Question about AP Music Theory

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>Hi, I'm a sophomore (soon to be junior) that has played piano for nearly 10 years. I am able to play on a concert level. I am on level 9 Certificate of Merit. I was wondering whether it would be wise for me to take the AP Music Theory Exam.</p>

<p>Also, does the AP Music Theory have a vocal requirement? Let's just say that God hasn't blessed me in vocal abilities, as He has with my piano playing.</p>

<p>Are there any prep books that are useful? Thank you in advance for all your responses!</p>

2

<p>I took it in 9th grade and got a 5. If you want to take you will have to study. If you don’t know basic theory like chords and such, you’re going to need to put significant time into it. Yes there is a “vocal” requirement but it’s sightsinging. The key is pitch accuracy not vocal quality. You can hum or whistle. If you want to prep, learn the rules of 4 part writing as well as counterpoint, and be able to do dictations.</p>

3

<p>Ah, so I don’t actually need to sing? That’s a relief. I can sight read very well (on a state level), so I’m not concerned with that. I am Certificate of Merit Level 9 (almost college level/college level), so I covered basic to advanced chords and musical terms several years ago. Thanks for your response!</p>

<p>Is there anything else I should know?</p>

4

<p>I just took the exam this May. I would suggest buying the Barron’s book and working through it. It has all of the course material necessary for you to get a 5. If you have theory down, and can sightsing (which isn’t really singing, as the person above me said), all you need to learn is partwriting, which is very simple. There is a listening section which requires you to listen to an except and identify different things about the piece (like key changes, what note pattern is used, what terminology is used, etc.), but with a bit of practice, it’s fairly simple too.</p>

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<p>I did Certificate of Merit (I’m assuming in CA) Advanced (96% on the theory portion) last year, and I passed Panel this year for piano. I’m self-studying Music Theory this year (along with Chinese and Environmental Science). From what I saw when I flipped through the Barron’s book (I just started going through in depth), there is A LOT (and I mean a lot) that isn’t covered by CM theory. The thing that is definitely not covered by CM is compositional rules and techniques (e.g. parallel fifths and eighths are really, really bad). In addition, you’ll want to develop perfect pitch for the exam (or at least work on it). Without it, you’re in for a lot of work. PM me if you have more questions.</p>

<p>Still, if you passed Level 9, you’re in a good starting position. I’d definitely recommend you get Barron’s (which I really like, though I’m only 5 chapters in) and start going through it.</p>

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<p>On the Level 9 exam, I only got 6 points off out of 143, so I’m not that worried. Thank you so much!</p>

<p>What exactly isn’t covered by Certificate of Music (besides parallel 5ths and 8ths)?</p>

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<p>Four-part writing (and all those rules) is probably the thing that seems the most foreign. The ear training is more complex than CM and sight-singing is not tested by CM, though if you have perfect pitch, it’s really easy.</p>

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<p>I agree with the other posters. I took the exam this year in your same exact situation: level 9 CM, piano for almost ten years… I am crossing my fingers for a 5. Because I was in level 9 certificate of merit, the non-aural multiple choice section was a breeze. </p>

<p>What you should be concerned about is the FRQ’s. Part-writing, as everyone said, as well as harmonization of a melody. You could probably get a decent score on FR7 (harmonization) if you use what musical knowledge you already have, so long as you avoid improper leaps and parallel fifths/eigths. </p>

<p>Don’t worry about sight-singing. My proctor was on the verge of laughing after hearing my voice, but nonetheless, I think I did really well. (This is somewhat irrelevant in your case, but my only issue with sight-singing was that instead of waiting for the recording to tell me to hit the stop-recording button on the tape, I hit “stop” immediately after I finished my recording… other posters, will this hinder my score in any way?)</p>

<p>Although I have perfect pitch, I felt the aural section was truly what killed me. I would advise months of preparation on the aural section. I was getting decent practice scores on melodic dictation, but on the real test, somehow I wasn’t able to get the rhythmic aspects of the last three measures of both examples. To make things even worse, I was so nervous by the end of it that I forgot to add accidentals as well! What threw me off was that the first example was in 6/8 time while the second was in 4/4 time, something I wasn’t accustomed to… Either way, the curve for the exam is decent, should you be aiming for a 5. You should always strive for a perfect score on your practice runs but in reality, the AP test allows lots of room for errors. </p>

<p>There are a variety of questions that can be asked on MC for the Aural Section, but Barrons should cover the meat of it. They can ask you anything from range (to this day I have no idea what they were asking… something like “how is the range of Part A different from the range of Part B?”) to what instruments were present in the piece, to modulation, to what the scale degree of the first note of the melody was.</p>

<p>All in all, AP Music Theory is not an easy test to self-study for. However, Barron’s AP Music Theory will almost certainly help you to get a good score on the exam… If you look through that book extensively, you should not need another practice book. </p>

<p>If you go to collegeboard, you can buy the AP Music Theory Released Exam for 2008 and 2003 for $25 a piece to get a good grip on the exam. Those two exams, along with the 2 in Barron’s and the one in the course description on collegeboard that you can download online will help you to get a good idea on what the exam’s about, though I will warn you that I got 5’s on all of the practice exams and found the real exam a lot more difficult than any of them…</p>

<p>Last thing… if you ever find yourself debating over whether to purchase Practica Musica for AP preparation, I would not recommend it. I purchased it and found the course not very thorough at all, not to mention inaccurate. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>I can also add that if you want a course textbook that works well, Peter Spencer’s The Practice of Harmony is an excellent choice. I am actually taking the class next year, but I have a copy of the book and have helped a few of friends get through the class.</p>

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<p>I think that by “range,” they (the test writers) were asking about how high and low the notes were. If excerpt A had lower low notes and higher high notes than excerpt B, excerpt A’s range would be larger than excerpt B’s range.</p>

<p>Do they really ask what instruments are playing? That should be money for me, then.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much! Your responses were all extremely helpful! I really appreciate it.</p>