AP Music Theory
Syllabus
Course Overview
The Upper SchoolAP Music Theory Class meets during fourth period four days per week, with a drop day on Wednesday. The course is open to students from form IV to form VI who have some basic knowledge of Music Theory. There are generally 8 to 10 students per section. We have a MIDI lab off of the classroom available throughout the day for computer applications such as Musica Practica, Aurelia, Sibelius and Finale.
Primary Text
Benward, Bruce, and Marilyn Saker. Music in Theory and Practice, 8th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Telfer, Nancy. Successful Sight-Singing, Book I, San Diego,California: Neil A Kjos
Music Company, 1992.
Other Resources
Hindemith, Paul. Elementary Training for Musicians.New York: Schott Music
Corporation, 1974.
Ottman, Robert. Music for Sight-Singing ,7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall,2007.
Ottman, Robert., and Paul Dworak.Basic Ear Training Skills. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.:Prentice Hall,1991.
Sadie, Stanley. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.New York:
MacMillan, 1980.
Course Planner
Weeks 1-3
Written notation, clefs, accidentals, time signatures, key signatures, circle of fifths, scales, scale degree names, modes, meters; Benward Chapters 1&2, Sight-Singing
ex. 1-6; Telfer. Rhythm; Hindemith Chapter 1.Ear Training-Canon dictation; Ottman.
Singing scales; ascending and decending. Review all summer work (workbook and all scales).
Weeks 4-7
Intervals and transposition (transposing instruments), tuning, intonation, temperaments, inverted and compound intervals, tonal and nontonal transposition. Chords, triads, triads in inversion, harmonic analysis, Roman Numeral analysis, figured bass symbols; Benward Chapters 3&4. Sight-Singing ex. 6-27; Telfer. Rhythm; Hindemith Chapter 1. Ear Training-Canon dictation; Ottman. AP Free Response- melody dictation: 1996, 2002.
Interval singing and dictation.
Weeks 8-10
The phrase, cadences, non-harmonic tones (accented and non-accented), pedal tones, suspensions, retardation, appoggiatura, note doublings in chords; Benward Chapters 5&6.
Sight-Singing ex.28-38; Telfer. Hindemith Chapter 2. Ear Training-Canon dictation; Ottman. Begin 4 part dictation-root position chords, recognizing triad quality and inversion. Cadence dictation.
Weeks 11-14
Voice leading in four voices, the chorale, triads in inversion, standard voice- leading guidelines, voice ranges. Benward Chapters 9&10; Sight-Singing 39-50; Telfer. Hindemith Chapter 3. Ear Training-Canon dictation; Ottman. Begin AP sight-singing examples with timed sequence for each student individually. Listening for parallel fifths and octaves in given progressions.
Weeks 16-19
The dominant seventh chord, inversions of the dominant seventh, resolution of the V7,
nonresolution of the seventh factor, leading tone seventh chords, half and fully diminished seventh chords, resolutions of roots and seventh factors, resolution of tritones.
Benward Chapters 11&12; Sight-Singing 51-60; Telfer. Hindemith Chapter 4. Ear Training-Canon dictation; Ottman. Four-part dictation including chords in inversion.
Administer 1993 AP music exam complete. Administer 2002 AP exam non aural.
Run Aurelia program as a class for melodic and rhythmic dictation.
Weeks 20-24
Nondominant seventh chords, chords in circle progressions, resolution of the seventh factor, modulation, secondary dominants and leading tone chords. Benward Chapters 13&15; Sight-Singing 61-75; Telfer. Hindemith Chapter 5. Ear Training Canon dictation; Ottman. Four part dictation including secondary dominant chords. Complete 2002 AP Exam. Administer 1989, 1996 AP exams complete. Free response questions from the 1985 AP Exam.
Weeks 25-29
Administer 1998 AP, Free Response from 2001-2004 AP Exams. Work with Aurelia on all forms of dictation; melody, chords, rhythms, intervals, cadences. Compose melody based on a given text, arrange given music (use of Finale software) into a 4-part work for transposing instruments.Students perform together. Continue with AP sight-singing drills. Terms review for AP exam, demo of overtones series. Physics of acoustics.
Week 30 AP Exam
Teaching Strategies/Student Activities
Since the class size is small, every student is sent to the board daily, and homework is reviewed in it’s entirety during each class. There are daily dictations and students keep them in their manuscript books. We spend approximately a third of class time on sight reading and listening. Students practice dictation skills using the Aurelia program. Quizzes are given at the end of each section, and major exams at the interim and semester end.
There are monthly assignments that include melody writing, four-part chorale writing, arranging for multiple transposing instruments, and analysis of form and harmony.
Students are expected to play their completed homework assignments on the keyboard.
As students prepare for the AP exam, we take several released exams in sequence.
Timed quizzes are also given that use the free-response questions from released exams.
Students practice singing the free response segments individually in the MIDI lab.
Technology is also used to monitor student activity and progress. The school server keeps a record of what each student has done in Aurelia and Musica Practica, and what level of each activity has been completed. The teacher can also create “exams” on the server for Aurelia that students can take during their free time.
Student Evaluation
Attendance, participation, homework, quizzes, exams and projects are the criteria used to determine students’ grades. Written homework and reading assignments are posted and given at each class meeting. The course schedule is approximate, and classes do move slower or faster from year to year depending on student proficiency. All students are required to take the AP exam in the spring.