<p>I'm planning to take the AP Music Theory test without having taken the AP class in school. Since there are only a few months until the test, I have a limited amount of time to prepare. I do have a relatively extensive musical background, and I'm curious as to the difficulty of the test, or what materials you used to prepare, etc. I googled and only found one music theory prep book. Any suggestions for other materials? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm currently taking the AP course. If you're good at music... you'll be okay :) Our teacher seems to stress 4 part choral writing a LOT though
I'll keep you updated as I get more info on the test myself</p>
<p>I took the AP Test and got a 4. I mainly studied out of the Released Exam that our teacher gave us. That helped me the most. Let me break it down: </p>
<p>Section A-Non Aural: Basically they ask you questions about written theory. They'll ask about chord structure, key signatures in certain areas, and a bunch of musical terms like appogiatura/walking bass/Neopolitan Chord. </p>
<p>Section A-Aural: This is where you just have to learn your intervals by heart. Learn the sounds of chords very well up to sevenths. Learn your scales and be able to identify compound/simple meter.</p>
<p>Free Response Section B: The Melodic Dictation is deathly hard. I can't even remember if I completed it all. I'd concentrate more on trying to do well on the harmonic dictation because you don't have to concentrate on rhythm. But that was just me. Then there's roman numeral part writing and figured bass writing. Try to buy a text book for these parts. Tonal Harmony Fourth Edition is the one I used, and it served my purposes nicely. The last part is composition which is just a harder version of roman numeral notation. </p>
<p>Sightsinging: Learn your intervals! Practice singing them. They give you four measures and like 90 seconds to work it out and sing it for a tape recording. Be careful of major/minor.</p>
<p>That's pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head. If you take piano, you'll be at a natural advantage. I only play violin. <em>sweatdrop</em> Chords were so hard for me. </p>
<p>Just be prepared to study a lot of terminology.</p>
<p>Elliot_j and charmelody, thanks very much! Charmelody - thanks for the help. I've already ordered an AP theory book from Amazon (where else?), so I'm going to get right to studying...as soon as the book arrives. Anyway, thank you very much for all of those helpful tips! :D</p>