<p>Hello! I'm an eighth grader and I can't decide on my course selections. My school has an incredible 4 year music theory program and a strong vocal music department. However, I can't decide between the two (I'm also doing band, if that makes a difference). Do music colleges care about apmt? My choir teacher told me that they don't, but I think she's a little biased, considering she never took mt and did chorus - it worked for her! But I know I want to go into instrumental music. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Do you mean that you want to be a performance major? For what instrument? No, conservatories don’t consider AP music theory in their admissions criteria. They don’t care about chorus, either, unless you’re auditioning for choral music. Just do what you love. If you do an conservatory instrumental performance degree, you will take a theory test for placement, but it doesn’t matter if you take AP theory specifically.</p>
<p>Agree with Glass… above. Do what you really love in hs. It was critical this year for applicants to show who they are not only in their auditions but also on the application. You have a much better shot at this if you choose to do things you love with your elective credits in hs. S was choosing between a number of conservatory programs to major in performance, none cared about AP Theory. All had their own programs and theory placement exams.</p>
<p>Just a few thoughts… Assuming you will be auditioning as an instrumentalist, the music schools won’t care whether or not you also took music theory or chorus. However, once you get to music school, most will require 4 semesters of music theory and sight singing whether you’ll be a performance major, ed major, music business or theory major as part of their basic musicianship sequence for the BM. With this in mind, look into the choral program at your high school, do they offer group lessons along with the choral classes? Will the teacher include theory in the curriculum? If they do, it wouldn’t hurt you to have a background in theory and singing. Son joined chorus as a junior in high school and the school fortunately offered lessons and taught some theory as part of the choir curriculum. He also didn’t take any theory classes until his senior year when the school allowed him to test into AP music theory. Check to see how flexible your high school is about joining the music theory sequence later and if you will get lessons along with the choir. Once you know it will make your decision easier.</p>
<p>In general, you won’t get to substitute your AP credits for a music school theory course but they often will let you test out of the beginning course. Son was advised to just go ahead and take the full sequence of theory courses without testing out since each school’s music theory curriculum is taught differently and he might miss some crucial aspect that his school taught in the first course that wasn’t covered in the AP course. This was great advice since the first music theory course covered all the AP course info by mid October and presented new material for the rest of the semester.</p>
<p>So, if you can take a music theory class and can take some singing classes, it will make your life easier at music school but if not it won’t hurt you in the admissions process if you don’t. Just be certain to get some theory and sight singing on the side because most schools will require a theory test and sight singing test as part of the audition process.</p>
<p>My daughter’s teacher got a full scholarship to Ithaca for Music Education, and even though AP Music Theory wasn’t required and wouldn’t be counted toward her degree, she felt really behind and lost her first year without previous theory and struggled a little. She told my daughter if you plan on going into music take any theory courses you can in HS to ease the burden, so to speak, and so many of the other students had taken theory in HS it took time and a lot of work to catch up.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone: do what you love, but try to fit in at least one year of music theory before heading off to college as a music major (assuming that is a possible goal). You definitely do not need AP music theory to get into any music program, but having some background in theory will make things much easier for you if you become a music major. </p>
<p>If you think you would enjoy chorus more (and most 9th graders do), then join chorus. Your theory is likely to be of more benefit if you take it as a junior or senior. If the chorus is well-taught, then you will develop strong aural/sight-singing skills as well as some rudimentary theory skills.</p>
<p>^ agreed…</p>