<p>I’ve played the Piano for as long as i can remember,</p>
<p>so do u think i can take the test without taking the class?</p>
<p>if so, what book do i need?</p>
<p>Unless your teacher reinforced theory in your lessons, and you had a knowledge of four part (SATB) writing, you probably would not do so well. There are also a lot of terms you should be familar with, such as hemiola, perfect authentic cadence, etc. You might ace the listening and sight-singing portions, however.</p>
<p>A variety of books are available. The one everyone seems to use is “Tonal Harmony” by Kostka; I used “Theory Essentials” by Connie Mayfield and thought it pretty good - the price is exorbitant, however :(</p>
<p>I’d get a book and look through that, I’m not sure about you, but my piano teacher reinforced a lot of theory on me so I pretty much slept through class except for eartraining exercises and if he went over vocabulary (ie hemiola, types of cadences…and that wasn’t terribly often) and got an A and a 5 (4 on the aural subscore)</p>
<p>We used tonal harmony, but that book is waaaaay overkill for what you learn in AP Music Theory. If you can find a specific study guide for the AP Music Theory exam (ie 5 steps to a 5, princeton review, kaplan etc) that’d probably be best, but I haven’t really seen that many of those types of books out there.</p>
<p>NOOOOO. If you want a 5, you’ll need to take a class, unless you have AP (absolute pitch) and a music teacher that has you do Roman Numeral analysis of the pieces you play.</p>
<p>Even with that:
The harmonic dictation is hard (can you figure out the soprano, root, and and letter name of 8-10 chords?) , the sight singing is hard (altered pitches not in the scale), the melodic dictation is hard (it’s pretty fast, and they sometimes use weird instruments, and 6/8 time is weird). Plus, all the part writing for minor scales is tricky, and you get screwed if you miss an LT. There are tons of voice leading rules to memorize, and you need to understand chord progressions (including modulations and secondary dominants/leading tone chords).</p>
<p>yeah im familiar with those</p>
<p>i can basically play any song by chopin</p>
<p>and im the accompanist for choir</p>
<p>so im familiar with the SATB</p>
<p>Being “familiar” with SATB is not the only thing…
You need to know a ton of theory. That is, chords, intervals, etc… </p>
<p>I wouldn’t take the test without taking the class. I mean, you probably wouldn’t do extremely well.</p>
<p>I took the test without the class and got a five. Just get a book (I got the one by Piston and a few others), be really familiar with the testing format (especially FR). Also, I would buy an old MC test with the aural excepts because those are really helpful.</p>
<p>You don’t need to know a ton of theory. I thought partwriting and chord progression rules were fairly straightforward.</p>
<p>those are cake.</p>
<p>seriously, and theory isn’t even hard when its compared </p>
<p>to other subjects.</p>
<p>Choir SATB is NOT AP Music Theory SATB (which is basically the 18th century one). If you have taken piano exams, chord progressions shouldn’t be too bad - just work on the listening. </p>
<p>I studied out of a book and some practice tests, and I got an easy 5. All you really need to do is make sure you can identify the terms and do the FRQs without too many errors.</p>
<p>i’ve taken CM exams… do those count?</p>
<p>and which books are essential for getting a 5</p>
<p>And i have a private piano instructor as well…</p>
<p>will that help?</p>
<p>I’m wondering about this too… my school doesn’t offer AP Music Theory… but I’m interested in taking it. I’ve been playing piano for like… ever. And I’ve passed the level 10 piano CM (which does include theory).</p>
<p>brokenlegacy, i understand you. man i should’ve taken music theory my freshman year instead of human geo. sigh…</p>