Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory (also known as AP Music or AP Theory) is a course and examination offered in the United States by the College Board as part of the

Advanced Placement Program Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

students who wish to earn credit for a college level

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

course.

Course

Some of the material covered in the course involves low

sight reading In music, sight-reading, also called ''a prima vista'' (Italian meaning "at first sight"), is the practice of reading and performing of a piece in a music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Sight-singing is used to descri ...

, in-depth terminology,

musical phrasing Musical phrasing is the method by which a musician shapes a sequence of notes in a passage of music to allow expression, much like when speaking English a phrase may be written identically but may be spoken differently, and is named for the i ...

and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

music history Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...

chord structure In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practic ...

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

s, and other areas of music theory. This course is recommended for students with particularly strong abilities in music, or students planning to pursue college music majors.

Exam

The exam itself is divided into two broad sections: Section I, the multiple-choice section, and Section II, the free-response section. In turn, each section is divided into parts.

Section I – multiple choice

Section I of the exam consists of four-option multiple choice questions; the total number varies each year. The first half of the section is listening-based; the proctor will begin playing a provided CD, and the exam will begin. Each question or group of questions is based on a musical selection or an auditory stimulus. The selection or stimulus is played, and the student must answer as many of the questions as possible. Each musical selection or auditory stimulus is usually played two to four times for each question or group of questions, though the exact number differs from question to question.

Section II – free response

Section II of the exam consists of three parts, all of which require student-produced responses. One part of the section is listening-based, one part is part-writing, and one part is sight-singing. The listening-based part of the section contains two types of questions. The first is melodic dictation, in which a one-part melody is played two or three times while a starting pitch,

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

, and

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

are given on the answer sheet, and the student must accurately record both the pitch and value of the played notes. The student must record two melodies; generally, one melody is in a

major key In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding '' chords'', ...

and in a compound meter, while the other melody is in a

minor key In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...

and in a

simple meter In music, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats. Unlike rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the perfo ...

. One melody is written in the

treble clef A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical stave. Placing a clef on a stave assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines, which defines the pit ...

and the other is in the bass clef. The reason for this is to test AP Music Theory students in their ability to distinguish between simple and

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

time signatures, as well as being able to read bass clef and treble clef. The second type of listening-based question is harmonic dictation. A four-part texture, utilizing

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

, is played four times. The

, starting pitch for each part, and

are given on the answer sheet. The student must accurately notate only the bass and soprano lines, though the bass,

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

, and

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

parts are all played in the recording. The student must also provide a Roman numeral analysis of the

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

in the progression with correct chord inversions. The part-writing part of section II requires that the student—using knowledge of "eighteenth century composition guidelines" (as indicated on

CollegeBoard The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

's latest rubric and on the released 2003-2006 exams o
AP Central
, standard circle-of-fifths

chord progressions In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

s, voicing, and part ranges—write a short two-part or four-part texture given starting pitch, key, time signature, and more information that varies with each question. Students may be given such frameworks as

figured bass Figured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsi ...

notation, a completed bass part,

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

, or a completed soprano line. For questions with supplied

notation and completed bass line, the student must write the

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

notation of each chord and fill in the remaining tenor, alto, and soprano lines. For the question with the supplied Roman numeral notation, the student must write all four (

) parts of the texture. For the question with the supplied soprano line, the student must develop a

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

based on the given soprano line and write only an accompanying bass part. The

sight-singing In music, sight-reading, also called ''a prima vista'' (Italian meaning "at first sight"), is the practice of reading and performing of a piece in a music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Sight-singing is used to descri ...

part of the exam requires the student to analyze a given

melodic line A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinat ...

and perform the line as accurately as possible. Students perform two melodies, one at a time. The written starting pitch will be played, and the student will have 75 seconds to practice aloud any parts that he or she desires. Once the 75 seconds have elapsed, the student will have 60 seconds to perform the piece. Transposition of the key is allowed for voice comfort as stated on each year's directions. As with the melodic dictation part of the exam, one piece will generally be compound in meter and major in key, while the other will be simple in meter and minor in key. Students may sing the melody using

solfège In music, solfège (, ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, Western music. Solfège is ...

syllables, numbers, or any other syllable (la, ta, na, etc.).

Grade distribution

The grade distributions for the AP Music Theory exam since 2010 are:

References

External links

AP Music Theory at CollegeBoard.com
{{College Board Music education Advanced Placement