The AP Music Theory Test

Hi everyone! A while back, I took the AP Music Theory Test (I live in the States). The thing was that at the time, my school didn't offer a theory course so one other student and I were the only ones who took it. I have no idea what she got or what her impressions of the test were, so I was wondering if anyone who has taken the test could tell me whether they thought it was easy or hard or whatever.

I've set up a poll if you wanna input your final score so we can see what everyone got. (hopefully everyone will bw honest.) Still, if you feel comfortable posting all your scores (aural, non-aural, final) in a written post, that would be cool, too.

You see, I basically wanna know if it's the kind of thing where everyone generally gets a 5, or if it's like most people get 2s or 3s and if you're really really good you get a 5.

I don't know how many people on YC have taken the test, so this might end up being a disaster, lol. But if you have taken the test and you feel comfortable sharing, please do! I just wanna know how I compare.

I'll start us off, I guess...

Aural Subscore: 5

Non-Aural Subscore: 5

Final Score: 5

(No, i'm not kidding. i got a 5. But like i said, i just wanna know how big a deal that is, lol.)

I've never taken it, I don't know of what it consists since I studied outside of the US so I can't comment.

I've never taken it, I don't know of what it consists since I studied outside of the US so I can't comment.

Lolololol. You posted a comment saying you can't comment:P lololol.

Thanks anyway :D

I'd like to try it out cause I have never taken it either. This is the first time I have heard of it. Is there an online version we can do or something conparable?

I got a 4, with a 3 on the aural and a 5 on the written.

I found it extremely hard. But then again, I did an independent study.

I worked with my choir director for the last few weeks on the dictations and stuff like that.

I definitely dedicated the most time to this test out of all the APs I've ever taken.

I'd like to try it out cause I have never taken it either. This is the first time I have heard of it. Is there an online version we can do or something comparable?

I don't think so. If you're an American high school student though, you should be able to take the test by asking your music teachers or guidance counselors. This is the website for the test, so give it a look and you might be able to find something.

I would say that the kind of rote memorization necessary for AP tests is counterintuitive to composition. Or actually learning anything. Me and my 4/3 on AB/BC calc did not equate to a C in calc II in college. Not to say that 4/3 is a great score or anything.

I would say that the kind of rote memorization necessary for AP tests is counterintuitive to composition. Or actually learning anything. Me and my 4/3 on AB/BC calc did not equate to a C in calc II in college. Not to say that 4/3 is a great score or anything.

I disagree.

I never memorized anything for the AP test. It's all about analyzing and taking melodic and harmonic dictation, and site reading, etc. I mean maybe you can try to memorize what stuff sounds like, but even then once you know it, you know it and that stuff stays with you to help with aural skills. It's like how in math you might memorize what a plus sign looks like, but that won't help you if you don't know how to use it. With other sciences like Biology, it is all about memorization. It's about knowing facts, etc. Music isn't about knowing facts (except for stuff on music history which wasn't on the test.) It's about honing skills and using facts to form an answer. Studying for the AP test actually DID help me learn stuff. IDK, maybe it's different if it's a field you're not actually going into. If you got a 4/3 on calc, then maybe it just meant that when you took the test you weren't that proficient in calculus. I remember I had to take the AP Physics B Test right after the music theory one. Man, was I burnt out! I had to read every question 5 times to get it to stick, and even then, my brain was so fried, lol. I got a 3 on it.

Anyway, I think that if you know you want to be a composer early enough, then taking the AP test is a good idea because it can help you get a head start in college which is always good. And if you love music, then chances are you won't forget what you learned while studying for the test. :D

Well, let me put it this way, I got credit for Calc I with that grade. Calc II I didn't, but whatever, I was doing linear equations in Circuits before I took Calc II again in college.

Taking the AP Music test would have netted me the same thing as never taking a music class in my life and using the knowledge imparted by various classes and just being around music -- skipping Music 101. No credit, no nothing. Just I didn't have to waste a year waiting for Harmony I to come around. It would have saved me one day of classes on the first day of college. To be honest, the stuff that's on here looks like Harmony I stuff to me. But don't expect it to really help.

Now I don't know what even a high school music course is, nor a real music college course... I'm mostly an outsider -- I went to a normal college, picked up music for fun, realized that I enjoyed it more than I thought. But you don't analyze Ayler on that test, that's for sure; and that's the stuff you need to know about in music -- not whether something's a plagal or full cadence.

Idk. I think knowing rudimentary theory can vastly help in the compositional process, even if you only use the info subconsciously.

Anyway, I just wanted to compare my AP scores with people, lol. :D

I will be taking this test in the spring, mid May I believe. The course I found pretty easy, but then again I was fortunate enough to have a really good piano teacher at an early age that taught me a lot of basic theory, and a lot more that I learned on my own, so I have a better background in the class that most of the other students. Most have their strengths, for example the guitar players are a lot better at secondary dominants than the choir kids; the choir kids are better at melodic dictation than band kids, et cetera.

Surprisingly, I had the most difficult time with part writing. It wasn't that I didn't get it, I guess I would go in overly-cocky and always have a misspelled chord or two which kills your score-- never parallel 8ves or 5ths, always a few misspelled chords.

Also surprisingly, being a pianist and band kid my ears (I thought) aren't as well trained as choir kids, but I'm a lot better at the aural portion of the test than most. I do believe I have relative pitch, if you play for example a middle-ranged A I can pick it out because it's the opening note in my favourite piano piece, same with a few chods et cetera. Right now we are hitting the Aural portion of the test pretty hard, because the majority of us aren't as well trained with the ears (myself included)

However, when listening to the orchestral exerpts or other exerpts I usually get the answers correct, perhaps because I'm a nerd and listen to classical music the majority of the time, and more often than not I recognize the piece that they're playing from and know it a bit better and therefore have a better grasp of the questions over someone who hasn't heard the piece before. Since I haven't taken the test, I don't know how true this will be come May. We are using the Barron's books, and its really good (not as a primary teaching tool, we use Tonal Harmony the author of which I can't recall right now... anyway, I digress...

The class as a whole wasn't that challenging for me, I don't mean to sound egotistical or anything, but 90% of what was taught I had already learned on my own, and the other 10% that was new material for me didn't take me that long to grasp, but because the class was relatively large (22 compared to the usual 5-12 in past years) we would spend a week on something that others, myself included, understood within a day or two.

One thing in the class and in the test as a whole is speed. We do a lot of repetition to get faster at it, so come test day we won't have to take thirty seconds looking at a tenor or alto clef F major triad and deciding what inversion it's in, or anything along those lines.

I can't wait to take the test though, although even a 5 on both tests won't get you credit at the university I'm going to attend next year (nor for just about any university) it's still a good gauge and a good preparation for the placement tests. The university I'm attending next year (UK, basketball fans might know them :P) has a test set up to where if you pass so many questions you can skip one year or all four years of theory, depending on how well you do.

Sorry, I kind of rambled on a bit, but anyway that's my perspective on it :P

Mathieux

EDIT: Ferk, I slightly disagree,

one thing AP music theory has helped tremendously with me is training my inner ear. Sure, I can hear music in my head but getting it on paper is always the hard part. Knowing that "oh, thsoe two notes are minor sixth, then the following note is a major third above that..." helps a ton, instead of "okay, let me see if I can retain this melody until I get home and can maybe dink it out on the piano until I get it right."

Also, at least with my class, we parallel a legitimate written and aural theory 1 class in college-- my teacher is good friends with the professors at UofL and constantly checks up to see if we're staying with them. She says the only thing they do and we don't is go deeper into modulations, mainly because they aren't on the test. We touch on them while they spend a lot of time on them.

I do agree that it is somewhat counterintuitive to composing.. lately when I'm writing I'm focusing too much on the theory which distorts what I wanted to get across, mainly because in this day and age composers don't use the same theory they did in Bach's day and age. Also, especially with my class, there are two or three more advance kids, and when we asks questions that are more advanced, the teacher doesn't answer them, not because she doesn't know, but because "we don't need to worry about it because it's not on the test." She does have 100% pass rate with all of her past classes, so I don't doubt her abilities, but I wish that on week two when we asked about secondary dominants she would answer us instead of "we don't get to those until second semester"

don't know. Never took it.

Probably do pretty well on it...I'll find a practice test and let you know how it went :P

For the record, I took AP calc and AP physics in high school. 5 on my calc exam, 4 on the physics. and I was dreadfully sick for the physics exam :(. Well, decently sick. It sucked

ok, looking at some practice tests it all looks quite easy.

I'll actually do it later, but a quick glance tells me this was definitely meant for high-schoolers....

Mathieux,

Yeah, you'll probly get a 5. I studied on my own using Kostka and Payne's Tonal Harmony and the Barron book and I got a 5. I actually only spent like an hour or two with the Barron book just for the aural skills. If you're a band kid, chances are you have better aural skills than the choir kids, at least if u live in the US. Still, i guess it depends on your school's music curriculum. What school do u go to?

Anyway, it sounds like you're super prepared for the test. Most of the stuff you're studying will only come up like once on the test. And as far as the dictation portions go, I only did the first and last measures of each exercise (both harmonic and melodic) and I got a 5, so you should be good. Not to inflate your ego or anything, but you could probably take the test tomorrow and get a five. Idk how far into Tonal Harmony you're getting, but you can srsly just stop after secondary dominants. Still, it's good to learn everything else, but for the sake of the test you could stop there.

Good Luck in May! :D :D :D :D

--Miggy Torres

haha thanks, and we do all the AP tests in May (which thankfully I'm only taking this and AP Literature, so I won't be as fried as the ones taking 6 tests)

But I personally have been using Walter Piston's Harmony book, I also have his Orchestration book and his book on counterpoint that I want to crack open at one point.

haha thanks, and we do all the AP tests in May (which thankfully I'm only taking this and AP Literature, so I won't be as fried as the ones taking 6 tests)

But I personally have been using Walter Piston's Harmony book, I also have his Orchestration book and his book on counterpoint that I want to crack open at one point.

Piston's book is not a good choice. The most agregious thing is that he says not to use lowercase roman numerals. I would recommend Kostka and Payne's "Harmony" or Stephen G. Laitz' "The Complete Musician."

Piston's book is not a good choice. The most agregious thing is that he says not to use lowercase roman numerals. I would recommend Kostka and Payne's "Harmony" or Stephen G. Laitz' "The Complete Musician."

Isn't the Kostka & Payne book called Tonal Harmony? Or did they write another book?

I got a 5 when I took it (quite a number of years ago.....). I think anyone here would ace the test, no sweat

Agreed, bkho - anybody here would ace it. AP Theory was pretty awesome, though only the first semester for me was actual learning, where the second half was learning how to take the test. Kinda cheap, but considering how well trained my ear was already after having played violin and (admittedly substandard) composing, my 5 was a cinch.

Coulda sworn I missed a lot more than I did though.... ;)

Good thing none of this is necessary to actually write music, lol.

I -hated- my theory/auditive courses, hated with capital B. I flunked my auditive finals, in fact, har.

But again, good that it's all rather useless in the end.

The AP Theory test doesn't really matter in the long run. If you go to a college for music, they'll make you take their own test anyway and place you into a theory depending on what you get on that test.

SSC and Morgri make lots of sense. My school didn't accept AP Music, I don't think. You couldn't skip harmony I or II or any of the ear training courses.

I thought the test was pretty easy. I took it in may, haven't got my scores back yet.