AP Music Theory

1
AP Music Theory

• Ms. Friedrichs

2
Course Overview

• AP Music Theory is designed for the music
  student who has an understanding of the
  fundamentals of music and basic keyboard skills.
  The student will gain advanced knowledge of music
  theory, increased sight-singing ability, ear
  training and composition. The course will
  provide a solid foundation in interval
  identification, scale structures, rhythmic
  patterns, and terminology. This course will
  serve to prepare the student for the Advanced
  Placement Music Theory exam and college entrance
  exams.

3
AP Music Theory Goals

• To develop the students ability to recognize,
  understand, and describe the basic materials and
  processes of music that are heard or presented in
  a score. The achievement of this goal may be
  best promoted by integrated approaches to the
  students development of
• Aural skills through listening exercises
• Sight-singing skills through performance
  exercises
• Written skills through written exercises
• Compositional skills through creative exercises
• Analytical skills through analytical exercises.

4
The course will first seek to instill mastery of
the rudiments and terminology of music,
including hearing and notating

• Pitches
• Intervals
• Scales and keys
• Chords
• Meter
• Rhythm

5
Building on this foundation, the course should
progress to include more sophisticated and
creative tasks, such as

• Melodic and harmonic dictation
• Composition of a bass line for a given melody,
  implying appropriate harmony
• Realization of a figured bass
• Realization of a Roman numeral progression
• Analysis of repertoire, including melody,
  harmony, rhythm, texture, and form
• Sight-singing

6
Fundamentals of Music

• Notation
• Scales, Tonality, Key

ex. F Harmonic Minor Scale

• Modes

ex. Phrygian, Mixolydian, Ionian
7

• Intervals

P1 M2 M3 P4
P5 M6 M7 P8

• Chords

• Major
• Minor
• Augmented
• Half-diminished
• Fully-diminished
• 7th and extended chords

8
The Structural Elements of Music

• Cadences and Non harmonic Tones
• Melodic Organization
• Texture and Textural Reduction
• Species Counterpoint
• Voice leading in Four-Part Chorale Writing
• Harmonic Progression and Harmonic Rhythm
• Modulation
• Form

9
Figured Bass
Same figured bass harmonized in four-part
harmony
Figured bass as it appears originally

• 6 6 6 6 6 6
• 4 4

10
Roman Numeral Analysis Crüger Herr, ich habe
missgehandelt (Lord, I have transgressed),
mm. 1-9.
i V i6 V i iv
V7 i
11
Summary

• AP Music Theory is an interactive class in
  which students can apply their knowledge to
  different styles of music, whether choral,
  instrumental, 14th century through present day,
  classical, popular or jazz.