AP Music TheoryMs. Friedrichs

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.

AP Music Theory Goals:

To develop the student’s 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 student’s 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.

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

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

Fundamentals of Music Notation Scales, Tonality, Key

ex. F# Harmonic Minor Scale

ex. Phrygian, Mixolydian, Ionian

Modes

P1 M2 M3 P4 P5 M6 M7 P8

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

Intervals

Chords

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

Figured Bass

6 6 6 6 6 6 4 4

Same figured bass harmonized in four-part harmony:

Figured bass as it appears originally:

Roman Numeral Analysis

Crüger: “Herr, ich habe missgehandelt” (“Lord, I have transgressed”), mm. 1-9.

i V i6 V i iv V7 i

SummarySummary

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