AP Music Theory

jen89ob
Sun, 10 May 2009 00:31:51 +0000

I’m taking it! My free response isn’t too good (dictation is the bane of my existence…) but I’m okay on the theory part.

To answer previous questions –

no you do NOT have to know any history. The questions are only on theory - ie chords, cadences, phrases, counterpoint, intervals, etc.

Chord notation is in roman numerals, therefore a chord labeled “V” is built on the fifth degree of that scale.

And about the numbers notating inversions:
Triads are recognized by seeing either NO number (root), a “6” (1st inv), or a “6/4” (2nd inv)
Seventh chords are labeled in order counting down from 7 – “7” is root position, “6/5” is 1st inv, “4/3” is 2nd inv, and “2” or “4/2” is 3rd inv. (For visuals: [Seventh Chords and Roman Numerals](http://www.alcorn.edu/musictheory/Version2/theory1/seventhrom.htm))

A mnemonic I made up for the modes is “I Don’t Play Loudly, Muscles Are Locked” (I’m a pianist…) with the letters standing for Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian (hence the "loc"ked part). This is the order of the pattern of steps for the modes.
Just remember the major scale pattern WWHWWWH (“We went home when we went home”) for Ionian and move the letter in the front to the back for every mode after Ionian in the order (Ionian = WWHWWWH, Dorian = WHWWWHW, Phrygian = HWWWHWW, etc.) Also remember Aeolian is minor scale.

Here’s a good page with music terms geared to AP studying: [AP Music Theory Study Guide dedicated to Maggie Piper](http://www.scribd.com/doc/3468010/AP-Music-Theory-Study-Guide)

Sigh. I will fail dictation though =( I’m hoping to do well enough on the theory portions to pull a 3, which is the score that UNC will accept. I’ve seen some discussion on how certain music schools don’t allow basic theory AP credit to transfer… but I’m not a music major so blah! =P