 or so) lessons with the school's retired orchestra director and took a few more released exams. I found that the dictation was generally easy, though a few times I swear the bass line was inaudible. My teacher taught me what the inversion numerals and such meant and taught me the rudiments of voice leading and cadences and fun things like that. I ended up with a 5 overall and on both parts.</p>
<p>As for the sight-singing, I practiced mostly the night before the exam using samples from past years at apcentral. Once I had a good grasp of what melodic and harmonic scales sounded like (these were somewhat foreign to me) I was able to ace the sight-singing. I think I did it on "ah" (if you can't sing, though, they give you the option of whistling!).</p>