<p>Pageturner - yes, all of the kids who took AP Theory went through two years of theory with the teacher before being allowed to take the AP class. If I remember correctly, there were approximately 3 - 6 kids in the class at any time throughout the last 4 years. Our teacher was EXTREMELY dedicated. I took Music Theory 2 with her last year, and she gave us her email, cellphone number, etc. and told us we could contact her at any time.</p>
<p>thumper1: I appreciate your advice, but I guess you can call me stupidly stubborn. Backing out of this test right now isn’t much of an option for me and my parents. I have spent lots of money and time preparing for this exam, and even if the exam is meaningless, I would prefer to take it instead of backing out. </p>
<p>… I took the 2008 practice test, graded myself, and scraped a 5. I was pretty amazed, because I didn’t really feel good when I finished it. I gave myself a really bad scores writing the bass line because I had no idea how to do it or how to grade it. Can you give me any advice on writing the bass line?</p>
<p>pageturner, thanks for the advice. I’ll check out your recommended textbooks in addition to Tonal Harmony. </p>
<p>BassDad, my perfect pitch definitely falls into the latter category. I can identify a note without hearing any music, but I’m definitely not precise about it. I was identifying notes without external reference in my childhood, but my perfect pitch wasn’t really confirmed until a choir teacher (I was taking a six-week elective very simple music class with her) told me I had it. I really appreciate your advice. I think Practica Musica also includes ear-training, so maybe this will help me develop relative pitch.</p>
<p>My daughter says her instrument studies and her piano studies and the course helped her get the 5 on the AP T exam. The course and score did NOT make her a better musician…her private study, participation in youth orchestra, and summer program theory helped her get that 5…the theory course didn’t make her a better musician.</p>
<p>If you want to learn how to write bass lines, the gold standard is the Chorale settings of JS Bach. Go to [JSBChorales.net:</a> Chorale Sets](<a href=“Reddit - Dive into anything”>Reddit - Dive into anything) where you can download hundreds of them. If you play piano well enough, download the sheet music. If not, download both the sheet music and the midi files. Play (either yourself on the piano or the midi files on your computer) first the melody part only. Once you have that firmly in mind, play the melody plus the accompaniment. Do this several times for enough different chorale settings and you will be able to start to anticipate where the bass line is headed for the next measure or two, although Bach will still surprise you on occasion even if you’ve been doing this for years. Listen particularly for where he places various inversions of the tonic, relative minor or major, dominant and sub-dominant chords, and the way he handles the transitions from one to the next. Then go back to those AP test exercises and ask yourself what old JSB would have done with them. Once you have written a bass line, try singing it. If it is very difficult to sing, chances are it needs more work.</p>
<p>You know, I’ve been watching this thread but have said naught but post a couple of past thread links. I’m scratching my head over what seems to be a conflict of philosophical thought here. Perhaps I’m misreading or misinterpreting some of the responses.</p>
<p>People take AP courses for a variety of reasons, including application/gpa boosts, the simple joy of in depth learning, or they be bored within the standard curriculum. Sometimes parental or peer/teacher pressure is the driving force. In some cases, the courses may be limited, or financial constraints prohibit the actual placement test.</p>
<p>Does it matter? It depends. Some colleges will look at AP’s, some will apply high scores for credit to degree requirements, or general electives, and some won’t.</p>
<p>The AP music question gets posed in this forum in a couple of ways:</p>
<p>a) those like the OP, who are NOT planning to be undergrad music students seeking supplementary materials for self study or to augment existing course materials and achieve the highest possible score</p>
<p>b)those students, music path or not, seeking answers to a specific theory concept</p>
<p>c)those wanting a “heads up” or potential starting point in anticipation of college/conservatory theory and aural skills training, or just to add to their knowledge and understanding outside of a music degree path </p>
<p>d)those prospective music students wanting to know if their 5 will get them out of BM Theory I or beyond.</p>
<p>My personal feeling is that the responses to each of these questions depends on the reasoning behind the question. The collective “we” typically does a pretty good job on all counts, but may have wandered a bit off base here.</p>
<p>Whether the OP’s anticipated “5” will help in admissions, or yield academic credit is really a function of the school of matriculation as the policy is really institution specific. </p>
<p>And for those who fall into category (d), the answer is no. And the common wisdom is that even if you do decide to test out of an initial undergrad theory course or sequence, you may want to reconsider. </p>
<p>But that’s just my $.02.</p>
<p>Okay, somehow, my head is swirling and whirling right now. Let me get something straight.</p>
<p>First, let’s set this in stone: I’m taking the AP exam. I’ll be stubborn if you try to convince me otherwise. And I’ll work hard to get that 5. </p>
<p>I’m taking it because I want to spice up my college application, nothing else. I don’t want to major in music, and if I get liberal arts credit, great. But I want to get into a good Ivy League school. I was hoping AP MT would help… even by an ounce. I know that my academics are going to end up being the meat of my application (with varsity sports, community service and other ECs being boosters). I thought AP MT would help because it’s, well, more unique than the others. Take AP US History or AP Calculus for example - most academic-oriented students that I’ll be competing with would have taken them. But I thought AP Music Theory would be unique. Is it wrong to say that AP Music Theory is going to help my application, even if it’s by a little bit? Are some of you guys trying to say that if I take AP MT, I will gain ABSOLUTELY NO benefits? NONE, absolutely NONE?</p>
<p>Cherry…if you want to take the AP Music Theory exam…then TAKE the AP Music Theory exam. If it’s important to you to do so…then just do it.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t know if it will net you any dividends in terms of admittance to a highly competitive school…or not. </p>
<p>If it will be satisfying to YOU to complete the self study of this course, and then take the exam…then do it.</p>
<p>Cherrysunsets2, the grading of the FR 5,6 and the notorious FR7 is something the readers have train for days to do, and they are college professors and AP Theory teachers who have taught the class for at least 3 years, and probably much longer. It’s hard to be objective if you are grading yourself.
Actually, I’m not quite sure how you would do that, since any mistakes you make would be something you wouldn’t know about anyway, and since it’s a free response…eh, well, I’ll leave that to you.</p>
<p>As far as being any help in admissions with taking another AP course, well, sure, it could be. It would depend on the school. The Ivys and their peers tell you to take the most challenging courses available to you. But remember, if seniors are taking AP courses, they don’t get their scores until the July after they graduate, so the scores themselves don’t matter for admissions. My advice? Study Theory if it interests you. Take the test if you want to. Think about education for education’s sake, not just as a means to an end.</p>
<p>Absolutely Thumper1, there are some excellent musicians out there that don’t learn anything new from AP Theory (especially if they have extensive piano background). But, I believe most high school musicians do. At least, that’s what my former students tell me! As violadad pointed out, most have decided to take first level theory in college as review, but they ace the class. It’s just one less headache for them as first semester freshmen.</p>
<p>Riku, well, 3-6 kids in the class certainly helps, and two years of prep is fabulous! My hat is off to those students, their teacher and your school. They seem to be very supportive of the arts. I have 20 or more AP kids per year, and triple that amount of Theory 1 students, so even on the best days, it can get a bit swamped. We muddle through, though.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here is telling you not to take the exam. </p>
<p>The effect on the number of AP exams and whether it helps or not in admissions is a topic that has been repeatedly discussed within the admissions forum, and there are varying insights and experiences that may help illustrate this for you. Northstarmom among other posters may well have some very valid insights.</p>
<p>AP music theory is not necessarily a unique AP. I’m sure somewhere there is a list of how it numerically relates within the scheme of offered AP’s, as well as the percentage. </p>
<p>How the gods of admissions assemble a pool of accepted students is a great mystery and source of speculation. </p>
<p>How each school sifts, re-categorizes, re-calcs gpa’s and transcripts, artistic/performance/creative talent (supported or not by supplemental materials or submissions)is institution specific. Within any give acceptance pool, you may well find applicants that took every AP ever offered, and those who had none.</p>
<p>Whether a given school accepts or applies any given AP score to college level credit or degree requirements is also institution specific. Typically, there is a link or webpage within the schools prospective student pages, or in the undergrad handbook that will provide the parameters.</p>
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<p>pageturner, well said.</p>
<p>pageturner, I’m actually looking into finding a private tutor that can teach me how to do some of the free response questions and grade them for me. I’m searching… hopefully I’ll find one. In the meantime, while I’m grading my own FR questions, I’m trying to be as accurate as possible. I try not to give myself any chances. I give myself full points for answers that match the answer key for 5 and 6 and marked down all the other ones unless I felt absolutely confident in the answer. As for FR7, I just gave myself a 4 and asked my piano teacher for advice.</p>
<p>pageturner… you’re right. I think I’m letting college admissions, parental and self expectations and pressure fog up my mind. I’ll take the test for the sake of college admissions… but as I self-study, I’ll try to indulge myself in the music, and learn for learning’s sake. This is a bit off topic, but I know I have a passion for music… somehow, it sparked after I watched a music-related movie.</p>
<p>EDIT: violadad, just read your post. Thanks for your advice. However, let’s say if there were only two types of applicants - those who took every AP offered, and those who had none - I’d fall into the first category. Unfortunately, I don’t have strong enough extracurriculars to apply with no APs whatsoever.</p>
<p>Anyways, everyone, thanks for all of your responses for this post. I didn’t expect any more than 5 when I first posted. I’ll work hard while learning about music, and hopefully, I’ll land a 5. Thanks for all of your recommendations and advice!</p>
<p>Sorry to veer away from the high school AP focus, but my daughter has a similar issue as a college freshman. She has just finished a basic theory class (primarily for non-music majors) and would like to move on to the more serious theory classes for music majors, but she doesn’t feel that she is quite ready. Her background is percussion (with some piano and guitar) so she has a lot of gaps to fill. She felt that the basic theory class she just finished was the perfect level for her - challenging, but not too much so. She has not declared a major, but would like to do something music/media related and feels that she wants/needs more music theory. (She also took voice and piano this past semester.) </p>
<p>Would continuing with voice and piano bridge the gap? A private tutor over the summer? She is pretty diligent with self-study but this thread leads me to believe that self-study is a difficult, and perhaps ineffective, way to learn theory.</p>
<p>lion0709, if she thinks she wants something music/(music ?) media related, she might want to take a look at the specific degree requirements across a couple of the majors she might have interest in. There’s a strong possibility she will need additional theory, voice/choral, and quite probably piano within most any music centered degree requirement. She may want to choose coursework based on the common requirements of her anticipated program and not have to play too much "catch-up+ down the road.</p>
<p>Many find piano helpful in understanding theory. Without knowing specifically where she needs the additional boost, piano and or voice should help. A more targeted approach is to get the theory text for the first level(s) of theory coursework music, and quite possibly engage a fellow student (preferably an upper level undergrad, or a grad student) familiar with and well versed in the school’s theory program and coursework. Course syllabi and a few tests from previous semesters also are helpful, particularly if the department uses different faculty to teach the same course offerings, as some faculty may gloss over or concentrate on specific aspects. Having a range makes sure all bases are covered.</p>
<p>My feeling is this would make more sense than engaging a tutor locally or over the summer, as each school tends to teach theory in there own sequence, dictated by the needs of their curriculum.</p>
<p>Self study can be effective, but it doesn’t always seem to work for everybody. My son had devoured a series of college level theory texts in high school, had no formal training and became the “go to” guy for his undergrad peers. He also tested out of a higher level upper division theory to fulfill a degree requirement for the music ed portion (wasn’t required for performance, his other pursuit) when he found he could not fit the course in his schedule. I keep wondering if this will come back to bite him on the bottom when he decides to go back to grad school.</p>
<p>violadad - thanks so much! I will suggest that she get the theory text for the next level (she actually started in that class but quickly found it too difficult and dropped down to the lower level). She is at a small liberal arts school and there are no grad students, but she could certainly find an upperclassman to tutor her. The music faculty seems very supportive so I will suggest that she ask one of the teachers for a referral. Private and group piano and voice lessons are available at her school so I will encourage her to continue with those as well.</p>
<p>If you need more responses, you can always ask in the AP Tests Forum.</p>