AP Music Courses for 2009-2010

The AP Music Theory Course is open to all Junior and Senior music students wishing to complete a course in music theory, and is HIGHLY recommended for all students interested in pursuing Music post-high school.  Students must be participants in a musical ensemble course or receive written permission from the instructor (piano, guitar students, etc).  The AP Music Theory course offers an accelerated curriculum, which requires that the students have a prior fundamental training in basic music notation concepts.

From the College Board...

“A major component of any college curriculum in music is a course introducing the first-year student to music theory, a subject that comprises the musical materials and procedures of the Common Practice period. Such a course may bear a variety of titles (Basic Musicianship, Elementary Theory, Harmony and Dictation, Structure of Music, etc). It may emphasize one aspect of music, such as harmony; more often, however, it integrates aspects of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, form, musical analysis, elementary composition, and to some extent, history and style. Musicianship skills such as dictation and other listening skills, sight-singing, and keyboard harmony are considered an important part of the theory course, although they may be taught as separate classes.

The student's ability to read and write musical notation is fundamental to such a course. It is also assumed that the student has acquired (or is acquiring) at least basic performance skills in voice or on an instrument.

The ultimate goal of an AP Music Theory course is to develop a 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 these goals may best be approached by initially addressing fundamental aural, analytical, and compositional skills using both listening and written exercises. Building on this foundation, the course should progress to include more creative tasks, such as the harmonization of a melody by selecting appropriate chords, composing a musical bass line to provide two-voice counterpoint, or the realization of figured-bass notation.”

For more information, visit the College Board (AP) website at:

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_music.html