AP® Music Theory Self-Paced

Syllabus

Essential Questions:

How do musicians manipulate pitch to develop melodic and harmonic ideas?
How do musicians manipulate time to develop rhythmic ideas?
How do musicians manipulate form to develop musical structure?
How do musicians manipulate musical design elements to develop musical character?

Objectives:

Interpret fundamental pitch and rhythm ideas through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Apply fundamental form and design ideas through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Analyze triads and seventh chords through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Analyze chord function within the musical phrase through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Analyze chord progressions through reading, writing, performing, and listening. Analyze melodic ideas within the context of the chord progression through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Analyze secondary dominant functions through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Analyze modes and extended musical forms through reading, writing, performing, and listening.
Synthesize music theory concepts in exam and project settings.

Unit 1: Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements (Topics 1-5)

This first unit is designed to help students develop a foundational understanding of pitch and rhythm and introduce them to the basics of major scales and keys, meter, tempo, and dynamics. Students build skills working with materials, processes, and relationships based on the tradition known as Western music. They establish the essential learning routines of listening to and notating music, reading and analyzing scores, singing from scores, and composing. These activities are complimentary: Students achieve musical understanding by experiencing musical concepts in a variety of contexts and applying and extending their learning to discover connections across the diversity of musical expression. In subsequent units, students build their knowledge of pitch and rhythm, developing skills with more complex and sophisticated musical ideas and examples.*

Topic 1: Introduction to AP Music Theory

Use Sight Reading Factory and InQuizitive tools to practice music theory skills.
Identify pitches on the staff, using treble, bass, and C clefs, in performed music and notated music.
Identify pitch discrepancies between notated and performed music in one or two voices.
Sight-sing the pitches and rhythms of a melody that is notated in treble or bass clef.
Identify half and whole steps presented in performed music and notated music.
Identify dynamics and changes in dynamics in performed music and notated music.
Identify articulation and changes in articulation in performed music and notated music.

Topic 2: Simple Meters

Identify the rhythmic values of notes and rests in performed music and notated music.
Describe beat division and meter type in performed music and notated music.
Describe the meter type in performed music and notated music.
Describe the time signature in performed music and notated music.
For rhythmic patterns in simple and compound meter— a. Identify the rhythmic pattern b. Notate the rhythmic pattern c. Sight-sing the rhythmic pattern.
Identify rhythmic discrepancies between notated and performed music in one or two voices.
Identify and apply tempo markings, including those that indicate adjustments to the prevailing tempo, used in performed music and notated music.

Topic 3: Major Keys

Identify major scales presented in performed music and notated music.
Identify the function of a pitch relative to a tonic and its scale, using scale degree names and/or numbers, in performed music and notated music.
Identify major keys and key signatures in notated music.
Notate the pitches and rhythms of a performed melody— a. in treble or bass clef b. composed in a major or minor key.

Topic 4: Compound Meters

Identify the rhythmic values of notes and rests in performed music and notated music.
Describe beat division and meter in performed music and notated music.
Describe the meter type in performed music and notated music.
Describe the time signature in performed music and notated music.
For rhythmic patterns in simple and compound meter— a. Identify the rhythmic pattern b. Notate the rhythmic pattern c. Sight-sing the rhythmic pattern.
Identify rhythmic discrepancies between notated and performed music in one or two voices.
Identify and apply tempo markings, including those that indicate adjustments to the prevailing tempo, used in performed music and notated music.
Identify rhythmic devices in performed music and notated music.
Identify irregularities of beat division and/or beat grouping into measures in performed music and notated music.

Topic 5: Unit 1 Exam

Synthesize Unit 1 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 2: Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture (Topics 6-9)

In this unit, students connect their learning from Unit 1 about major scales with learning about pitch patterns and relationships in minor keys. Students investigate major/minor key relationships and are introduced to additional scale types. They also focus on distances between pitches, known as intervals, underpinning later work with chords and harmonic progressions. Features of melody are identified, and students begin to recognize relationships of musical notation and performance, specifically with respect to transposition. They learn to identify instruments played in performed music and hear how musical lines interact to produce texture, while expanding their knowledge of rhythm and meter. In the next unit, students begin to engage with harmonic ideas, learning about triads and seventh chords.*

Topic 6: Minor Keys

Identify forms of the minor scale, including natural, harmonic, and melodic forms in performed music and notated music.
Identify and notate a relative key and its key signature.
Identify minor and relative keys in performed music and notated music.
Describe key relationships in performed music and notated music.
Identify chromatic, whole-tone, and pentatonic scales in performed music and notated music.

Topic 7: Intervals

Describe the size and quality of an interval in performed music and notated music.
Identify interval inversions and compound intervals in performed music and notated music.

Topic 8: Ensembles

Identify sounding pitches that correspond to the notated pitches of a transposing instrument when given the specific level and direction of transposition.
Identify performance media and vocal and instrumental timbres in performed music.
Identify features of melody in performed music and notated music.
Identify texture types in performed music and notated music.
Identify texture devices in performed music and notated music.

Topic 9: Unit 2 Exam

Synthesize Unit 2 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 3: Music Fundamentals III: Triads and Seventh Chords (Topics 10-12)

In this third unit of music fundamentals, students further strengthen their foundational understanding of pitch relationships in performed and notated music. Having learned how to recognize and relate pitch patterns and rhythmic structures in performances and in scores, students now begin to engage with harmony, recognizing and relating groupings of pitches presented simultaneously. They use notation to identify chord qualities and to indicate harmonic progressions, with a focus on seventh chords. Although skills and concepts of rhythm, meter, and melody aren’t specifically addressed in this unit, students should continue practicing and applying them in creative exercises in preparation for further development in Unit 4, which introduces harmony and voice leading.*

Topic 10: Triads

Describe the quality of a chord in performed music and notated music.
Identify chords using letters and Roman/Arabic numerals that indicate specific scale degree of the root, quality, and bass note in performed music and notated music.
Identify chords using letters and Roman/Arabic numerals that indicate specific scale degree of the root, quality, and bass note in performed music and notated music. Use Roman numerals to indicate the harmonic progression implied by a figured bass.

Topic 11: Seventh Chords

Describe the quality of a seventh chord in performed music and notated music.
Identify seventh chords using Roman/Arabic numerals that indicate specific scale degree of the root, quality, and bass note in performed music and notated music.

Topic 12: Unit 3 Exam

Synthesize Unit 3 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 4: Harmony and Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase (Topics 13-16)

Unit 4 expands on harmonic materials and processes introduced in Unit 3 and introduces the procedures of 18th-century style voice leading. Students begin by learning and applying conventions of soprano–bass line relationships through score analysis, error detection, writing exercises, and contextual listening. They then learn conventions of chord spelling, spacing, and doubling, in order to form harmonies from the combination of independent-sounding melodic lines. Through their study of cadences, students learn to identify and describe phrases as structural units of musical form. In Unit 5, students will continue to study voice-leading conventions and procedures in four-voice (SATB) harmonic progressions.*

Topic 13: Counterpoint

Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises a. contextual listening.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative harmonic procedures of 18th-century music.
Notate the pitches and rhythms of the outer voices (soprano and bass lines) in a performed harmonic progression that is composed in a major or minor key and may include limited use of chromatically altered pitches.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative melodic procedures of 18th-century music.
Identify the beginnings, ends, and lengths of phrases in— a. performed music and b. notated music.

Topic 14: Melodies and Bass Lines

Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises a. contextual listening.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative harmonic procedures of 18th-century music.
Use Roman and Arabic numerals to indicate the specific chords and inversions implied by a bass line Notate the pitches and rhythms of the outer voices (soprano and bass lines) in a performed harmonic progression that is composed in a major or minor key and may include limited use of chromatically altered pitches.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative melodic procedures of 18th-century music.
Compose the rhythmic aspects of a bass line added to a given soprano line, following conventions of the 18th-century chorale.
Identify the beginnings, ends, and lengths of phrases in performed music and notated music.

Topic 15: The Chorale

Describe relationships among musical lines, including the number of lines present in a passage and the position of a line in relation to other lines in performed music and notated music.
Apply the procedures of 18th-century chord spelling and doubling through— a. score analysis b. error detection a. writing exercises.
Apply the procedures of 18th-century chord voicing and spacing through: a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises.
Apply the conventions of 18th-century chord spelling, doubling, spacing, and voice leading to progressions that include chords in first inversion.
Identify and describe harmonic function within a chord progression in performed music and notated music.
Identify cadence types in performed music and notated music.

Topic 16: Unit 4 Exam

Synthesize Unit 4 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 5: Harmony and Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions and Predominant Function (Topics 17-20)

This unit calls for students to analyze, describe, and create more complex harmonic progressions in the form of four-part (SATB) voice leading. Attention is focused on learning additional chord types and functions, with an emphasis on cadential and 6 4 chords. The goal is for students to expand their knowledge of voice-leading conventions and procedures to build confidence with part writing, score analysis, and harmonic dictation. It is also important for students to continue practicing and receiving formative feedback to further develop and hone skills in sight-singing and error detection. Then, in Unit 6, students will discover the expressive possibilities offered by embellishing tones and learn about motives and melodic devices.*

Topic 17: Dominant and Predominant Functions

Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises d. contextual listening.
Identify and describe harmonic function within a chord in performed music and notated music.

Topic 18: Submediant Functions

Identify and describe harmonic function and progression in performed music and notated music.
Identify the type of 64 chord used in notated music.
Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading of cadential 6 4 chords through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises d. contextual listening.
Describe the type of 64 chord used in notated music.
Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading of passing, pedal (or neighboring), and arpeggiated 64 chords through a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises d. contextual listening.

Topic 19: Progressing to Cadences

Identify and describe harmonic function and progression in performed and notated music.
Identify cadence types in performed and notated music.

Topic 20: Unit 5 Exam

Synthesize Unit 5 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 6: Harmony and Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices (Topics 21-23)

This unit continues students’ work with skills and concepts of harmony and voice leading. Embellishing tones add variety and expressive possibility to harmonic progressions. Students learn to identify motives—short melodic or rhythmic ideas that form the basic units of phrases—and understand how variations are created through motivic transformation. They also learn to identify melodic and harmonic sequences. Students’ understanding of pitch and rhythm must be continually reinforced in this unit through ongoing practice and support with ear training, sight-singing, error detection, harmonic and melodic dictation, score analysis, and part writing. Next, Unit 7 calls for students to apply understanding of keys, scale degrees, and chords to identify and produce tonicization.*

Topic 21: Embellishments

Identify types of embellishing tones, including nonharmonic tones, in performed music and notated music.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line that incorporates unaccented passing and/or neighbor tones while following the normative harmonic procedures of 18th-century harmony and voice leading.
Notate embellishing tones, including nonharmonic tones, indicated in a figured bass or Roman-numeral progression.

Topic 22: Transforming Melodies

Identify the basic units of phrases (i.e., motives) and melodic/rhythmic procedures involving these units in performed music and notated music.
Identify and apply melodic procedures in performed music and notated music.
Identify and apply procedures used to transform rhythmic patterns in performed music and notated music.
Identify and apply harmonic sequences in performed music and notated music.

Topic 23: Unit 6 Exam

Synthesize Unit 6 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 7: Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function (Topics 24-26)

In this unit, harmonic elements, relationships, and procedures introduced and developed in earlier units are further studied. Students deepen their understanding of keys, scale degrees, and chords as they focus on the process of tonicization. They analyze the effects of secondary dominant chords and secondary leading-tone chords and learn how these particular harmonic events are treated in the context of part writing. Students practice describing key relationships in musical compositions in which a non-tonic chord is momentarily emphasized using chords borrowed from its tonic key. In preparation for Unit 8, the final unit, students should continue regular practice of aural skills, dictation, and sight-singing.*

Topic 24: Secondary Chords

Identify and describe tonicization in performed music and notated music.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative harmonic procedures of 18th-century music.
Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises d. contextual listening.

Topic 25: More Secondary Chords

Identify and describe tonicization in performed music and notated music.
Compose a bass line added to a given soprano line, following the normative harmonic procedures of 18th-century music.
Identify and apply the procedures of 18th-century voice leading through— a. score analysis b. error detection c. writing exercises d. contextual listening.

Topic 26: Unit 7 Exam

Synthesize Unit 7 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 8: Modes and Form (Topics 27-29)

Throughout the course, students have been working to construct a strong foundational understanding of pitch, rhythm and meter, melody, harmony, and voice leading. This unit covers the use of conventions that affect the character of music, ranging from identifying the different tonal qualities of modes, to describing phrase relationships within a score or performance, to recognizing common sections of a musical composition. By working with many diverse musical examples throughout the course, students can apply understanding of musical components, relationships, and conventions to confidently predict patterns and effects of myriad combinations within a performance or score. This fluency enables them to respond to complex musical problems and encourages continued discovery of the communicative and expressive possibilities of musical forms.*

Topic 27: Musical Forms

Describe melodic relationships between phrases in performed music and notated music.
Identify periods in performed music and notated music.
Identify common sections in performed music and notated music.

Topic 28: Modes and More

Identify modes in performed music and notated music.
Use AP Music Theory scoring guidelines to self-assess free response and sight-singing exercises.

Topic 29: Unit 8 Exam

Synthesize Unit 8 concepts through reading, writing, listening, and performing.
Define and identify key vocabulary in musical contexts.
Use course resources to design an effective personal plan for review and skill development.

Unit 10: Capstone Project, AP Exam Practice, Review and Reflections (Topics 30-33)

In the final unit of the course, students will review and synthesize the content from the previous units through formal and informal exam practice and a capstone choice-based project where they will apply the essential understandings from the course.

Topic 30: Experience the AP Exam

Synthesize learning in a simulated, complete AP Exam.
Develop a personal strategy for content review and test-taking.
Apply Scoring Guidelines to self-assess and revise exam responses.

Topic 31: Apply Your Musicianship

Apply music theory concepts to music composition, performance, or listening.
Analyze personally selected music through the lens of music theory.
Articulate ways music theory informs their musical practice.

Topic 32: Extend your Musicianship

Engage in artistic and critical discourse with peers using music theory paradigms.
Connect music theory skills and knowledge with other musical capacities in the student's everyday context.
Express musical perspectives through written critique.

Topic 33: Our Coda

Articulate ways music theory study has changed their musical practice.
Respond to the musical compositions, performances, and reflections of others.

*Unit Overviews from College Board AP Music Theory Course and Exam Description.