<p>Yes, I had not even thought of the aural skills. They really require long-term development and seem to involve a different part of the brain than music theory or math! </p>
<p>In Canada, most serious pre-college music students take music exams from the Royal Conservatory of Music or other examining bodies. The applied exams all include “ear tests” at each grade level so most students have had some weekly ear training at their private lessons. Typically identification of intervals, chords and cadences is tested and students have to play back a brief melody that has been played twice and clap back a rhythm that they have heard twice. </p>
<p>The better band teachers that I have observed lately incorporate aural training in their classes. Often a warm-up will include the band teacher playing a sequence of notes that the band must repeat. I think that students’ playing skills often become much better when they play by ear without the necessity of having to decipher the symbols on a page. Of course, band and choir teachers that want to develop long-term msuicianship (rather than merely learning more rep) incorporate direct teaching of theory and aural skills in their lessons.</p>
<p>Our band director had the students routinely SING their instrument parts before they ever played them on the instruments. He knew the value of aural skills (he was also the AP Music Theory teacher).</p>
<p>My kids were in a very prestigious childrens chorus…one for five years and the other for seven years. I do believe that this experience is what gave both of them excellent aural skills. My daughter, in particular, can pick up a piece of strange music and sight sing it immediately. She is also an excellent sight reader on her two instruments. Agreed…this is a trained skill, although I do think some folks have more of an inate ability than others.</p>
<p>Here’s a question . . . if you take AP Theory and achieve a 4 or a 5, about where does that place you in college level theory? I know that each school has their own theory placement, but approximately what is the equivalency?</p>
<p>Thumper - I completely agree with the innate ability part. My younger daughter was sightreading music before she was truly competent reading English. She got a 5 on her AP Theory test, but couldn’t break 600 in critical reading. Go figure!</p>
<p>Ariamom - from what I’m reading, it really depends on the school, and even within the school may be dependent upon your major. And from what I’ve heard here - music schools may not look at your AP scores and your placement is determined by your assessment at admissions or auditions.<br>
Basically - take the AP classes and tests if you want the knowledge. If you get lucky and it saves you some dollars in college credits later, consider it a bonus!</p>
<p>Thanks. I guess my question was more general. If you take the AP Theory test and pass it with a high grade, you have taken the same test as everyone else regardless of the quality of the program. Could mastery of the material covered in AP Theory place you out of beginning theory and into a second semester or second year level? It will of course vary from school to school. I was just curious.</p>
<p>I have found a direct correlation between how enthused the teacher is with their subject matter and the grades my child achieves. My daughter who hates science got a 97 year end grade in honors Chemistry. She loved going to the class because the teacher really got the kids involved and excited. She adores Literature (and I mean the good stuff) and would spend her every waking hour at Barnes & Noble but had a teacher who made it clear she allowed no discussion in her class and you could only listen to lectures and take notes. Well, she made an A, but every day was a torture test in her opinion and she was very sad that she didn’t get to “enjoy” and “explore” her favorite subject. That’s kind of been the theme of her high school years. She is so ready to move on. And on the topic of Music Theory, she has a phenomenal teacher but he seems to spend much of his time prodding those who struggle with the subject.</p>
<p>The answer to your question is YES. However, I have been warned by some students that they wish they had not exempted early courses because they weren’t prepared for the next level. I think that will vary depending on the school. I think asking students at the particular school your child chooses what their experience has been is a good place to start.</p>
<p>Thanks POTO! That was what I was getting at and that would be an excellent question to ask. I don’t know that my daughter would want to get out of a class if there was a chance of having to play catch up–but you don’t want to start completely from scratch either!</p>
<p>Bump. (My son took the AP MT test and got a “4” - 4 aural/3 non-aural. Not that it means anything but I wonder if it’s just hearsay that this is one of if not the toughest AP tests (I’d find that hard to believe)?)</p>
<p>Don’t know about the MT test, but our high school Psych prof has compiled statistics over the years, and it does seem as if the psych tests go on a cycle of difficult (low grades) - moderate - easy (more high grades). He’s taught the course in roughly the same way for years, so it’s more likely to be the test than variations in his teaching. Anecdotally, the Bio AP also seems to be on a cycle.</p>
<p>The marks awarded for AP have nothing to do with the difficulty of the test in a particular year. The cutoff scores for getting a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 are changed according to how difficult the test is. So while students needed a 68/108 in 2008 to get a 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam, in other years they have needed over 75/108. The cutoffs scores are adjusted so that students of equal ability get equal scores no matter what year they write. </p>
<p>The percentages of students getting the various scores generally change by very small amounts from year to year (usually no more than by 1 or 2%). When the percentage of students earning 4’s or 5’s changes, it is primarily because the calibre of students changes and that calibre does not change significantly from one year to the next (it has changed over the decades as a much larger group of students is now writing AP exams). </p>
<p>There is no evidence of a cycle despite the myths that some teachers and students perpetuate (generally to justify their low scores in a particular year). Here are the percentages of students obtaining each score for AP Bio for the last four years (with the 2011 score first, 2010 next etc.):<br>
5: 18.5%, 18.7%, 19.5%, 18.6%
4: 16.5%, 15.1%, 15.5%, 15.6%
3: 15.2%, 15.4%, 15.8%, 16.1%
2: 14.7%, 14.1%, 15.1%, 15.2%
1: 35.1%, 36.6%, 34.0%, 34.6%
As you can see, things just don’t change much from year to year. [There was a change in AP Bio from 2007 to 2008 due to an equating procedure, but there is nothing cyclical going on in terms of difficulty.] I checked 3 years of Psych data (2009, 2010 2011) and the scores are even tighter there. I am very surprised that an AP psych teacher (who should have some knowledge of statistics and of College Board policies) would make these claims–they are contrary to everything that I have observed in many years of AP teaching and observing.</p>
<p>Getting back to OTamandua’s wondering about whether AP Music Theory is one of the toughest AP’s. Here is the score distribution for this year (which has a slightly lower percentage of students at the high end compared to 2010):
17.4% of the 2011 students got a score of 5; 17.5% got 4; 24.3% got 3; 26.9% got 2; and 13.9% got 1</p>
<p>The percentage of students that get a 3 or higher on AP Music Theory is higher than the Bio percentage but lower than the Psych percentage. Some people would assume that this means that Bio is the toughest of the three and Psych the easiest. Perhaps, but one needs to consider that the Music Theory students are probably a much different group of students than the Psych or Bio students (who would not differ that much from each other). Given my experience with music students, I would assume that the average AP Music Theory student is probably a better student than the average AP Bio or AP Psych student is–therefore, one would expect a much higher percentage of good scores from the Music Theory kids than what we actually see. </p>
<p>Of course, ultimately the College Board determines the cutoffs for 1,2,3,4,5 by the performance of college/university students who have taken the equivalent class in college/university. I am quite certain that the students taking first year music theory in colleges are considerably better students and therefore held to a higher standard than your average college student. The high percentage of AP students getting 3 or higher on AP Psych (about 2/3 of students) is primarily a reflection of the fact that college first-year psych is easy and it is easy because so many very weak students take it. </p>
<p>This is a long-winded way of saying that it is very difficult to determine what the toughest AP test is (I can say with certainty that it is not the test with the lowest scores: case in point: AP Calculus BC is definitely tougher than Calculus AB, but the scores in BC are considerably higher than in AB; why? the students selecting the BC course are much stronger students than the AB students; hence, high scores don’t mean easy exam and low scores don’t mean tough exam).</p>
<p>I’ll take a stab and say that Music Theory is tougher than the average AP exams, but is probably not the toughest of the 34 different exams.</p>
<p>My take on the AP music theory exam is that while it technically represents a first year theory course from everything I can tell that level is what I would call a grand approximation of what a first year course is. As far as placing out of basic theory classes, the kids I have seen do that who got 5’s on the AP music theory class already had substantial background, either because they took music theory for several years in music programs that used ABRSM or some such, or because the person teaching their AP music theory class went well beyond what was on the AP exam. My take, and YMWV, is that in terms of taking theory in school, probably better off not placing out even if possible.</p>
<p>Why? Here are things I have seen/heard about</p>
<p>-If you place out via the placement exam (no music school, as far as I know, will give direct credit for a 5 on the AP music exam in terms of placement, though obviously that is possible since there are a lot of schools) you may find in the class you place into concepts that weren’t covered on the AP, or weren’t well covered or that you never really learned and struggling to catch up.</p>
<p>-Often theory classes use different terminology then other places and that can cause confusion. </p>
<p>-While the AP exam is comprehensive, given time constraints of the test itself and the format, and that classes often teach to the test, again there could be significant gaps in knowledge.</p>
<p>Note that ear training is generally a separate track of classes in music programs, things like dictation, interval identification and so forth are done in solfege courses and the part you get as part of AP music theory probably won’t place you far.</p>
<p>My take is I wouldn’t take the AP music theory class with the idea of placing out, for the reasons above, but that if it doesn’t add too much load, it can act as a decent introduction to music theory and give you a grounding other kids may not have and when you hit your first theory and solfege classes, you will have a firm footing to start with.</p>
<p>I agree with musicprnt’s advice regarding AP Music theory: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most students regardless of their score on the AP exam should take the first year theory class (unless the school has its own placement test and the student does very well on that and the school strongly encourages the student to bypass a semester or two of theory).</p></li>
<li><p>Students planning on majoring in music would be well-advised to take AP Music Theory (not for the credit but for the knowledge and skills) for two reasons:
a) It will make first year courses easier. Many music students find first year theory and aural training (i.e. musicianship/solfege/ear training) very difficult, especially if they go to a decent school (there certainly are many schools that keep the bar low enough for everyone no matter how lazy or intellectually-challenged they are, but many other schools still try to help students grow). Many of the students in first year classes will have a substantial amount of theory (albeit often with gaps here and there) that they have picked up from their private instrumental teacher, a theory teacher, from summer programs, or from their school programs. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Some teachers and programs do a significant amount of work on developing aural skills and others do not. So if a student has no theory or aural background and is not a strong student, they can find themselves struggling significantly in first year theory and aural classes. </p>
<p>b) Theory makes makes you a better performer (which is the point of studying it!) so the earlier you study theory, the sooner your performing skills can improve. Theory gives students the skills to analyze the music they perform which enhances their ability to memorize quickly and securely (rather than the music being a series of 982 separate notes, it is grouped into motives, phrases, sections etc. which gives it a structure which is much easier to internalize and remember than are the 982 separate notes). </p>
<p>Having a knowledge of the structure of a piece also allows a musician to communicate that structure to their listeners more easily as they perform–you can’t communicate what you do not know! While many musicians have an unconscious knowledge of the structure of the music they play, this knowledge is strengthened when it is made conscious. </p>
<p>Music theory also gives students the vocabulary so that they can better understand their teachers and so that they can better express their own questions and ideas to their teachers.</p>
<p>Nicely put, I agree on all counts. I was talking to someone who is a teacher my son has worked with from time to time, who is a working musician, and she was saying that when she was in music programs, both pre college and at the conservatory level, you could start to differentiate who was a musician, who truly loved it and the ones who didn’t have a clue and were the ego driven hotshots and such, and that was in things like music theory, solfege and in ensemble work that you saw the difference, they didn’t quite grasp that music was a lot more then playing notes:). </p>
<p>My son one day had some slack time and was looking at the full orchestral score for a concerto, and one of the other kids asked him why he bothered getting the full score, all he needed was the violin part to learn how to play it…and the other kid was completely stone faced when my son replied “how else can you know how to play the violin part, if you don’t know the whole piece, what the composer intended? How do you know what sound they were looking for, or what kind of pitch will sound right relative to the orchestra?”…With theory, someone can look and understand what the composer was doing and saying, not just playing notes:)</p>
Hey! So I am currently studying for the ap music theory exam. I have been playing piano for 10+ years now and cello for acouple more, so I am extremely familiar with music. I have a tiny bit of perfect pitch (I can tune things easily, recognize most intervals, know some pitches (only because i know there relationship to A)). Anyway. I am a little worry. I do improv based on chords (or just start one and go somewhere) and compose music. I am pretty sure that if I had a keyboard infront of me for the exam I could easily ace the exam. I just had acouple qustions.
Is there someway I can draw a keyboard on something that is seperate from the book? Would it be acceptable to flip back and forth?
When you are on the writing part of the test do they require you to be on a certain page (ex: I would another sections time on one section to get it right)
Where can I find rubrics for the righting parts, I need to know how to get as many points as possible even if I dont know what I am doing.
What skills come up frequently on the test (EX: Intervals, scale writing, triads)?
What clefs are on the test. I assume treble and bass... what about the c-clefs (alto tenor and bass)?
not sure what you mean about rubrics for the writing parts
everything
potentially all
The best thing if you are serious about taking this test is to get the Barron’s AP Music Theory book. It has an explanation of what to expect, practice tests, and other important information.
Are you studying for the exam in school? If not, have you already signed up to take the exam this year? If you planned to but have not yet signed up, it’s probably too late for this year.
I second the opinion that you might take the class because it helps you be a better musician, but all the institutions we dealt with don’t take AP Music Theory. I think their decision is usually based on decades of experience and I’d go with that. However, you can learn a lot from AP classes. I hit music a conservatory without any formal theory training and life was very hard…