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Music Theory Course Requirements
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The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.
AP Music Theory should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in music theory. Your course should develop a student's ability to recognize, understand, describe, and analyze the basic materials and processes of music that are heard or presented in a score.
There are no specific curricular prerequisites for students taking AP Music Theory, although it is recommended that students have prior training in music either through lessons (voice or instrumental), participation in an ensemble, or an introductory rudiments/theory course.
All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.
High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual. These include a CD player for the listening part of the exam (part of the multiple-choice section) and recording equipment for the sight-singing portion of the exam (part of the free-response section). Students must be familiar with the operating of the recording equipment prior to the exam administration.
Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:
- Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
- Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
 Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.
Curricular Requirements
- The teacher has read the most recent AP Music Theory Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Music Theory Course Home Page.
AP Music Theory Course Home Page
- The course enables students to master the rudiments and terminology of music: notational skills, intervals, scales, keys, chords, meter, and rhythm.
- The course progresses to include more sophisticated and creative tasks:
- Writing a bass line for a given melody or harmonization of a given melody in four parts
- Realization of a figured bass
- Realization of a Roman numeral progression
- Analysis of repertoire, including analysis of motivic treatment and harmonic analysis
- The course includes the following scales: major, minor, modal, pentatonic, and whole tone.
- The course covers the following concepts or procedures based in common-practice tonality:
- Functional triadic harmony in traditional four-voice texture including non-harmonic tones, seventh chords, and secondary dominants.
- Modulation to closely related keys
- The course also teaches:
- Phrase structure
- Small forms (e.g., rounded binary, simple ternary, theme and variation, strophic)
- Musical skills are developed through the following types of musical exercises:
- Listening (discrete intervals, scales, etc.; dictations; excerpts from literature)
- Sight-singing
- Written exercises
- Creative exercises
- The course includes, but is not limited to, study of a wide variety of vocal and instrumental music from the standard Western tonal repertoires.
Resource Requirements
- The school ensures that each student has access to his or her own copy of a recently published college-level music theory textbook (or equivalent materials approved by the AP Music Theory Development Committee).
- The school provides access to audio equipment and materials that facilitate listening practice for the students throughout the course. This equipment can include cassette or compact disc players.
- The school ensures that each AP Music Theory classroom includes a piano or electronic keyboard and sound reproduction equipment (such as a stereo or boom box). (CDs played on a computer do not enable students to hear the bass, so such sound reproduction is not acceptable for this course.)
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