AP-MUSIC
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AP® Music Theory
AP Music Theory equips students with mastery of pitch, scales, rhythm, chord structures, and voice‑leading, preparing them to analyze and create sophisticated musical works in college‑level contexts.
160
Minutes
75
Questions
3/5
Passing Score
$98
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
High‑school juniors and seniors who plan to pursue music performance, music education, or composition benefit from this AP‑level certification. They should have foundational knowledge of notation and basic theory, and aim to demonstrate rigorous analytical and creative skills on the AP exam.
What's Covered
1
All nine units of the AP Music Theory course framework (College Board, effective 2023-present): Unit 1 Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements
2
, Unit 2 Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture
3
, Unit 3 Music Fundamentals III: Triads and Seventh Chords
4
, Unit 4 Harmony and Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase
5
, Unit 5 Harmony and Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions and Predominant Function
6
, Unit 6 Harmony and Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices
7
, Unit 7 Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function
8
, Unit 8 Modes and Form
9
, Unit 9 Chromaticism
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
60 learning goals
1
Unit 1: Music Fundamentals I - Pitch, Scales, Rhythm, and Meter
3 topics
Pitch and Staff Notation
- Identify notes on the treble clef, bass clef, alto clef, and tenor clef staves, including ledger lines, and name pitches using letter names and octave designation.
- Define enharmonic equivalents and explain when different note spellings are used based on the key signature and harmonic context of a passage.
Major Scales and Key Signatures
- Construct all major scales using the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half step pattern and write the key signature for each major key.
- Identify scale degree names (tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading tone) and explain their functional roles within a key.
Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements
- Identify note values, rests, dots, ties, and tuplets, and explain how they combine to fill measures in simple and compound time signatures.
- Distinguish between simple meters (duple, triple, quadruple) and compound meters based on beat division, and correctly beam notes according to meter conventions.
- Identify tempo markings, dynamic markings, and articulation symbols in a score and explain how they affect the performance and expressive character of a passage.
- Identify syncopation in rhythmic patterns and explain how the displacement of expected accents creates rhythmic interest and forward momentum in a musical passage.
- Analyze asymmetric and changing meters (5/4, 7/8, mixed meters) by identifying beat groupings and explaining how irregular meters affect the character and flow of music.
2
Unit 2: Music Fundamentals II - Minor Scales, Melody, Timbre, and Texture
2 topics
Minor Scales and Key Relationships
- Construct all three forms of minor scales (natural, harmonic, melodic) and write the key signature for each minor key, identifying its relative and parallel major.
- Explain the difference between relative major/minor keys (shared key signature) and parallel major/minor keys (shared tonic) and identify both for any given key.
Melody, Timbre, and Texture
- Describe melodic contour (conjunct versus disjunct motion, climax, range) and explain how these characteristics contribute to the expressiveness and singability of a melody.
- Identify and distinguish the four basic musical textures (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic) by ear and in written scores.
- Identify the timbres of common orchestral instruments by family (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) and describe their characteristic tone colors and ranges.
3
Unit 3: Music Fundamentals III - Triads and Seventh Chords
2 topics
Intervals
- Identify and construct all simple intervals (unison through octave) as perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished using half-step counting and scale-degree context.
- Invert intervals and determine the quality and size of the resulting interval, applying the inversion rules (P stays P, M becomes m, A becomes d).
- Classify intervals as consonant (perfect unison, third, fifth, sixth, octave) or dissonant (second, seventh, tritone) and explain the role of consonance and dissonance in tonal music.
Triads and Seventh Chords
- Construct and identify the four triad qualities (major, minor, diminished, augmented) in root position and first and second inversions using figured bass notation.
- Identify the diatonic triads built on each scale degree in major and minor keys using Roman numeral analysis (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii-dim in major).
- Construct and identify the five seventh chord qualities (Mm7, MM7, mm7, dm7, dd7) in root position and inversions using figured bass symbols.
- Analyze a chorale or short score excerpt to identify all chords using Roman numeral and figured bass notation, including inversions.
4
Unit 4: Harmony and Voice Leading I - Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase
3 topics
Voice Leading Fundamentals
- Describe the ranges and voice-crossing restrictions for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices in four-part (SATB) writing and explain the conventions for spacing and doubling.
- Apply the rules for resolving tendency tones (leading tone resolves up to tonic, chordal seventh resolves down by step) in SATB voice leading.
- Identify and avoid parallel fifths, parallel octaves, and direct (hidden) fifths and octaves in four-part writing, explaining why these voice-leading errors are prohibited.
Cadences and Phrase Structure
- Identify and classify the four principal cadence types (perfect authentic, imperfect authentic, half, and deceptive) by their harmonic content and voice-leading resolution.
- Explain the structural function of cadences within phrases and describe how antecedent-consequent phrase pairs form musical periods.
- Analyze the phrase structure of a chorale or short composition, identifying cadences, phrase lengths, and whether the passage forms a period, sentence, or phrase group.
Tonic and Dominant Harmony
- Explain the tonic function of I (i) and the dominant function of V and V7, and describe how the tension-resolution relationship between dominant and tonic drives harmonic motion.
- Write a four-part harmonization of a I-V-V7-I progression in major and minor keys, following all voice-leading rules for spacing, doubling, and resolution of tendency tones.
- Explain how chord inversions affect the bass line and describe the conventional figured bass symbols for root position (5/3), first inversion (6/3), and second inversion (6/4) triads.
- Analyze the use of the cadential six-four chord (I6/4) as an embellishment of V and explain why it functions as a dominant prolongation rather than a tonic chord.
5
Unit 5: Harmony and Voice Leading II - Progressions and Predominant Function
2 topics
Common Chord Progressions
- Identify the most common diatonic chord progressions in major and minor keys, including I-IV-V-I, I-vi-IV-V, and the circle-of-fifths progression I-IV-vii-iii-vi-ii-V-I.
- Explain the predominant function of ii (ii-dim), IV, and vi chords and describe how they typically precede dominant harmony in standard tonal progressions.
- Analyze the harmonic progression of a chorale excerpt using Roman numeral analysis, identifying tonic, predominant, and dominant functions and their voice-leading connections.
Part Writing with Predominant Chords
- Write a four-part harmonization of a bass line or melody using tonic, predominant, and dominant chords with correct voice leading, spacing, and doubling.
- Evaluate a given four-part harmonization for voice-leading errors (parallel fifths/octaves, improper resolution of tendency tones, spacing violations) and propose corrections.
6
Unit 6: Harmony and Voice Leading III - Embellishments and Melodic Devices
2 topics
Non-Chord Tones
- Identify and classify non-chord tones (passing tone, neighbor tone, suspension, retardation, appoggiatura, escape tone, anticipation, pedal point) in musical scores.
- Explain the preparation, dissonance, and resolution pattern for each type of non-chord tone and distinguish between accented and unaccented embellishments.
- Analyze a musical passage to distinguish between chord tones and non-chord tones, labeling each embellishment and explaining how it enriches the melodic line without altering the harmonic progression.
Motives and Melodic Development
- Define motives, sequences, and common melodic development techniques (repetition, transposition, inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution) and identify them in scores.
- Analyze how a composer develops a motive throughout a passage using sequential repetition, fragmentation, and variation to create unity and interest.
- Describe how imitation and canon techniques create polyphonic texture and identify these devices in short score excerpts from the Baroque and Classical periods.
7
Unit 7: Harmony and Voice Leading IV - Secondary Function
2 topics
Secondary Dominants
- Define secondary dominant chords (V/x and V7/x) and explain how they tonicize a diatonic chord other than I by temporarily establishing it as a local tonic.
- Identify secondary dominants in musical scores by recognizing accidentals that create leading tones to diatonic chords and label them using the V/x notation.
- Write voice-leading resolutions for secondary dominant chords, ensuring the temporary leading tone resolves up by half step and the chordal seventh resolves down.
Secondary Leading-Tone Chords and Modulation
- Identify secondary leading-tone chords (vii-dim/x) in scores and explain how they function similarly to secondary dominants through half-step resolution to a diatonic chord.
- Explain how modulation to closely related keys occurs through pivot chords (common chords) and identify the pivot chord and the new key in a modulating passage.
- Analyze a passage that modulates to a closely related key, identifying the original key, the pivot chord, the new key, and the cadence that confirms the modulation.
8
Unit 8: Modes and Form
2 topics
Church Modes
- Identify the seven diatonic modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) by their scale-degree patterns and characteristic intervals.
- Analyze a modal melody to determine its mode by identifying the final (tonic), the characteristic scale degrees, and the absence of leading-tone tendency.
Musical Form
- Identify binary (AB), ternary (ABA), and rounded binary (ABA') forms in musical compositions by analyzing thematic material, key relationships, and cadence placement.
- Describe the structural components of sonata-allegro form (exposition, development, recapitulation) including key areas, thematic groups, and transitional passages.
- Identify rondo form (ABACA or ABACABA) and theme-and-variations form in musical compositions, explaining how contrast and repetition create formal coherence.
- Analyze a complete movement or short composition to determine its overall form, diagramming the sectional structure and explaining the role of key changes and thematic development.
- Construct a formal diagram of a minuet-and-trio movement, identifying the internal binary or rounded binary structure of each section and the overall ternary plan.
9
Unit 9: Chromaticism
2 topics
Mode Mixture and Neapolitan
- Explain mode mixture (borrowed chords) as the use of chords from the parallel minor in a major key (or vice versa) and identify common examples such as iv, bVI, and bVII in major.
- Identify the Neapolitan sixth chord (bII6) in musical scores and explain its typical function as a chromatic predominant chord resolving to V or vii-dim7/V.
Augmented Sixth Chords
- Identify and construct the three types of augmented sixth chords (Italian, French, German) and explain how the augmented sixth interval resolves outward to the dominant by half steps.
- Analyze the harmonic function of augmented sixth chords within a progression, explaining how they intensify the approach to the dominant through chromatic voice leading.
- Construct a complete four-part harmonization of a phrase incorporating chromatic elements including a secondary dominant, mode mixture, and an augmented sixth chord resolving to V-I.
Scope
Included Topics
- All nine units of the AP Music Theory course framework (College Board, effective 2023-present): Unit 1 Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements (6-9%), Unit 2 Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture (8-11%), Unit 3 Music Fundamentals III: Triads and Seventh Chords (7-10%), Unit 4 Harmony and Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase (14-18%), Unit 5 Harmony and Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions and Predominant Function (12-16%), Unit 6 Harmony and Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices (8-11%), Unit 7 Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function (10-14%), Unit 8 Modes and Form (8-12%), Unit 9 Chromaticism (8-12%).
- Pitch and rhythm: staff notation, clefs, note values, time signatures (simple and compound), beat subdivision, ties, dots, syncopation, tuplets, and the relationship between beat, meter, and rhythm.
- Scales and key signatures: major and all three forms of minor scales (natural, harmonic, melodic), key signatures for all major and minor keys, scale degree names, and chromatic scale.
- Intervals: identification, construction, and inversion of all simple intervals (perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished) and their aural recognition.
- Chords: triads (major, minor, diminished, augmented) and seventh chords (dominant, major, minor, half-diminished, fully diminished) in root position and inversions, figured bass notation.
- Harmony and voice leading: four-part (SATB) voice leading, chord function (tonic, dominant, predominant), cadence types (authentic, half, deceptive, plagal), common chord progressions, and part-writing rules.
- Secondary dominants and leading-tone chords, modulation to closely related keys, mode mixture (borrowed chords), Neapolitan sixth chord, and augmented sixth chords (Italian, French, German).
- Musical form: binary, ternary, rondo, sonata-allegro, and theme and variations forms; phrase structure, periods, and sentence structure.
- Aural skills: sight-singing, melodic and harmonic dictation, error detection, and identification of chords, intervals, and progressions by ear.
- Score analysis: reading and interpreting musical scores, identifying compositional techniques, and analyzing short excerpts from the Western art music tradition.
Not Covered
- Music history, composers' biographies, and historical context beyond what is needed to identify formal structures and compositional techniques.
- Non-Western music theory, ethnomusicology, jazz theory, and popular music analysis beyond the AP Music Theory curriculum.
- Advanced topics such as post-tonal theory (set theory, twelve-tone technique, serialism), advanced counterpoint (species counterpoint beyond basic voice leading), and orchestration.
- Music technology, recording, production, and electronic music composition not covered in the AP Music Theory framework.
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